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<p>Police forces are operationally independent and the handling of 101 calls is a
matter for them. It is for Chief Constables and elected Police and Crime Commissioners
or Mayors to decide how to handle communications with the public, based on their experience
and knowledge of the communities they serve.</p><p>However, the Home Office is clear
that any call to the 101 number should be answered in a timely manner, and after providing
details of the incident the caller should be given a crime reference number to track
progress or request an update from the police on the case. In its Beating Crime Plan
the Government committed to improving the responsiveness of local police to 101 and
999 calls by developing league tables for call answering times and ensuring that the
public know how responsive their local force is when they call them for help.</p><p>On
31 May we published national data on answering times to 999 calls and later this year
we are planning to publish performance data for all forces showing responsiveness
to 101 calls.</p><p>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.</p><p>This
includes £14m in funding to the NPCC’s Digital Public Contact Programme to support
delivery of the Single Online Home national policing digital platform. This provides
a digital 101 service, an online facility to make it easier for victims of ASB to
report incidents.</p>
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