PLANS to take police officers off the beat to do administrative work will be at the expense of communities, a union has claimed.

The warning came as Police Scotland announced proposals to axe the posts of 67 police staff legal document officers and instead have the work carried out by uniformed patrol officers.

Unison said it had obtained a copy of the guidance being distributed to officers in Glasgow on how to carry out the processes involved in the serving of legal documents.

The union said it was a "time consuming and administrative burden that patrol officers do not need".

Gerry Crawley, Unison Scotland's regional organiser for police staffs, said: "This is yet another example of Police Scotland making cuts at the expense of service to the public."

However, Chief Super­intendent Graham Sinclair defended the move.

He said: "This proposal will ensure we adopt the same approach for serving legal documents across the country and make greater use of our resources.

"As well as introducing more efficient working practices within the service, we are also working closely with our criminal justice partners to make changes that will reduce demand in this area and improve the overall efficiency of the criminal justice process."

Scotland's Chief Constable Sir Stephen House has previously denied police officers are being used to 'backfill' jobs vacated by civilian staff who have left to cut costs.

The force has cut 1200 civilian staff and will close a number of public counters at police stations across Scotland.