Overview

• Durham Constabulary answered over 310,000 non-emergency 101 calls between April 2024 and March 2025 at a six-second median wait after a £1.5m investment in telephony platforms and extra call handlers.
• Wiltshire Police cut its average 101 wait time from 53 seconds to five seconds through dynamic staffing, enhanced training and daily performance oversight.
• Cumbria Constabulary maintains a three-second wait for 101 calls—among the fastest nationally—supported by online reporting options and a £1.68m Home Office funding boost.
• Durham and Wiltshire now answer over 90% of 999 emergency calls within ten seconds, consistently meeting or exceeding the national performance target.
• Forces have rolled out automated victim update systems and web portals to provide real-time case tracking and streamline non-emergency reporting.