Three west of Scotland housing associations have launched a legal bid to discover the number of sex offenders living in their communities.

The associations fear that poorer areas are being burdened with a disproportionate number of registered sex offenders. However, a request to Strathclyde Police for the information was rejected.

Following an investigation, Scotland's Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion ruled in February that the force had dealt with the request in accordance with freedom of information laws.

Mr Dunion said that the disclosure of the information could identify sex offenders which would breach the "first data protection principle".

The housing associations - Blochairn and Craigdale in Glasgow and Dunbritton in Dumbarton - were given 42 days to appeal to the Court of Session on a point of law and they have now reportedly lodged an appeal.

Michael Carberry, director of Blochairn Housing Co-operative, said he hoped the court would recognise their position.

The requests by the housing associations for Registered Sex Offender (RSO) numbers living in various postcodes date back to 2007. In its reponse Strathclyde Police said that even speculation about the number of RSOs within a large geographic area leads to attempts to identify the individual offenders.

The consequence of this would be the offender fearing attack and possibly fleeing from the area, breaching the terms of their registration and supervision, police said. It was also likely that a minority of individuals may attempt to physically harm the offender, or individuals wrongly suspected of being the offender, or hound them from the area, the force stated.

Mr Dunion concluded in his report of February 16: "The Commissioner finds that the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police acted in accordance with Part 1 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 in responding to the information requests made by Craigdale Housing Association, Dunbritton Housing  Association and Blochairn Housing Co-operative."

It is understood that the Commissioner and Strathclyde Police now have 21 days to respond to the action by the associations.

A spokesman for the Information Commissioner said: "We have received notification of the appeal and we are currently considering the grounds of the appeal."