Public 'will shift' to 999 if 101 service stopped, warns Police Scotland chief

Police Scotland has warned it may have to suspend its 101 non-emergency phone line and lose thousands of officers and staff under government spending plans.

Deputy Chief Officer David Page said: "As our demand is increasing because we are picking up increasing slack our resource is reducing, our ability to answer 999 calls will be slowed.

"The 101 service - do we continue with that? If we don't continue with the 101 service all that will do is shifting people into dialling 999 who would have previously dialled 101."