The force is said to have received around 3,800 reports of alleged incidents since the Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into effect at the start of the week.

It’s understood not all of these have been processed yet as senior officers pulled in additional resources and formed a “gold group” to deal with the influx.

The law takes existing offences for stirring up hatred on the grounds of race and applies that to the protected characteristics of age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or variations in sex characteristics.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters