THE number of police officers in Scotland has fallen to its lowest level in nine years, according to Scottish Goverment statistics.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said that the drop had been expected and was part of a force plan to improve frontline crime fighting.

The figures revealed that in the first three months of year Police Scotland had the equivalent of 17,170 full-time officers.

The last time the number of officers was lower was in the first three months of 2009, when the total was 17,048.

Officer numbers increased after the SNP came into power in 2007, with the party elected on a promise to put 1000 extra police on the streets.

That commitment was first met in March to June 2009, with the number of officers having remained at above or about 17,250 since then. It was retained for the SNP’s Holyrood manifesto in 2011, but dropped in 2016.

However, the total for January to March this year dropped by 86 from the 17,256 recorded in October to December 2017.

In recent years there had been some resistance to the SNP’s target of always having at least 17,250 officers, not least from the police themselves.

Last year, Police Scotland’s then chief constable Phil Gormley said that while the number of officers had been at an historic high, some were being forced to do administration and other backroom work normally carried out by civilian staff.

Launching the force’s 10-year policing plan, Policing 2026, the Scottish Police Authority’s then chief Andrew Flanagan said it was likely numbers would be slowly decreased by about 400.

Yesterday, Matheson said Scotland still had “significantly” more police than when the SNP came to power in 2007 – with 16,265 full-time equivalent officers in April to June that year.

“The Policing 2026 strategy committed Police Scotland to the right workforce mix, including civilian specialists and other support staff to tackle the new and emerging challenges of modern criminal activity while keeping officer numbers significantly above what this government inherited in 2007,” he said.

But Scottish LibDem justice spokesperson Liam McArthur accused Matheson of lacking leadership: “For years the SNP government lauded this figure while ignoring the fact that 2000 skilled civilian staff had been lost.

“It masked the real pressures within the national force. Police officers were routinely backfilling, covering jobs they weren’t trained to do in settings such as 999 control rooms, a practice we know caused real harm.

“The SNP government showed a real lack of leadership in failing to own up to the fact that this target has had been dropped.”

Meanwhile, MSPs were warned that the cost of integrating British Transport Police (BTP) into Police Scotland was not yet known.

The merger was due to take place in April 2019 but the Government has hit the pause button over concerns about the implementation.

Giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Justice committee, officials from Police Scotland, the Scottish Government and the UK Government were unable to arrive at a figure for the cost to the taxpayer.