§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which police constabularies have a centralised 999 service; and if he will make a statement. [184508]
§ Ms BlearsAll forces deal with 999 calls from their service provider, either BT or Cable and Wireless, locally. These calls are sent to specific numbers provided by each force to a central point within the force; this can be the Force Control Room for those forces that do not have a centralised call handling function or to a designated Communication Centre in the case offerees that have centralised their call handling functions. The manner in which forces deal with the 999s from that point varies depending on whether the Force Control takes ownership or whether they have a centralised control/communication centres and they take ownership or whether they pass command and control to their Divisions, Basic Command Units or OCUs.
At the present time there are about 32 forces who have a centralised function in one form or another and most other forces are in the planning stages to go down that route. However, information on how each force deals with the calls locally is not collated centrally.
§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many 999 control centres there are, broken down by police constabulary; and if he will make a statement. [184509]
§ Mr. Blunkett32 forces have a centralised call handling function for dealing with 999 calls. Most other forces are currently in the process of planning to establish such a function.
§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many calls were made to 999 police services in(a) Essex and (b) Southend-on-Sea in the last year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [184510]
§ Ms BlearsA file will be sent to the Library. The Home Office does not collect total calls for service at a Basic Command Unit level, only at force level data.
§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time taken for a call to be answered by the 999 police service was in each year since 1997, broken down by police constabulary; and if he will make a statement. [184511]
§ Ms BlearsThis information is not collected. However, we are able to state what percentage of calls are answered within target time, for example 90 per cent. of all 999 calls were answered within 10 seconds. Forces will set their own target time, so it is not comparable when 90 per cent. of 999 calls are answered within 10 seconds and 80 per cent. are answered within 15 seconds.
§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what performance targets are in place for the 999 Police Service, relating to customer satisfaction; and if he will make a statement. [184513]
840W
§ Ms BlearsWe are committed to improving the quality of service the police provide to the public when they are in contact with them.
Call handling is a particularly important aspect of this service. A member of the public should be able to expect the same high quality service whenever they are in contact with the police, which is responsive to their needs, irrespective of where they live.
We are working with partners, including the Association of Chief Police Officers, to introduce minimum standards for service to the public, including the answering of telephone calls. We will also ensure that people are clear about the best way to contact the police.
New performance measures for user satisfaction with police services were introduced in April 2004, as part of the Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF). These include measures which report satisfaction of users who have contacted the police by 999 and other means with:
- ease of making contact with the police,
- the actions taken by the police,
- how well they were kept informed of progress and
- the way they were treated by police staff and
- the overall service provided.
The measures recognise that it is the quality of service provided, and not just speed of the initial answer that is important to users of police services.