AROUND 600 children were reported missing in West Dunbartonshire last year, the Reporter can reveal.

Police Scotland investigated a total of 807 missing persons cases in 2017 – 595 involved children aged under 18.

The figures were revealed by Police Scotland, following a Freedom of Information request by the Reporter.

Last year, 259 people were reported missing from Alexandria, 91 from Dumbarton, 356 from Clydebank and 59 from Helensburgh.

Thirty-three of the missing were aged under nine, while 161 were aged between 10-12.

Young teenagers were the highest group of those missing, with 175 aged 13-14, 136 aged 15, and 88 aged 16-17.

At the other end of the age scale, two cases involved people aged between 90 and 99 and nine investigations involved people aged 80-89.

In response, a Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Police Scotland deals with approximately 22,000 reports of missing people every year.

“Over 89 per cent will return or are found within 48 hours and 98 per cent within a week.

“Over 60 per cent of missing people in Scotland are children and more than half of them are reported missing from looked after accommodation settings.

“People go missing for a variety of reasons, and there are often a number of underlying issues involved.

“Working with our partners, we are focused on developing a collaborative approach that treats every missing person report in a way that addresses the long-term wellbeing of individuals involved as well as putting in place measures to reduce the likelihood of them going missing again.

“This shared approach not only benefits the person who goes missing, but also reduces the demand placed on the police service.”

Of the 212 adults who were subject to missing persons investigations, around a quarter (53) were recorded as having a mental health condition on the National Missing Persons Database.

Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, said the number of people reported missing every year is “quite surprising”.

She added: “When you consider that more than half the children reported missing are looked after by the local authority, then there is clearly scope to work with the council to reduce that. Likewise with a quarter of adults having mental health problems, the timely access to support from the health service might help reduce the number who go missing.

“I am pleased that the police are taking a joined-up approach with other agencies as it is as much a challenge for them as it is for the police.”

There were more men than women reported missing, with 483 and 318 recorded respectively.

Of those who were reported missing, one child and three adults were “traced dead”. The remainder were traced alive or the investigation was re-classified as “other”, which means they were no longer considered missing.