Tuesday 31 May 2022

HUMBERSIDE Police has been judged as one of the poorest Forces in the country in terms of response times in answering 999 calls. That’s according to figures released by the Home Office today – the first time such figures have ever been published.

According to Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd, of the National Police Chiefs Council, Forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland strive to answer 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds, with Police Scotland aiming to have a mean answering time of 999 calls answered in under 10 seconds.

Today’s statistics show only two per cent of 999 calls to Humberside Police were answered in under 10 seconds; the worst result amongst all 44 Forces; with South Yorkshire the second worst at 17 per cent. By comparison Avon and Somerset consistently answer over 90% of their 999 calls in under 10 seconds.

Looking at the figures in more detail, 95% of all 999 calls to Humberside Police were answered between 10 and 60 seconds; with the average time given as 16.8 seconds. In three per cent of cases it took longer than a minute to respond.

Following the release of the report, Humberside Deputy Chief Constable Paul Anderson told Beverley FM: “I welcome any data that enables the public to see how their local force is performing and we are committed to fully supporting this approach. However, in this instance, the data presented does not accurately reflect the call handling performance of 999 calls once these are passed to Humberside Police. 

“At present, despite representations, this data still includes the whole journey of a 999 call. This starts with a BT operator, and crucially, includes the time taken for them to divert the call to Humberside Police. The time this process takes varies significantly across the whole country, and in our region, there are delays of up to 7 seconds for the call to be passed to Humberside Police and this delay is currently included in this data.

“We have raised this issue with the Home Office, and we are now working closely with communications providers to understand why such delays sometimes occur in us being passed the calls.”

He continued: “Humberside Police have just moved to a state-of-the-art contact and control centre, providing us with one of the UK’s leading Police call centres. Once the calls are received by Humberside Police, both 999 and 101 call handling performance remains one of the most timely and effective in the country.”

THERE’S A CHANCE to join Treasure House Curator, Sally Hayes, next Wednesday, June 8, to hear about the paintings of Fred and Mary Elwell which are on display in Beverley Art Gallery. The lunchtime tour coincides with performances of the play, “Paint the Town Fred”, which returns to the town’s  East Riding Theatre on June 9, 10 and 11.

There is no need to book the free tour – arrive just before 1pm at the Art Gallery, which is on the first floor of the Treasure House in Champney Road.