What is 101?
Around 10 million 999 calls to the police were made in 2004, but an incredible 70% of these were not for genuine emergencies.
Not all problems need an emergency response, but many people call 999 because they don’t know what else to do. Although local councils and the police do currently provide non-emergency help lines, less than 30% of people we asked knew about them.
101 will make local communities safer places to live and work. The easily accessible, 24/7 service will provide action, advice and information to the public on community safety issues, greater coordination between local councils and police, better information about what problems are happening and where, and will improve the management of resources and services to the public.
The benefits of having a single number include:
- Enabling better access to certain non-emergency services by offering a simple, easy-to-remember, single point of contact, 101 provides direct access to non-emergency services, advice and information.
- Improved delivery of certain non-emergency services. 101 will provide better business intelligence and require public services to work together, joining up the delivery of non-emergency services and improving their service to the public.
- Increased confidence in public services, through easy access to high-quality advice and information and effective action on community safety.
- Improved 999 emergency services. Calling 101 for non-emergencies will take pressure off the emergency services, leading to a quicker response to genuine emergency calls and improvements to service. This is a long term benefit which will be achieved as awareness of the 101 service grows.