THE police force covering Gwent has been ranked as the best in the whole of the UK for call answering times.

According to October 2023 data listed on Police.uk has confirmed Gwent Police answered more than 90 per cent of their total emergency calls in under 10 seconds in October.

This comes after it was revealed earlier this year Gwent Police had answered only 75 per cent of 999 calls within the required 10-second timeframe, and 6.7 per cent took more than one minute.

New figures show that there has been a big improvement and Gwent Police has ranked in the top ten for highest percentage of calls answered.

The figures show Gwent Police answered 7,151 calls - 90.6 per cent of all calls - within 10 seconds.  

Top 10 police forces that answered calls in under 10 seconds in Oct 2023

South Wales Argus:

Superintendent John Davies, the head of force contact and control (FCC), said: “It is undoubtedly a great achievement for us as a department, and for Gwent Police, that we’ve achieved the highest percentage of emergency calls answered in under 10 seconds of all the police services in the UK for September and October.

 

“Our percentage of 90.6 per cent in October is the first time that a UK police service has exceeded the 90 per cent target since April of last year, so this is great news for us as a service.

To compare with last year's figures, Argus has added these percentage figures into the table below. 

South Wales Argus: Calls answered by Gwent Police in various times (%)Calls answered by Gwent Police in various times (%) (Image: Ruby Qaimkhani, Newsquest)

This data has been put into the charts below as well, to show the difference.

When the Argus asked what helped Gwent Police achieve this, Spt Davies said: “The key to this success is the support and supervision to the team and this has been vital for us to achieve these results.

“As the head of this department, I am incredibly proud of this achievement, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the team for their excellent work.

“It is due to their dedication and effort to provide the best possible service to the public when they need us most which has resulted in these figures".

When the police force was questioned on how they intend to keep it going, Superintendent Davies had this to say:

"We never stop looking for ways to learn, improve and develop the service that we provide. We’ve set ourselves high standards and it is up to us all to continue these levels performance against the backdrop of an unprecedented level of demand”.

**While the national reporting for 999 calls is based on the data provided by BT, Gwent Police’s own performance data may differ to these figures by a few seconds.