FOI 268481

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 268481

 

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 3^rd August 2023.  Please find below the response to your request:

 

I write, under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, to request the number of 999 calls where responses exceeded your internal response time targets, between July 2022 and July 2023.

 

As part of this request, I would like the information to be broken down into the following:

 

1. i) The number of 999 calls received between July 2022 and July 2023, broken down into months, and a grand total;

 

1. ii) Out of these 999 calls, how many were flagged as no unit/resource available, and how many were not attended within 15 minutes

 

iii) Your incident response time targets, and how many times these targets were missed during the above time frame;

 

1. iv) The average time for a 999 call to be attended;

 

1. v) The longest period of time for a 999 call to be attended.

 

Reply

 

Your request for information has been considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), and I am not obliged to provide the information requested.

 

S.12(1) of the Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”.  For police forces in England and Wales, the "appropriate limit" is £450 or 18 hours of work as set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

 

The information you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. With regards to the data for Longest Response Time for a 999 call, unfortunately we will not be able to provide this data. This information is not held in a format which is either easily retrievable or even accurate. There are a number of 999 calls on our system where the arrival time was not recorded formally on our system at the appropriate time – due to either operational issues or handler error. This means there is data quality issues in respect of the data we hold in respect of the longest response time by category. In order to identify the exact longest response time by category, it would be necessary to look through each call log and try and identify the true arrival time of officers in each instance, in order to identify the records that meet your criteria.  In order to ascertain whether the information you have requested is held would take in excess of 18 hours as each record would have to be checked individually.

 

In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.

 

Under s.16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request.

 

However, In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide the information requested for questions 1-4 as this was retrieved during our initial research. This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests

 

 

1. The number of 999 calls received between July 2022 and July 2023, broken down into months, and a grand total;

Jul-22	17286
Aug-22	16139
Sep-22	15708
Oct-22	16278
Nov-22	14781
Dec-22	14889
Jan-23	14440
Feb-23	13030
Mar-23	15238
Apr-23	15810
May-23	19384
Jun-23	21372
Jul-23	17949
Grand Total	212304

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. ii) Out of these 999 calls, how many were flagged as no unit/resource available, and how many were not attended within 15 minutes

 

It is not possible to determine whether there is no unit/resource available to attend a call closed as a result. A unit will attend all calls as soon as possible and when a unit is available to attend.
West Mercia Force data is setup to show how many incidents were attended within target and this data is show below.
	Jul-22	Aug-22	Sep-22	Oct-22	Nov-22	Dec-22	Jan-23	Feb-23	Mar-23	Apr-23	May-23	Jun-23
Percentage of Priority 1 incidents with 999 call origin attended within target	75%	71%	75%	75%	74%	73%	75%	75%	75%	78%	77%	75%

 

• Your incident response time targets, and how many times these targets were missed during the above time frame;

 

Target response time

Missed target incidents

Priority 1 incidents with 999 call origin

15 minutes*

See above

* National Contact Management Strategy (NCMS) advises against specific response time targets and West Mercia have complied with that directive. Our nominal target for Priority 1 calls is 15 minutes.

 

 

1. The average time for a 999 call to be attended;

 

Jul-22

Aug-22

Sep-22

Oct-22

Nov-22

Dec-22

Jan-23

Feb-23

Mar-23

Apr-23

May-23

Jun-23

Median response time of a P1 incident with 999 call origin

0:13:08

0:13:36

0:13:07

0:12:48

0:13:19

0:13:20

0:13:04

0:12:54

0:12:52

0:12:11

0:12:19

0:12:58

 

 

The following assumption has been made: The requester has asked for 999 calls only but has assumed that all 999 calls are given a Priority 1 grading with the quickest response time. This is not the case and a call is given the most appropriate grading regardless of how it has entered the Force. A call could have been from a 999 origin but after triage and reviewing of the call it may be subsequently graded as P2 if appropriate. Similarly, a called could have an origin of 101 but due to the seriousness of the call can be graded a P1. I have assumed the requested would like P1 graded calls that have an origin of 999.