More than £2million has been spend on repairs to police cars in the two and a half years since Police Scotland was established.

Figures obtained by the Conservatives revealed that since April 2013 there had been 3500 collisions involving police vehicles.

Almost half came in the first year of the new force when there was 1535 incidents recorded by Police Scotland with a repair bill of £859,460.

The following year the number of incidents reduced to 1355, but the cost of repairs increased to £904,267.

And in the first three months of 2015/16 492 collisions were recorded with a repair bill of £394,228.

The Tories

Margaret Mitchell, Conservative Justice spokeswoman, said the costs were “staggering”.

She said: “People understand that police officers often have to drive in very demanding and dangerous conditions.

“At high speed and in high-pressure situations, there is always a risk involved and accidents will inevitably happen from time to time.

“However, the astounding frequency of incidents and the cost of repairs to police vehicles over a relatively short period are staggering.

“We know that Police Scotland is worried about continued cuts to its budget, so any opportunity to reduce unnecessary costs will no doubt be welcome.”

Police Scotland said its vehicles cover more than 70 million miles a year but were unable to give retails of whether or not the collisions were the fault of officers driving at the time.

It said incidents ranged from a failure to set the handbrake, reversing negligently and colliding with an object in the police yard to more serious including driving at excess speed, driving on the wrong side of the road, failing to stop at a red light and striking a pedestrian.

Ms Mitchell added: “Things like setting the hand brake and reversing safely are driving basics, and the single force needs to ensure that setting national targets isn’t compromising basic road safety considerations.

“Clearly, appropriate training also needs to be in place for officers responding to emergency situations to ensure their own safety and that of the public.”

In its response to the request for information Police Scotland emphasised that it has taken action to reduce the number of collisions, including all new vehicles being equipped with reversing sensors as standard to assist with parking.