Scotland spends one-fifth less on law and order than England, a new study claimed yesterday.

It found the Scottish Government parts with £213 for every man, woman and child on policing a year, well short of an English average of £255.

The study by Arthur Midwinter, a commentator on government finance, also found police spending had risen steadily under the old Labour-Liberal Democrat administration at Holyrood, but not by enough to keep up with the English.

His work was commissioned by the Scottish Police Federation. General secretary Joe Grant said: "We've had concerns about police funding in Scotland for some time. We now have the evidence to show that since devolution we have been very poorly treated and we want the new Scottish Government to give us priority in this spending review."

"It is well known that every major public service in Scotland spends significantly higher amounts than its counterparts in England. This reflects higher social needs and higher unit costs. The police have never reached parity far less enjoyed the benefits from this arrangement. If we had been fairly treated we would have been able to deliver a much higher-quality police service in Scotland."

The previous administration in Scotland ahead of the last elections far outspent its English counterparts in health, housing and education. The Lab-Lib coalition simply chose to focus more on those areas than on law and order.

Professor Midwinter said: "The research reveals that police expenditure per capita in Scotland is significantly lower than in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Overall, police expenditure in the UK is 21% higher than in Scotland. This has arisen as a direct result of executive decisions on political priorities, rather than anything done by Whitehall or local government."

The Scottish Government has pledged to put another 1000 police officers on the streets. But it, too, is now facing a cash crunch as the next strategic spending review, due this year, appears to be less generous than in recent years.

A source close to the government said: "This is part of the legacy left to the new SNP government by the previous Labour-Liberal administration. They talked big on law and order, but delivered small."

An official spokeswoman was more diplomatic: "The people of Scotland," she said, "want to see more police on the streets. The Scottish Government is committed to delivering just that.

"We currently spend £1.1bn per year on policing. All future spending plans will be announced as part of the Strategic Spending Review 2007 which is due to be announced later this year.

"We cannot pre-empt the outcome of the SR07, however, we can continue to look at ways of giving our police more time and powers to tackle crime on the streets with schemes like the fixed-penalty notices which, from today, are available to officers in all of Scotland's force areas."

Bill Aitken, Tory Glasgow MSP, said the last administration had treated the police as a "Cinderella service". He was also sceptical about the Scottish Government's on-the-spot fines. "People could commit a multitude of crimes and merely get on-the-spot fines, without any proper criminal record," he said. "Crime and offences are on the increase, police stations are going part-time and now we have pay-as-you-go criminals."

Mr Aitken, is convener of the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee, which yesterday announced it would make a detailed study of whether police chiefs could better use their officers.

The all-party committee is expected to report next year whether there are traditional police functions that could be carried out by other bodies.

A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland said: "We will look at this report and consider its contents.

"Acpos continues to engage with the Scottish Government to ensure all relevant information is made available to shape future spending plans."