A former education boss has been reprimanded for providing false data to the Scottish Government in respect to teacher numbers.

Andrew Sutherland was suspended in November 2015 and later resigned from his role as executive director of learning and leisure services at North Lanarkshire Council after falsifying data to avoid financial sanctions.

After admitting the allegations, the history teacher was brought in front of a General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) panel in September this year.

Mr Sutherland thereafter admitted two charges of professional misconduct.

Between September and November 2014, he instructed for changes to be made to the statistical return for North Lanarkshire Council to the Scottish Government in relation to the pupil-teacher ratio for the 2014 annual census in the knowledge the information was false. In addition, he also admitted that he acted dishonestly.

The panel heard that in 2015, then finance secretary John Swinney warned councils which failed to maintain teacher numbers and their pupil-teacher ratio would have their share of a £51m funding package to boost the figures clawed back.

North Lanarkshire Council's anticipated figures from 2014 would not have met the government target and could have resulted in a significant fine.

When presented with the initial figures internally, Mr Sutherland instructed colleagues to make changes to the data to "save the council from embarrassment and a financial penalty".

Despite his conduct, which was described as "isolated and out of character", Mr Sutherland claimed that his fitness to teach was not impaired.

He subsequently resigned from his role at the council, has expressed insight and remorse for his actions, and produced positive references from past and present employers.

The panel stated: "The conduct constituted an abuse of a position of trust. However, harm had not been caused to any pupil.

"The teacher had admitted the misconduct. Further, the teacher had reflected on the matter, had shown genuine remorse and had taken steps to remediate. In particular, he had been candid with his present employer.

"The issue represented an isolated incident and there had been no repetition since nor did the panel consider that there was a risk of recurrence."

The panel accepted that Mr Sutherland's behaviour was remediable, but found that his fitness to teach was impaired and fell short of the standards expected of a registered teacher.

Mr Sutherland avoided being struck off, however was reprimanded - which will remain on his record for six months.

Following the publication of the hearing's conclusion on Wednesday, a spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council said: "Mr Sutherland no longer works for the council. We do not comment on the individual circumstances of our employees either past or present."