AUDITORS revealed yesterday that they do not trust the accuracy of the Department for Education’s (DfE) sums after it merged accounts of academy trusts with its own agencies.

A substantial level of “error and uncertainty” in the department’s financial statements was unearthed by the public-spending watchdog.

Since 2012-13, the DfE has brought together the accounts of all academy trusts with its own and that of its executive agencies.

As academies have a different reporting period this has made it difficult to make sense of the figures, it was suggested.

National Audit Office chief Amyas Morse said that the DfE’s inability to provide statements that give a “true and fair view” of the financial activity of its organisations means that it is not meeting the requirements of Parliament.

“I have provided an adverse opinion on the group financial statements, concluding that they are not true and fair, and that the level of error I have identified is both material and pervasive,” he said.

A DfE spokesman said the department is finding “a more sustainable solution” to the process.