diff --git a/cmd/cli/kubectl-kyverno/commands/apply/command.go b/cmd/cli/kubectl-kyverno/commands/apply/command.go
index c72038a6a0..7281d4caad 100644
--- a/cmd/cli/kubectl-kyverno/commands/apply/command.go
+++ b/cmd/cli/kubectl-kyverno/commands/apply/command.go
@@ -237,6 +237,7 @@ func (c *ApplyCommandConfig) applyPolicytoResource(
 	if vars != nil {
 		vars.SetInStore(store)
 	}
+	var rc processor.ResultCounts
 	// validate policies
 	var validPolicies []kyvernov1.PolicyInterface
 	for _, pol := range policies {
@@ -244,6 +245,7 @@ func (c *ApplyCommandConfig) applyPolicytoResource(
 		_, err := policyvalidation.Validate(pol, nil, nil, true, config.KyvernoUserName(config.KyvernoServiceAccountName()))
 		if err != nil {
 			log.Log.Error(err, "policy validation error")
+			rc.IncrementError(1)
 			if strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "variable 'element.name'") {
 				skipInvalidPolicies.invalid = append(skipInvalidPolicies.invalid, pol.GetName())
 			} else {
@@ -254,7 +256,6 @@ func (c *ApplyCommandConfig) applyPolicytoResource(
 		validPolicies = append(validPolicies, pol)
 	}
 
-	var rc processor.ResultCounts
 	var responses []engineapi.EngineResponse
 	for _, resource := range resources {
 		processor := processor.PolicyProcessor{
diff --git a/cmd/cli/kubectl-kyverno/processor/result.go b/cmd/cli/kubectl-kyverno/processor/result.go
index 0196f56a00..173ed08b16 100644
--- a/cmd/cli/kubectl-kyverno/processor/result.go
+++ b/cmd/cli/kubectl-kyverno/processor/result.go
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ func (rc ResultCounts) Warn() int  { return rc.warn }
 func (rc ResultCounts) Error() int { return rc.err }
 func (rc ResultCounts) Skip() int  { return rc.skip }
 
+func (rc *ResultCounts) IncrementError(inc int) {
+	rc.err += inc
+}
+
 func (rc *ResultCounts) addEngineResponses(auditWarn bool, responses ...engineapi.EngineResponse) {
 	for _, response := range responses {
 		rc.addEngineResponse(auditWarn, response)