The UK government handed a lucrative contract to run Police Scotland’s 101 non-emergency number to Vodafone, a Sunday Herald investigation has uncovered.

The telecoms company which has been criticised for its tax affairs has made hundreds of thousands of pounds from Scots who must pay a flat rate 15p charge every time they use the service.

An investigation by the Sunday Herald discovered that the Home Office has absolute control of the management of the 101 number - not the Scottish government, despite law and order being devolved.

The contract is due for renewal next year and the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has urged the Scottish Government to pressure UK ministers to consider an alternative to Vodafone.

The Newbury-based company came under fire after a deal was struck with HMRC in 2010 which allowed the firm to forgo £6.75bn in taxes following its takeover of Mannesmann.

Former Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott later said Vodafone is “right up there with Google and Amazon" when it comes to tax.

Last year grassroots anti-austerity movement UK Uncut held a series of demonstrations at Vodafone stores, including one in Scotland, after the firm admitted that it has paid “little or no corporation tax”.

In a recent interview, Vodafone’s Chief Financial Officer Nick Read said “we don’t make the profits to justify paying corporation taxes” in the UK.

The company posted earnings of £1.3 billion and operating profits of £41 million in 2014/15.

Vodafone was awarded the contract to provide Police Scotland’s 101 non-emergency number in February 2013, before the amalgamation of forces north of the border in April 2013.

Figures obtained using Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation show that Police Scotland received 4,929,457 calls to the number between July 1 2013 and June 30 2015, putting the total value of the calls at almost three quarter of a million pounds.

In the FOI response from Chief Constable Stephen House, he said: “It is important to note that Police Scotland does not make any money from calls to 101.

“The 15p charge per call to 101 was nationally agreed and is the same for calling any police force across the whole of the UK. Call charges are paid to Vodaphone.”

Both the Scottish Government and Police Scotland confirmed the arrangement between Vodafone and the Home Office.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish Government has no role in the operation or the management of the 101 service which is supplied by the private company Vodafone, and regulated across the whole of the UK by the Home Office.”

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Scotland is part of a UK-wide contract for the provision of the 101 service. The procurement of the current contract was led by the Home Office and was undertaken in Jan and Feb 2013. This ensured that 101 was up and running across Scotland for the launch of Police Scotland.”

A spokesman for the Home Office said the contract was awarded to Vodafone by the Home Office “under the Police National Network framework”.

“This framework was an open competition that went through a full Official Journal of the European Union tender,” he said. “This contract ends in March 2016 and there will be an open procurement exercise commencing in the Autumn.”

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie urged the Scottish Government to bring pressure to bear on the Home Office ahead of the tendering process.

He said: “This contract has been agreed with the full support of Police Scotland and the Scottish Government. Only a few months ago Nicola Sturgeon branded tax avoidance obscene, immoral and despicable. If the action from the SNP is to match their lofty rhetoric they will need to change these arrangements.”

Speaking in February, First Minster Nicola Sturgeon said tax avoidance was “downright wrong”.

She added: “The first step is to have a zero tolerance approach to it and then to have a much more vigorous and effective tax authority that's going to clamp down on it and prosecute people, and get money back and make examples of people, so we send the right message to anyone thinking of doing it.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said yesterday: “We expect all business to comply with the law.”

A spokeswoman for Vodafone said: “As a provider of a UK-wide network which requires maintenance and improvement on a daily basis, the (15 pence) charge contributes to the cost of providing those services. "However, Vodafone does not receive the total sum of 15p for each call. If the call originates from, for example, an 02 phone or a BT landline, they will take part of the charge before it’s passed to us to route and deliver the call.”

The spokeswoman also mounted a robust defence against criticism of Vodafone’s tax affairs.

She said: “Vodafone has always paid its taxes: for the last financial year we paid around £360 million in direct taxes. It also requires huge investment to build and maintain our network, which is relied upon by businesses and consumers up and down the country, so we have invested heavily in the UK over the last few years, including spending more than £1billion on our network and services this year on top of the £1billion we invested last year. As a result of that investment and the very competitive market, we make minimal profits in the UK.

“However, as the government wants to promote investment in essential infrastructure like ours, the UK tax rules mean that reliefs for our investment are set against the profits we make. In addition the Government understands that we have to borrow huge sums of money to be able to invest for the long term, so they allow us to take the interest we pay on those borrowings off our profit too.

“Corporation tax is then paid on any balance – this is the same rule that applies to all UK companies large and small.”