The data, based on 5.2 million 999 calls to forces across the UK between November and April last year, showed that 29 per cent of them were not answered within the 10-second target time. That would equate to nearly three million in a year.
Only 11 forces – a quarter of the 44 police – were within target with their average time to respond. Northumbria took longer, averaging 33.3 seconds. By contrast, Lincolnshire and Avon and Somerset averaged just six seconds for each of their calls.
One in 20,999 calls from all forces took more than a minute to answer, equivalent to 500,000 a year and six times the target time scale. It ranged from 16 per cent in Northumbria to Northamptonshire.
An Interior Ministry source said: “With considerable variation across the country, this information will allow all forces to live up to the expectations of the public.”
“Second category service”
Rick Muir, director of the Police Foundation, which led a commission on the future of policing, said response times were critical to saving lives, protecting people from harm and solving crime. “Response speed is essential,” he said. “The fact that they didn’t reach the target is worrisome.”
David Wilson, a professor of criminology at the University of Birmingham, said the combination of rising crime, falling prosecution rates and longer response times was worrisome. “It’s part of a pattern in which we are offered a second-class service of what a top-level organization should be,” he said.
It follows warnings from SM Police Inspectorate that forces are in danger of being overwhelmed by an increase in 999 calls driven by a lack of confidence in non-emergency line 101. He found that 999 calls increased 11 percent in two years and a quarter of the forces were often “overwhelmed” by demand.
Some forces said up to 30 per cent of the 999 calls now involved issues, such as mental health crises, which should be addressed by other organizations such as the NHS.
This is having a side effect on response times. Requests for freedom of information from 22 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales suggested that officers were now 28% slower to deal with first-degree emergencies after receiving 999 calls six years ago. .
This equates to three more minutes on average reaching serious incidents, from 11 minutes and 20 seconds in 2015 to 14 minutes and 30 seconds in 2021, according to data obtained by the BBC.
Deputy Chief of Police Alan Todd of the National Police Chiefs Council said prank calls, a delayed connection time and improper use of the 999 to request non-emergency issues could contribute to delays in response.
“We will learn from this data to improve the speed with which calls are answered on 999, so that the public can expect the fastest possible response when they call 999,” he said.
Boris Johnson has previously expressed concern that working from home is less productive. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the government’s efficiency minister, has been tasked with returning officials to the office.