A tenth of all 999 calls to Greater Manchester Police take more than a minute to be answered, according to new data published by the Home Office. Only one police force in the UK is currently meeting a target to answer 90 per cent of 999 calls in under 10 seconds, the statistics show.
The figures reveal GMP, which as one of the UK's largest forces would get more calls than the majority of other forces, isn't meeting the target - with 69 per cent of calls picked up in under 10 seconds, according to the figures. The force's average answering time is 24 seconds.
The percentage of calls answered between 10 and 60 seconds stands at 19 per cent, with the percentage of calls answered after 60 seconds 12 percent, equating to just over one tenth of all 999 calls the force receives. GMP bosses said, in response, 'several million pounds' has been invested into new leadership, the recruitment of 'hundreds' of additional call handlers and technology for the force's contact centre.
