- The 999 telephone service was launched in London in July 1937.
- It spread to Glasgow in 1938 and was introduced
in most large towns by 1948.
- On the continent the emergency telephone number is 112 but
dialling this number in the UK will still get you
through to the emergency services.
- Although many mobile phones have a facility to lock
the keyboard to prevent accidental calls, this is
often overridden if the number dialled is 999.
- Examples of frivolous telephone calls to police include a
woman reporting a cat "intruding" into her
house, a man trying to find the nearest Chinese takeaway
and another asking if his lost £20 note had been
handed in.
BT today unveiled a new telephone service to help Police,
Fire and Ambulance authorities reduce response times
to emergency incidents.
Currently, telephone call information is passed orally to the
emergency authority; the BT operator passes on the caller’s
telephone number, but the caller is required to give
details of the location.
The new telephone information service, however, will allow details
of both the calling number and the address from which
a 999 telephone call has been made to be transferred automatically
to the emergency authority operator’s screen. This
enhancement prevents misunderstandings caused by uncertainty
over the precise location, unusual spellings, panic,
local accents or language difficulties, and improves
call handling and vehicle despatch times by an average
of 30 seconds.
Extensive trials of the enhanced telephone information service
have been carried out with the West Midlands Ambulance
NHS Trust.
Barry Johns, Chief Executive of the West Midlands
Ambulance Service (WMAS) said: "We are delighted
to have been involved in the trials of this new BT technology.
Where speed of response is essential, the ability to
save vital seconds represents a real enhancement in
the quality of service delivered to the public.
"Using the technological capability of WMAS and
BT, the new facility will ensure improved service to
life threatening incidents."
The enhanced telephone service was demonstrated at a conference
held today in London for all the emergency authorities
and representatives of the Home Office, and included
a live video link to the West Midlands Ambulance control
room.
Home Office Minister George Howarth welcomed the initiative
and said: "I am pleased to be part of the launch
of BT’s enhanced telephone information service for emergency
calls.
"Delivering public services in a more efficient
and effective way is central to the Government’s
‘Best Value’ approach. BT’s new service
will be a valuable resource in assisting the emergency
services to handle 999 telephone calls more effectively and provide
a quicker response to incidents.
"I am also particularly pleased to see that the
service will help identify hoax callers more quickly.
Malicious calls pose a serious risk to life and waste
valuable resources. The Government fully appreciates
the commitment of BT to reducing this menace."
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. BT is not making a charge for the enhanced information
service, which can be offered to any emergency control
room with suitable software and communication links.
2. The enhanced telephone information service is fully compliant
with the Data Protection Act. It is restricted to designated
lines that are password protected and carry a full audit
trail. Access is to a holding database which only carries
details relating to numbers from which an emergency
call has been placed; the information is removed automatically
10 minutes after the time of the call.
3. Calls made from mobile phones will be dealt with
as at present. The operator will have the calling number
and a zone code that identifies the approximate location,
but the emergency authority concerned will need to establish
the details directly from the caller.
4. Details of a line from which a 999 telephone call has been
made will continue, as at present, to be passed to the
appropriate emergency authority whether or not the number
has been withheld. This enables a swift response to
a potentially life-threatening incident where the caller
may be under threat or unable to speak following a collapse,
and also reduces the number of ineffective calls to
999 by ensuring that hoaxers are readily identified.
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