Police Scotland have banned officers from using hand or tea towels in a row over laundry costs. 

General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation Callum Steele shared messages from whistleblowers on his Twitter account including the complaint about office tea towels. 

The email read: "Police Office – no longer allowed to use tea or hand towels due to cost of washing/cleaning them.”

The email was accompanied by his own tweet which read: "When any police service that gets to this level of ludicrousness it really is time to acknowledge its simply skint."

Steele also shared examples of complaints from police offices including cops being forced to abandon the search for a balaclava thief to avoid spending overtime hours. 

A Scottish Government spokesperson said they were 'committed to protecting the police revenue budget in real terms for the entirety of this Parliament'.