NEW data has revealed a 10 per cent increase in the number of 999 calls answered by South Wales Police in less than 10 seconds - but the force is still falling behind target.

Data on answering times for 999 calls across the UK – reflecting October 2023 – has been published and shows an improvement for South Wales Police when compared to the previous month (September 2023).

Call answering time is the time taken for a call to be transferred from BT to a force, and the time taken by that force to answer the call.

Forces in Wales, England, and Northern Ireland aim to answer 90 per cent of 999 calls within 10 seconds – in October 2023 South Wales Police answered 84.8 per cent of calls in less than 10 seconds.

This reflects a total of 19,593 calls during that time – with 16,607 of these answered within 10 seconds according to police data.

While 84.8 per cent is below the 90 per cent aim it shows improvement for South Wales Police when compared to September 2023. According to police data, during September there were 21,641 emergency calls made to South Wales Police with 16,109 answered within 10 seconds – equating to 74.4 per cent.

The only police force among this data to have surpassed the 90 per cent target is Gwent Police – during October 2023 this force answered 90.6 per cent of 999 calls within 10 seconds (7,151 calls out of a total of 7,895).

South Wales Police had a higher percentage of 999 calls answered during October 2023 when compared to the other two Welsh police forces – North Wales Police placed third with 82.8 per cent answered within 10 seconds, while Dyfed-Powys Police answered 81.9 per cent within 10 seconds.

This data has also revealed that – of the four Welsh police forces – South Wales Police had the highest number of 999 calls for October 2023.

As previously mentioned, South Wales Police has 19,593 999 calls within that month while North Wales Police has 9,403. Gwent Police had 7,157 emergency calls for October 2023 while Dyfed-Powys Police had 5,517 calls during that time.

Finally, according to police data for October 2023, South Wales Police took more than one minute to answer 1.8 per cent of emergency calls (362 of the 19,593 made). This shows another increase – as 4.7 per cent of emergency calls to South Wales Police were answered within 60 seconds or more the previous month (September 2023).