North Yorkshire Police has recorded an improved 999 call answer time performance, according to latest figures.

The force answered 83% of calls in July 2023 within the national target of 10 seconds. By comparison, just 44% were answered on time in November 2022.

There has been a 30% increase in the number of emergency calls made to the force control room in the past year.

This month, police recorded the highest number of 999 calls made in any August in history with 10,800 calls — 400 more than the same time last year.

The improvement comes after Zoe Metcalfe, the Conservative North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner awarded the force control room £1.8 million a year to improve response times.

The money was earmarked to fund the appointment of 36 additional communications officers, 12 additional dispatchers, six established trainers and two additional police inspectors.

Superintendent Fee Willey, who heads up the force control room, said:

“In the control room we’ve changed our ways of working. We looked at all our processes to see what was stopping our people being efficient in their roles – what were they doing and how were they doing it. We stripped away anything that was not relevant or slowed them down.

“We found that our trained and highly-skilled call handlers were being restricted by the number and complexity of the forms that they needed to complete for every single call that they received.

“We kept any mandated question sets, but beyond that we gave the call handlers freedom to follow their own initiative, while still being able to refer to question sets if needed. This has resulted in a much speedier process to dispatch officers to incidents while still providing a succinct level of information to the attending officers.

“And the more efficient that the force control room is in performing its role, the quicker that officers can be dispatched to scene.”

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Harrogate district residents are being urged to tell police chiefs about their experiences of the non-emergency 101 and emergency 999 services.

It follows long-running concerns in the district about the length of time it takes to answer the calls.

The police contact survey opened on Wednesday and runs until June 26.

The survey, run by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, will inform police forces, the Home Office and local crime commissioners on any challenges around reporting to the police.

Participants answer questions testing their understanding of emergency and non-emergency reporting systems, as well as newly emerging ways of contacting the police, like web chat, online forms and messaging over social media.

Zoë Metcalfe

Zoë Metcalfe, the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said:

“Reporting to 101 and 999 remains a challenging area of business for police forces across the country. The needs of those making contact must be understood, and we must prioritise those most in need.

“I have expressed my concerns to the Chief Constable regarding poor call handling times. The Chief Constable and I are committed to significantly improving the customer contact experience and call handling times, and will monitor performance closely with the aim to improve the service as a priority. This will also include the call-waiting times for the non-emergency 101 service.”

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Ms Metcalfe’s predecessor, Philip Allott, was told by North Yorkshire county councillors last year that the non-emergency line was “not fit for purpose and it hasn’t been fit for purpose for the last eight years” and that “the phone just doesn’t get answered”.

Ms Metcalfe will discuss North Yorkshire’s force control room’s performance in her next public accountability meeting on Tuesday.

Members of the public can submit questions in advance of the meeting via email to info@northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk. They should include their name and address.

You can take part in the public contact survey here.