He was speaking after Respectme, an anti-bullying service funded by the Scottish Government, said all councils should develop the sophisticated reporting system to allow bullying to be assessed.

Director of the organisation Brian Donnelly said that although Dundee City Council’s bullying policy was already good he would urge them to adopt the proposed measures.

This would allow the authority to analyse the type of bullying — such as homophobic, racist or even cyber bullying — that was taking place in its schools and tailor their response accordingly, he said.

“Dundee City Council does have a recording mechanism but their policy is not up for review for another year so we don’t know how they are using it,” said Mr Donnelly.

“We know they are recording some of this data, but I couldn’t say how they are using it.”

The council spokesman told the Tele that although the local authority is not currently using the exact recording system suggested by Respectme, it hoped to improve its procedure as part of ongoing attempts to stamp out bullying.

“We don’t currently collate the figures in that way but we are working towards that system,” he said.

The spokesman added staff and pupils were made aware of the issues surrounding bullying and encouraged to report any incidents.

“The education department is very active in tackling bullying,” he said.

“It works to support bullied pupils and make sure they have someone to talk to and make sure bullies know that their behaviour will not be tolerated.”

The current policy, which was approved in 2007 and is due for review next year, states any kind of bullying “is always damaging and must always be taken seriously and, if encountered, addressed fully.”

Bullying Report Forms used in the city already include a section requiring teachers to specify if the particular incident of bullying is connected to gender, sexual orientation, religion or disability.

Less than half of Scotland’s 32 local authorities currently use the recording procedures backed by Respectme.