Handling hate claims 'needs 40 cops a day on overtime', says Police Federation ... trends now

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Dozens of police officers are being paid overtime every day to deal with the deluge of complaints sparked by Scotland's new hate crime law.

It is understood up to 40 police officers have been called in to do extra hours every day since Monday in a bid to wade through all the reports submitted.

Each officer is being paid time and a third, sparking fears the overtime costs could end up taking hundreds of thousands of pounds out of an already overstretched budget.

Around 3,600 reports were made in the first 48 hours of the law coming into force on Monday. It is expected that figure could now have almost doubled. 

There is also concern tomorrow's Rangers v Celtic clash could lead to another spike in reports.

Officers say they must check every online complaint individually in case they contain covert messages from victims of domestic abuse or people trafficking.

Scottish Police Federation general secretary David Kennedy yesterday warned 'the control room was at breaking point before and this has just piled on the pressure.'

He predicted the impact on officer workload and the force's budget due to increased overtime could last 'weeks or months'.

Mr Kennedy said: 'It's been standard over the last few years for control rooms to struggle at times with the workload, but they are reverting now to overtime cover.