But Acting Chief Constable Justine Curran (right)  reassured board members that the backlog had now been cleared. She added: “Work to achieve further improvement in this area and to incorporate the unit into an expanded technical unit is still ongoing but the backlog has been dealt with.

“Technicians can recover paedophile images in real-time following the detention of suspects, which allows investigators to conduct thorough interviews and put suspects before the courts immediately.”

In a report to the meeting in Forfar, the police chief explained that three Public Protection Units had been set up in the Tayside Force area in June, 2008. A number of factors, including the death of Baby P and that of Brandon Muir had combined recently to “focus” the attention of various agencies on child protection.

She added: “The introduction of the Public Protection Units has been welcome but their success and the additional focus on these matters has increased the workload and stretched the resources in this high risk area of business. And, as a consequence, administrative demands are in danger of overwhelming capacity. In response, Divisional Commanders in all three areas moved quickly to supplement investigative and administrative resources.”

“It is likely that the review of the Child at Risk reporting procedures and overhaul of administrative support to Public Protection Units will result in the identification of a need for more, possibly centralised, administrative support.’’