Avon and Somerset only police force meeting 999 call-answering targets

Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd, from the National Police Chief's Council said a lag in connecting calls could contribute to waits

Just one police force in England and Wales is meeting its 999 call-answering target.

Home Office data shows Avon and Somerset Police is the only force answering 90% of 999 calls in less than 10 seconds.

Forty-three police forces in England and Wales failed to meet the standard from November 2021 and April 2022.

The national data shows on average, 71% of 999 calls were answered within 10 seconds in the other force areas.

The Association for Police and Crime Commissioners said the figures released for the first time demonstrated "the demand for policing and the volume of calls" across the country.

Police Scotland said it aimed to answer calls in less than 10 seconds on average, and had recorded call answer rates of 10.1 over the six-month period.

The average 999 call answer time for Avon and Somerset Police was 6.1 seconds

Humberside Police had the worst performance with only 2% of 999 calls answered in less than 10 seconds.

South Yorkshire Police met the target 17% of the time, Durham Police 41% of the time, North Yorkshire Police 44% of the time and Gloucestershire Police 49% of the time.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: "The public deserve to know that their local police force will be at the end of the phone, ready to leap into action at second's notice."

Avon and Somerset Police took 22,767 calls in a six month period of which 15,434 were answered in less than five seconds, and 5,274 were answered in between five to 10 seconds.

Chief Constable Sarah Crew said having a fast response time was "vital" and she "could not be prouder" of the force's contact centre.

Wiltshire Police, which answered emergency calls in 16.63 seconds on average according to the data, said it was making improvements.

However, it was "confident that emergency calls are answered within ten seconds", as determined by its own data and said the Home Office figures did not account for technical issues.