Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the length of time it takes police service to answer 999 calls.

Police forces are operationally independent and the handling of 999 calls is a matter for them. Each force has its own unique set of pressures and challenges that may affect their response to 999 calls, including geography, demographic changes and local crime trends. It is for Police Chief Constables and elected Police and Crime Commissioners and Mayors to take these into account when setting their local priorities and approaches.

The Home Office is making sure that the police have the resources they need to beat crime, which remains one of the Government’s top priorities. We also know that transparency is important, to help the public hold the police and their PCCs to account. That is why on the 31^st May we published league tables for the first time showing 999 call answering times.