Humberside Police worst for answering 999 calls within 10 second target

Just 2% of 999 calls to Humberside Police were answered within 10 seconds

Humberside Police is the worst force in the country for answering 999 calls within a 10-second target, Home Office figures have revealed.

Only 2% of emergency calls were responded to within the limit. The government had set a target of 90%.

The Humberside force said its results were down to delays with BT operators passing the calls to the control room.

However, in a statement, BT said it had worked with police and had "found no evidence of such a delay on BT's part".

Avon and Somerset was the only force in the UK to hit the target, answering 91% of emergency contacts within the time.

The South Yorkshire force was the second worst performer, with 17% of calls answered in under 10 seconds.

Overall, 71% of 999 calls were answered within the time period by forces across the UK.

Police response times to 999 calls

Humberside Police - 2% answered within 10 seconds target. Average time 16.8 seconds.

Lincolnshire Police - 89% answered within 10 seconds target. Average time six seconds.

North Yorkshire Police - 44% answered within 10 seconds target. Average time 29.3 seconds.

South Yorkshire Police - 17% answered within 10 seconds target. Average time 20.5 seconds.

West Yorkshire Police - 79% answered within 10 seconds target. Average time 11.3 seconds.

Source: Home Office

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the public deserved to know their local police force would be at the end of the phone.

"Fundamentally, publishing this data is about driving up standards in our incredible emergency services even further, so that the public can have every confidence in the police's ability to save lives and keep our streets safe," she added.

The force said there were delays with BT operators passing the calls to the force's control room

Humberside's Deputy Chief Constable Paul Anderson said he welcomed "any data that enables the public to see how their local force is performing".

"However, in this instance, the data presented does not accurately reflect the call handling performance of 999 calls once these are passed to Humberside Police," he said.

"At present, despite representations, this data still includes the whole journey of a 999 call. This starts with a BT operator, and crucially, includes the time taken for them to divert the call to Humberside Police.

"The time this process takes varies significantly across the whole country, and in our region, there are delays of up to seven seconds for the call to be passed to Humberside Police and this delay is currently included in this data."

Mr Anderson added that the force, which answered 95% of 999 calls between 10 and 60 seconds, had raised the issue with the Home Office and was working "with communications providers to understand why such delays sometimes occur".

'Exceeding target'

However, a BT spokesperson said the company had worked with the Humberside force to look at the data in detail and "we have found no evidence of such a delay on BT's part".

"Humberside Police have also acknowledged that calls we transferred have reached their systems within one second," they added.

The spokesperson said: "The role of BT's operators is to answer the 999 call and then transfer the caller to the appropriate emergency service for help and assistance. So the total call waiting time for the person dialling 999 also depends on how quickly the various emergency responders across the country, including police forces, answer the call once BT has transferred it."

They added that Ofcom had set BT a target of answering 95% of 999 calls within five seconds: "The most recent monthly data shows we were exceeding this target and were able to answer more than 97% of calls within this timeframe."

Supt Cherie Buttle of South Yorkshire Police said: "We aim to provide the highest standard of service to the public of South Yorkshire when they call us in their moments of need.

"Our ultimate goal is to answer all 999 calls within 10 seconds, and we know we still have work to do to get us there consistently. I'd like to assure the public that we're working incredibly hard to make this happen.

"This includes a recruitment drive and a new provision of training for our staff. In addition, we are investing in our current technology and exploring new technological solutions to improve our service offer."