Smith calls for national roll out of Non-emergency Number

27/12/07

Margaret Smith MSP has called on the Scottish Government to ease pressure on the emergency services by a national roll out of a non-emergency telephone number. 

In Wales they have been running a trial with a '010' non-emergency number, which in a survey received a 90% approval rating from callers.

Earlier this year, an Audit Scotland report revealed that almost 50 per cent of '999' calls were for non-emergencies and that most people didn’t know who to contact if their call was non-urgent.  At present only three police forces have a non-emergency number for people requiring police assistance.

Commenting, Mrs Smith said:

“The emergency services come under particular strain during the festive period.  This means that it is absolutely critical that police time is not wasted following up non-emergency '999' calls.

"Non emergency numbers have been proven to reduce pressure on the '999' emergency number by siphoning off non-urgent calls about noisy neighbours, rubbish in the street and graffiti. 

“However, as only three police forces in Scotland have a working non-emergency number, individuals often don’t know about the service or what number to call.

“A national, memorable, non-emergency number would help to solve the problem of non-urgent calls clogging up the '999' number and diverting valuable police resources.

“We must ensure that police resources are not wasted this Christmas.”