THE Police and Crime Commissioner wants answers as to why the 999 service went down this morning.
Although the outage didn’t last long, emergency services had to ask anyone needing urgent assistance to call the non-urgent number of 101 instead. And people needing to report a non-urgent matter were asked to use online reporting facilities.
BT said the issue was caused by a technical fault and a back-up system was in place while they worked to get the system restored.
Problems were first reported at 8.30am on Sunday, June 25, with Thames Valley Police reporting their issues were resolved by 10am, but Essex Fire Service, South Wales Police, the PSNI, and Police Scotland still had problems at lunchtime.
A government spokesperson said: “We are aware of a technical issue with the 999 call system today. A full investigation is underway to resolve this as quickly as possible.
“BT’s back-up system for emergency calls is running and members of the public with genuine emergencies should continue to call 999 or 112 in the normal way.
“You should be able to connect when calling 999 or 112, but if you still have difficulties connecting you may contact 101 for police and fire and rescue services, or 111 for health.”
Thames Valley Police thanked people for their patience while the national issue was resolved.
But this is not enough for Matthew Barber, the Thames Valley PCC.
In a tweet, he wrote: “The fact that the impact of this outage could have been much worse is no excuse for @bt_uk. As a provider of the UK’s critical national infrastructure they need to demonstrate greater resilience.
“@ThamesVP has already contacted BT about failing earlier this year. I will be asking for a full explanation of events this weekend and mitigation to safeguard the public in the future.”
