The big 999 lottery

New concerns were raised today about the speed of police response to 999 calls.

The Metropolitan police force aims to respond to the emergency calls it deems most urgent within 12 minutes. But new figures show it misses the target in almost a third of cases.

And, in a dozen London boroughs, the proportion of calls responded to within the limit is worse - falling below the London average of 71per cent. However, response times appear significantly better in central London.

Paul Fawcett, of the Victim Support charity, said: "Police response to emergency calls often provides the first point of contact for victims of crime, and it is important that people's expectations are met. Response times impact on people's sense of safety."

The figures come in a report on response-time performance between April and November last year, being debated today by the Metropolitan Police Authority. It shows that the year before more than 72 per cent of calls were responded to within 12 minutes. The Met has suggested this is because a huge recruitment drive means a larger proportion of its officers are inexperienced probationers - a third now compared with a fifth last year.

Tory London Assembly member Tony Arbour said: "Londoners are paying more and more in their council tax for the police but it appears there is a postcode lottery for the quality of service."

Liberal Democrat Assembly member Lynne Featherstone, a member of the MPA response-time committee, said: "We need to find out why response times vary so greatly between different boroughs."

The report also shows that the number of 999 calls to police has risen from 1.7 million to 1.75 million. And it finds a fall from 78.5 per cent to 72.8 per cent in the number of people satisfied with police action in response to a 999 call. It reveals that the proportion of 999 calls answered within 15 seconds - another Met pledge - rose from 79.9 per cent to 84.9per cent, with more than 85 per cent of respondents satisfied with the time taken to answer their calls.

The Met grades all 999 calls it receives either as "immediate" - the most urgent calls that must be responded to within 12 minutes - or "soonest", calls it considers less urgent and that should be responded to within an hour.

A Yard spokesman said: "We are only measured by the percentage of calls responded to within 12 minutes. This does not give an accurate picture of where we respond to calls within a reasonable and realistic time scale."