999 Calls (1A/23)
Request
I am writing to request the average time taken by your force to answer 999 calls in 2022, and also the longest time taken to answer a 999 call in 2022.
Please also provide the same data for 2021.
Please present this information in tabular format as a .xlsx file.
Response
Please find attached our response.
It is important to note that we’ve been working hard to improve the experience for people who need to call 999 and recruit more staff, and improve our service around complex calls from vulnerable victims as it can take longer to obtain important information from them there and then.
We still get lots of calls to us which turn out to not be police matters or don’t require a police response. These put extra pressure put on call-handlers, who work tirelessly to provide the right support and advice in someone’s time of need.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.