Serious Organised Crime Taskforce (SOCT) partners, including Police Scotland, North Lanarkshire Council, the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland, HM Revenue and Customs and the Scottish Government, created the online training resource for use by local authority enforcement officers across Scotland.

Mr Yousaf, who chairs the Taskforce, said: “This resource will be a valuable tool to reduce the harm that serious organised crime causes to people, businesses and communities across Scotland.

“Local authority workers such as trading standards, health and safety, housing, and environmental health, will now be better able to identify and report the signs of serious organised crime that they may encounter in the course of their roles.

“We know that criminals seek to prey on all aspects of community life. The Taskforce continues to work to disrupt serious organised crime groups and to ensure that the public sector is more aware of these threats and can take steps to help keep communities safe.”

Robert Steenson, deter strand lead and executive director of enterprise and communities with North Lanarkshire Council, added: “This training resource will be made available to local authority enforcement officers across Scotland.

“Whether it is through peddling drugs and the misery that this brings, undercutting legitimate businesses through tax evasion, money laundering and corner-cutting, defrauding people through bogus workman scams, dealing in counterfeit goods or trafficking vulnerable and exploited people, serious organised criminals are causing harm for their own personal gain.

“The aim of the Taskforce is to reduce and dismantle the threat posed by organised crime groups and this new training resource will assist enforcement officers in their daily duties so we can break the cycle of misery these groups impose on people, businesses and communities.”