(a)

this report was the second that the OPCC had undertaken on the review of the 101 service;

(b)

since the last report 12 months ago, the situation had not improved – in fact it had deteriorated;

(c)

first pick up of calls remained strong and 999 calls were answered quickly, however there were still delays transferring calls to the Force Enquiry Centre (FEC), and the waiting time had now doubled from over 4 minutes to over 8 minutes in the last 12 months.  Over one in three callers now waited longer than 10 minutes for some form of resolution;

(d)

there were two main reasons for the current situation – a delay in the introduction of a technological solution, and the lack of focus on this issue;

(e)

the OPCC were the first to identify there was a problem and the PCC highlighted it to the Chief Constable, making it clear that he expected to see an immediate improvement, particularly in relation to the long waiting times and those callers who waited longer than 10 minutes;

(f)

new technology would not be implemented for six months, however the PCC had provided the sum of £250K so that other solutions could be provided to support this area;

(g)

the Chief Constable had established a ‘Gold Group’ to address this issue and meetings were held fortnightly.  A detailed action plan would be produced and would be monitored regularly and it was hoped that the position would soon improve;

(h)

the PCC would report back to the Panel on this issue before his end of office.

In response to questions, Members were advised that –

(i)

the OPCC recognised the unacceptable position of the 101 service.  The real improvement would happen with the introduction of new technology in six months’ time.  As an interim measure the additional money would be spent on extra staff to ensure that there were sufficient operators available at peak times;

(j)

an increasing number of people contacted the Police by e-mail; these were responded to promptly;

(k)

discussions were ongoing between the PCC and Chief Constable to establish what constituted a reasonable waiting time for callers;

(l)

a total of 182 operators worked within the control rooms at Exeter and Plymouth.

Following the presentation and discussion, the following observations were made –

(m)

the additional sum of £250K demonstrated a failure to influence the Chief Constable, and this extra cost would ultimately be passed on the taxpayer (Councillor Davey);

(n)

the importance of the correct processes, procedures and systems to be in place, in addition to new technology (Councillor Jordan);

(o)

the requirement for qualitatitive measures be put in place regarding customer feedback (Yvonne Atkinson).

Ross Jago (Performance and Research Officer) advised the Panel that it would be appropriate for an update on this issue in six months’ time.  It should remain an area of focus for the new PCC and an action plan should be made available in order that performance measures can be monitored.