By Steven Bell

The number of people being charged with assaulting a police officer in Tayside has dropped by more than a quarter in five years, it emerged last night.

But Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini— Scotland’s top prosecutor—also revealed a sharp rise in cases within Dundee over the past year.

The figures came to light after The Courier revealed details of a row between the Scottish Government and the region’s police force over statistics for recorded attacks on its officers.

While ministers stood by an apparent eightfold rise in assaults on Tayside officers, police and the officers’ union said there was a downward trend locally.

The newest figures show that charges for such crimes were up slightly in 2006/07, with 455 cases going to procurators fiscal in Tayside compared with 441 in the previous 12 months.

Ms Angiolini also highlighted that, while there has been a year-on-year rise in charges across Scotland since 2002, Tayside has recorded a 27% drop.

She said the figures did not include common law charges of assault where the alleged victim was a police officer or charges under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005.

“Such cases cannot be identified separately from charges involving assaults where the victim was not a police officer,” she said.

The lord advocate, in a parliamentary answer, also disclosed that charges of assault on a police officer leapt from 174 to 241 in Dundee last year.

Her statistics appear to cast doubt on the Government’s earlier figures for recorded attacks on officers, which were gleaned from returns to the inspector of constabulary, the HMIC.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill suggested there were just 15 such incidents in 2005/06, compared with the force’s own figure of 155.

Although not all cases are detected, and nor will any charge necessarily be in the same year as the alleged offence, the fact that hundreds of people were charged with assaults on officers in 2005/06 would seem to make the 15 figure appear unlikely.

All parties were united, however, in condemning those who wilfully injure police in the conduct of their duty—a crime described as “absolutely appalling.”

Both the force executive and the body which represents the Tayside rank-and-file noted that there have been significant developments in officer safety over the past few years.

These included the issuing of CS incapacitant spray, new-style batons, rigid handcuffs and protective vests, as well as better radio communications and CCTV coverage.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said, “Assaults on police are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We would absolutely condemn such actions.”