POLICE resources during next summer's Commonwealth Games will be further stretched with officers facing deployment to Northern Ireland to cope with anticipated parades-related disorder.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is expected to put forces across the North Channel on standby for mutual aid requests, with Scotland the main port of call.

Although the appeal is likely to be accepted, it comes at a time when Police Scotland officers face a cancellation of all annual leave due to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the massive influx of overseas visitors expected for the second Homecoming event and the Ryder Cup, just days after the independence referendum.

The Scottish Police Federation, which represents 98% of officers, is in discussions with chiefs over the restrictions on annual leave.

As well as officers from the single force having more of a familiarity with Northern Ireland's cultural nuances and community divisions, the PSNI is expected to lean heavily on Police Scotland to avoid the bureaucracy of dealing with 43 separate forces in England and Wales.

Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said any help to colleagues in Northern Ireland would be "determined by local obligations" and the desire to limit disruption to officer numbers in Scotland.

He said: "Last year proved to the PSNI they can bring in resources from elsewhere for short-term disorder without bringing up their own numbers so we're expecting a request for next year.

"We also expect most officers at the Commonwealth Games to be from within commuting distance of Glasgow, so that still leaves officers elsewhere. All the Chief Constable's eggs won't be in the one basket and any request will be evaluated on that basis.

"Of course we can do without this, but so can the PSNI … Our officers have a better understanding of the cultural sensitivities in Northern Ireland. And in the context of a reduction of tens of thousands of officers elsewhere, the additional police resources we have in Scotland make it easier for us to provide mutual aid."

An extra 630 police officers were deployed to Northern Ireland from Britain to help oversee 550 parades across the weekend of July 12. The numbers grew to 1000 after disorder flared in north Belfast when police attempted to enforce a decision banning a controversial Orange Order parade from passing the republican Ardoyne area, igniting some of the worst violence in Northern Ireland in several years. Around 200 Police Scotland officers were on the frontline of much of the trouble or provided a support role to PSNI colleagues, with several sustaining injuries during riots.

Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins said: "We will consider any mutual aid request, however the guiding principal is always to ensure there is more than a sufficiency of resources to police Scotland's streets and keep people safe, before we would consider releasing our officers elsewhere."