Emergency Calls: Standards

The process handling of emergency and non-emergency calls to the Police is determined by operationally independent local forces, however The Home Office and Policing have undertaken work in support of national consistency and to reduce wait times for the public.

Average wait time data for 999 emergency calls to policing is publicly available at: 999 performance data | Police.uk. While average wait time data for 101 non-emergency calls is publicly available at: 101 performance data | Police.uk. Both datasets demonstrate overall improvement in reducing wait times for the public, achieved through force collaboration at national level to agree on key performance metrics and share best practices.

The Home Office is also funding work to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into force control rooms to triage non-policing demand to the correct service, support forces in better understanding type and volume of calls and support call handlers in administrative tasks during and after calls and in completing rapid risk assessments.

The Home Office and Policing are committed to delivering greater channel choice for the public when reporting crimes or concerns, this includes funding the availability of online crime reporting and pilots of a national Victim’s Portal where the public can communicate with officers via direct messaging rather than telephone should they prefer.