Police Scotland will spend more than £20m rolling out new and money-saving mobile technology .

The force’s civilian Deputy Chief Officer David Page said staff and officers were currently operating “inefficiently” with either no or out-of-date phones.

He told watchdog the Scottish Police Authority that new phones could generate around £49 million of efficiency savings over a five-year period through time saved by staff.

This is the equivalent to the additional capacity of 400 extra officers, he said. The Herald earlier this month revealed money from proposed speed awareness courses and other projects had been diverted to buy new mobile phones.

He said: “Our communities will see our officers in their space much more frequently, our officers won’t be travelling back to their bases, will be given better information to do their job.

“It’s a huge enabler for officers to become much more productive and much more visible in their communities. The investment in the national network is what we need to do to stop our systems from creaking and going out of date, but also to allow them to support mobility.”

Mr Page told the board the initial plan is for the roll-out of 600 devices by the end of the financial year, with the full 10,000 to follow. Elaine Wilkinson, who chairs the SPA finance committee, said the business case has the support of the board, but added: “We don’t take investments of this level lightly without looking at the benefits.”