Police Scotland Service Centre Performance

999 Performance 

Police Scotland Service Centre has continued to ensure that priority is given to protecting the 999-emergency service and aim to achieve an average speed of answer for 999 calls within 10 seconds, a target also required by all 44 UK Forces. 

Police Scotland are the second largest Police Service for 999 call volume, answering 450,589 calls with a year-to-date average speed of answer reported nationally by the Home Office of 11.26 seconds, compared with the UK average of 9.08 seconds and compared with 12.68 seconds for the same period last year.  

We are currently ranked 37th out of 44 Forces compared with 25th for same period last year.  Lincolnshire were ranked 1st with an average speed of answer of 4.81 seconds with Staffordshire in 44th place with an average speed of answer of 14.52 seconds.  16 Forces have an average speed of answer above the national target of 10 seconds. Caution must always be applied to direct comparisons due to the different ways in which Forces resource, manage and measure public contact. 

Despite Police Scotland’s average speed of answer remaining consistently stable since introduction of the national performance reporting (May 2022), it has been challenging to maintain our ranked position increasing steadily from our best position in July 2022 of 8th (at 10.7 seconds) to 37th in October of this year (at 11.12 seconds), a negligible difference of 0.42 seconds, however, has impacted significantly in terms of our ranking. This is primarily as a result of other Forces undertaking improvement work which has included process reviews, refresh of core functions and tasks, implementing new strategies to manage performance and introducing new technologies to enhance service delivery, reducing their average speed of answer, in some Forces by as much as 16 seconds (Gloucester). Various areas of the work carried out in other Forces is already in place within the Police Scotland Service Centre to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness, such as robust attendance management processes, in-depth daily performance and productivity reviews, and our journey has already commenced to introduce new technology which will further support amendment to current business processes.  

Police Scotland, along with all other UK Police Services, measure call data slightly differently to the data published by the Home Office. The Home Office figures include the time from which the call is received by the BT operator whilst Police Scotland systems measure the point at which the call is offered to Police Scotland by BT.  

Home Office data does also not include calls such as immediate BT call transfers i.e. calls without a verbal handover, which account for 9,744 calls to Police Scotland year to date, and can add on between 2-4 seconds to the average speed of answer.  Consequently, Police Scotland’s data reports that we received an additional 2.1% of 999 calls with an average speed of answer of 9 seconds year to date which is within the nationally agreed target of 10 seconds.  This compares well when compared to the same period last year of 10 seconds. This is a national issue which the Home Office are aware of and there is national context available to explain the differences in the data provided.  We have no influence over BT transfer time however, BT are reviewing their own processes and availability of Artificial Intelligence technology to automate the transfer of calls to emergency authorities rather than rely on manual input. 

Of noting is that Police Scotland experienced a significant unexpected increase in 999 calls during 2023, with June reaching the highest increase of 37% (23,333 calls), this growth trend continued until November 2023. Several factors contributed to this increase including extreme weather (both good and inclement), various large-scale events, changes to legislation relating to XL Bully dogs and, most significantly, an update to the Android operating system that caused mobile telephones using the operating system to inadvertently call 999. This resulted in many thousands of accidental and dropped 999 calls.  Additional contacts were subsequently generated as members of the public sought advice and guidance. 

The reduction in call volumes has been evident during 2024 with a decrease of 11.7% year to date (61,175 calls).  Recognising that 2023 was an ‘outlier’, when comparing 999 volumes with 2022, an increase of 4.6% (20,229 calls) has continued to be experienced.  A breakdown of all contacts can be found in Appendix A attached.

101 Performance

101 calls (IVR Option 4 - where the caller has requested to speak with a Service Advisor) have decreased by 3.5% year to date (28,973 calls).  Police Scotland achieved an average speed of answer for these calls of 4 minutes 52 seconds, this compares well with 6 minutes 51 seconds for the same period the previous year, acknowledging in part that this reduction can be attributed with the reduction in calls to this service.

The Service Centre manages other calls such as from partner agencies (Fire, Ambulance, Coastguard etc), from Alarm companies and calls in response to Media Appeals (Option 1 on 101) or relating to Incident Updates (Option 3 on 101) which are not currently reported on.  When including these calls to Police Scotland Service Centre there has been a 6.2% decrease (a total of 99,880 calls). We also receive calls from our buddy Force (PSNI) and via dedicated lines from other national Forces.