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Serving and retired officers can claim held in reserve payments.

Hundreds of officers who served in Scotland may be entitled to backdated bonus pay.

Following a legal challenge Police Scotland must pay serving and retired officers so-called held in reserve payments stretching back to June 2012.

It follows a row over the money owed to officers for the time they spent away from home but not on duty.

A test case was won by the Scottish Police Federation earlier this year and the force is now paying out claims.

Deputy General Secretary David Kennedy said: “It’s very much a success story, we don’t like litigating against the force but we are where we are.

“It has taken a bit of time to work out the practicalities with Police Scotland on how to put the claims in but they are now coming in and the money will be paid as soon as possible.

“Serving and retired officers are able to put claims in if they believe they’re owed money.”

It is not known exactly how much it will cost Police Scotland, though it is likely to run into several million.

A spokesman for the force said “appropriate budgetary provisions have been made”.

He added: “We are aware of the decision. Our objective throughout was to secure best value for Police Scotland by ensuring that officers were paid correctly in terms of the Police Negotiating Board Circulars which were the subject of the Judicial Review.

"When the judgement was issued we were pleased to note Lady Wise [who ruled on the dispute] stated no criticism could be levelled for taking our statutory duties to secure best value consciously and seriously.

"Since then, we have been working with the Scottish Police Federation to establish a procedure for the submission and consideration of officers' claims."

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