Of these incidents – an increase of 51 over the previous year – 21 staff were threatened with either a knife or bottle, while 140 were either punched, kicked or spat on. There were also 124 incidents this year of verbal abuse.

Michael Dickson, SAS chief executive, said: “Our staff are having to deal with incidents nearly every single day and that is totally unacceptable. No form of abuse will be tolerated and we will continue to work with Police Scotland to take action against perpetrators.”