West Midlands and Staffordshire Police among UK's slowest for answering 999 calls

West Midlands Police and Staffordshire Police have both ranked within the top ten for the slowest mean-answering time for calls to 999 in a new Home Office league table.

It's the first time details on how long it takes forces to answer emergency 999 calls has been published.

The times have been released in a bid to further improve the speed of the service as part of the government’s Beating Crime Plan to improve transparency and performance, forming part of the government’s wider ongoing work to cut crime, improve public services and make our streets safer.

The data shows 71 percent of calls were answered within the target of under 10 seconds, with an overall average of 16.1 seconds answer time.

The first data set covers calls made between November 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022 and shows some forces are consistently responsive, while others require improvement.

On the table for Mean Answering Time, West Midlands Police is ranked fifth slowest with an average mean answering time of 23.2 seconds per call, while Staffordshire is ranked 8th slowest with an average Mean Answering Time of 21.3 seconds per call.

Northumbria was ranked the slowest with an average Mean Answering Time of 33.3 seconds per call, while Lincolnshire was the quickest with just six seconds per call.

West Midlands Police was also ranked the ninth worst overall for percentage of calls answered in less than 10 seconds with just 63 per cent answer in under that time.

The data is accessible to the public via police.uk, where they can access their local force’s data under the 999 performance data tab and the data will be released at the end of each month for the previous month.

National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for contact management, assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd, said: “Today’s release of 999 Performance Data shows the high level of demand being placed on call handlers on a daily basis throughout the UK.

"We can see between November 2021 to April 2022, policing answered over 3.7 million calls in under ten seconds and a further 1.2 million in under 60 seconds.

"Forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland strive to answer 90 per cent of 999 calls within ten seconds, with Police Scotland aiming to have a mean answering time of 999 calls answered in under ten seconds."

Ch Supt Andy Beard, head of Force Contact, said: “Call handlers in West Midlands Police are working extremely hard to respond to record levels of demand from the public, which is continuing to grow.

"Last month alone, we saw a 23 per cent rise in 999 calls compared to April 2021, when the country was in lockdown, equating to an average of 2301 999 calls a day.

"This has continued to increase in May and we are now seeing an average of 2711 999 calls a day.

“We are working hard to improve the experience for people who do need to call 999.

“We’re still getting lots of calls to us which turn out to not be police matters or don’t require a police response.

"Our advice is always - if it’s not 999 then go online for advice, and the ability to Live Chat with our staff."

Mean answering time (in seconds) for UK police forces from slowest to quickest

Northumbria - 33.3

North-Yorkshire - 29.3

Gloucestershire - 27.1

Greater-Manchester - 24

West-Midlands - 23.2

Durham- 22.8

South-Wales - 21.6

Staffordshire - 21.3

Devon-and-Cornwall - 21

South-Yorkshire - 20.5

Bedfordshire - 19.2

Suffolk - 19

Metropolitan -18.8

Cheshire - 18.2

Dorset - 17

Kent - 16.9

Humberside - 16.8

Wiltshire - 16.6

Gwent - 16.1

Hertfordshire - 15.7

Lancashire - 14

Cambridgeshire - 13.5

Hampshire - 12.2

Essex - 12.1

West-Mercia - 11.7

Thames-Valley - 11.3

West-Yorkshire - 11.3

Merseyside - 11.1

Cumbria - 11

Derbyshire - 10.7

Sussex - 10.6

Dyfed-Powys - 10.1

Scotland - 10.1

Northern-Ireland - 9.7

Surrey - 9.6

Warwickshire - 9.4

North-Wales - 8.9

Cleveland - 8.5

Leicestershire - 8.4

Norfolk - 8.3

Nottinghamshire - 8

Northamptonshire - 6.4

Avon-and-Somerset - 6.2

Lincolnshire - 6