ASSAULTS on police officers are up almost 10 per cent as overall violent crime slumps.

There were more than 6,000 such attacks in 2013-14, according to figures, up from 5,555 the year before.

Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, suggested the effort put in by modern officers made them more exposed to attacks.

He said: "Officers are now working longer and harder than ever before. Any assault on a police officer is completely unacceptable. It should be considered as an attack on civil society itself, and dealt with in the harshest way by the courts."

The federation, effectively the union for police rank and file, has long highlighted the violence and threat of violence routinely faced by its members.

Police insiders stress that the definition of assault varies across the UK. Scotland, for example, has four times as many such incidents as the entire Metropolitan Police, which is twice the size. Assaults in Scotland appear to include some verbal incidents.

However, Graeme Pearson, Labour MSP and a former senior police officer, stressed that definitions were unlikely to have changed to explain the recent rise. He said: "There is a real question why all other crimes are going down but assaults on officers and other public servants are going up."

A Police Scotland spokesman said: "Assaults can take the form of a verbal assault, being spat at, a physical assault or assault with a weapon, and can happen during the course of arresting an individual, an individual resisting arrest or as an officer is responding and an individual becomes violent or confrontational.

"The safety and welfare of our ­officers is a priority and they are trained to a high level, issued with personal protective equipment and undergo regular refresher training."

The police spokesman stressed improvements in uniforms and safety equipment helped to keep officers safe.

Police Scotland said there had been a 10 per cent drop in violent crime overall.