The figure is the highest of all forces in the UK that provided information on their data regimes, The Scotsman reports.

The report was compiled by Legal Expert, part of JF Law Limited, a Merseyside law firm. It made freedom of information requests of all forces both sides of the border for data from between January 2019 and November 2021.

Only 11 of the 47 forces queried provided complete responses. Some ignored the requests.

Across the UK as a whole, there were some 13,332 suspected data breaches, or around 19 incidents per day.

Ninety per cent of forces had dealt with at least one suspected security incident while 59 per cent had identified more than 100. More than a quarter of all incidents were attributable to email misuse.

The report said: “Data breaches are a prominent issue for police forces and, given the number of claims made against forces, they are, potentially, a financial burden.”

Jamie Greene, the Scottish Conservatives’ shadow justice secretary, said: “The number of data breaches from police scotland are a source of concern due to the serious security implications they give rise to.

“Some of these breaches are the result of human error and, sadly, that is more likely when Police Scotland is overstretched due to officer numbers falling to their lowest levels since 2008 and when capital funding, including for IT systems, has been cut by the SNP government.”