§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how he ensures that OFTEL meets its responsibilities to ensure that 999 calls receive priority over other telephone calls and are correctly routed; and if he will publish OFTEL data on the performance of the three companies which handle 999 calls in their call centres. [128499]
§ Ms HewittOFTEL actively participates in the Home Office's 999 Liaison Committee which provides a forum for the emergency authorities and telecommunications companies to identify and resolve issues regarding the emergency calls service.
All Public Telecommunications Operators are required under their licences to provide a free 999/112 emergency calls service. Each Operator makes arrangements with BT, Cable & Wireless or Kingston Communications for the answering of such calls and their onward connection to the individual emergency services. The Operators licences also require that they take all reasonably practicable steps to maintain, to the greatest extent possible, the availability and integrity of their networks and the services that run over them, with particular regard to the needs of the Emergency Services. 999 calls receive absolute priority over all other calls and there are several in-built safeguards to ensure that these calls are routed and answered with the highest reliability.
OFTEL monitors the performance of the emergency calls service and receives reports from BT and other operators of all occasions when access to the 999 service is temporarily lost. Major incidents are investigated by OFTEL, which may recommend remedial actions.
The performance of the emergency calls service is published by OFTEL each year. The results for 1999 were as follows:
136WBritish Telecom took 22.3 million 999 calls of which it answered 95.7 per cent. within 5 seconds and 99.5 per cent. within 15 seconds;Cable and Wireless took 4.4 million 999 calls of which it answered 92.1 per cent. within 5 seconds and 95.9 per cent. within 15 seconds;Kingston Communications handled 0.23 million 999 calls of which it answered 99.97 per cent. within 15 seconds.OFTEL intend to publish this year's information on their website.