SCOTTISH police failed to share with a high-powered panel on football disorder a restricted report that showed domestic abuse rising when Rangers and Celtic played.

The dossier revealed a 14% rise in abuse across the west of Scotland on the day of football games and ranked increases next to individual clubs playing their fixtures.

However, the report, compiled by the former Strathclyde Police force, was not handed to the group, which was chaired by First Minister Alex Salmond and set up in the wake of Old Firm-related violence.

Graeme Pearson, Labour's shadow justice cabinet secretary, said the information should have been shared.

The report, covering 2004 to 2009, investigated the "long-held beliefs" of a relationship between domestic abuse incidents and football matches.

Initially focusing on five clubs - Celtic, Rangers, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, St Mirren and Hamilton - data on domestic abuse incidents was collected from the Vulnerable Persons Database. Domestic abuse rose 10% when Rangers played and 3% on the day of Celtic matches.

Hamilton and St Mirren were then excluded from the model due to the findings being statistically insignificant.

The report established that a significant positive relationship did exist between domestic abuse incidents and matches.

According to the figures, Kilmarnock games coincided with a 0.13% rise, while Motherwell fixtures were linked to a 0.56% increase.

Numbers were larger for the Old Firm: Celtic games saw a 3.23% rise, while for Rangers it was 10.31%. The regional figure for incidents linked to football matches was just over 14%.

The report also provided a breakdown for the eight divisions that made up the former force before it was incorporated into the new Police Scotland.

For the old A Division, covering Glasgow city centre, domestic abuse incidents increased by 0.69% on the day of Celtic matches and 4.28% for Rangers.

In G Division, which spanned Glasgow South and East ­Renfrewshire - including Rangers' Ibrox stadium - incidents on the day of Celtic matches rose by 3.60% and 18.44% for Rangers.

In B Division, which covered Glasgow East and North, the figure for Celtic matches was 4.13% and 16.05% for Rangers.

However, the report contains an important caveat about assuming who is responsible for the violence.

The authors noted that "one cannot dismiss adverse reactions to successes from opposing teams as a causality for domestic abuse".

It added that working out which individuals had a positive or negative reaction on the day of matches could not be modelled.

In plain English, this means opposing fans behaving badly when their rivals perform well cannot be discounted.

Although the report was completed in 2009, the findings were kept for internal purposes and only released recently under Freedom of Information legislation.

In March 2011, a summit was convened after the notorious Old Firm match played weeks earlier, at which more than one dozen people were arrested inside Celtic Park, three Rangers players were sent off and the managers of both sides angrily confronted each other.

The summit agreed an eight-point plan regarding football-related disorder and a joint action group (JAG) was set up to implement it.

Chaired by Alex Salmond and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, the JAG included representatives from Strathclyde Police.

One of the JAG's commitments was addressing "alcohol misuse, sectarianism, racism, domestic abuse and violence".

However, the Strathclyde report was not given to the group.

Pearson said: "In an effort to deliver joined-up government, one would have expected the contents of the report to be shared with the JAG.

"It would have better informed the debate. There has to be a greater degree of sharing information across the public agencies."

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "In the years since this internal report was produced, the sustained activity of officers before and after Old Firm football matches, including the proactive targeting of domestic abuse perpetrators, corresponds with a visible and sustained reduction in the level of recorded violent crime and domestic abuse incidents overall."

Asked why the report was not handed to JAG, she said: "The sole purpose of the document was for internal use."

A spokesperson for Rangers said: "The club will review the findings of the report. However, the data, which is up to nine years old, is very difficult to put into any current context.

"Rangers Football Club has participated in a number of Scottish Government initiatives to tackle a wide range of social issues, including domestic abuse, and the club also operates a comprehensive programme of community projects that deal with drug abuse, unemployment, alcohol abuse, deprivation and other issues."

Heather Coady, a policy manager at Scottish Women's Aid, said: "There seems to be a lot of interest in making the links between football and domestic abuse. The difficulty is that this can reinforce the idea of domestic abuse as an isolated incident caused by football or alcohol or the myriad other things seen as a reason. This takes attention away from the fact that domestic abuse is about one person's persistent, pervasive attempt to control and dominate another by using a range of tactics to induce fear."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "As this analysis is a Police Scotland report, it is for them to make decisions regarding its publication.

"The report was not circulated during the lifetime of the Joint Action Group, which was established to tackle issues such as violence that linked not only Scottish football but also wider society, and met until the end of 2011.

"However, police colleagues provided more recent analysis and input to inform the actions that the group agreed."

Celtic did not comment.