Temporary Fault: In an emergency do not call 999: Affecting a number of police forces

[6Foot2]

Link: https://twitter.com/DC_Police/status/1672878001682366465 [Devon and Cornwall Police Text Tweet]

 

 

Edit:

 

Edited June 25, 2023 by 6Foot2

[6Foot2]

Link: 999 calls: Police and fire services hit by technical glitch - BBC News

 

Many 999 calls are not connecting due to a technical fault affecting a number of police forces, the Metropolitan Police said.

 

It has urged people to call 101 in an emergency until further notice.

 

The public are being advised to save non-emergency calls for later.

 

Scottish Fire and Rescue, Police Scotland, West Midlands Police, Devon and Cornwall Police, Norfolk Police and South Yorkshire Police are also experiencing 999 issues.

 

Problems with the service emerged at about 09:00 BST on Sunday.

 

BT runs the 999 number for emergency services and is responsible for answering and directing calls.

 

The Met Police said it was not aware of the problem being due to hacking.

 

A BT spokesperson told the BBC that the situation was "fast-moving as we fix the problem".

 

At about 10:00 BST on Sunday some emergency services said emergency call services were being restored.

 

BT said 999 calls could now be taken following the earlier fault.

 

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service said services were "now being resumed so in an emergency please dial 999 in the first instance".

 

Suffolk Police warned that the "system may not be working to full capacity so please only call 999 in an emergency".

 

Emergency services experiencing technical problems include:

 

• Avon and Somerset Police
  
• Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service
  
• Cumbria Police
  
• Derbyshire Police
  
• East England Ambulance Service
  
• Essex Fire Service
  
• Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Services
  
• Gloucestershire Fire Service
  
• Gloucestershire CC
  
• Kent Police
  
• London Ambulance Service
  
• North West Ambulance Service
  
• North Yorkshire Police
  
• Northumbria Police
  
• South Wales Police Cardiff
  
• Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service
  
• West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
  
• West Midlands Ambulance Service
  
• West Midlands Police
  
• Wiltshire Police
  
• Yorkshire Ambulance

[FN-GM]

First time I have seen something like this.

 

I’m interested to know how this issue isn’t specific to a geographic area? For example the issue impacts Cheshire policy but not the neighbouring Greater Manchester Police, but it does impact London?

[6Foot2]

Link:

[Thames Valley Police Text Tweet]

 

**UPDATE**

 

The nationwide issue affecting 999 calls has now been resolved.

 

In an emergency, people should now revert back to calling 999, and 101 for non-emergency incidents.

 

Thank you for your patience throughout this.

[MatthewL]

All 999 users were affected, Fire, Police, Ambulance & Coastguard wasn't just limted to an area but the whole UK.

 

I believe other parts of the BT network have been affected as I tried to make some calls to landlines which had difficulty in connecting, unknown if related and nothing has been mentioned yet.

 

There are a handful of call handeling centres that take the 999 calls before passing over to the relevant service up and down the UK. Will be interesting to see what went wrong as although its up its on a backup system. I know some of the services used which can pass your location over are not up and working properly so some sort of failure.

 

It is known for 999 lines to fail in small areas regularly but for UK wide it has happened before but long time ago.

[DalekSec]

Affecting a number of police forces

 

We're actually supposed to call it the service now. Official vocab guidelines state that force is too aggressive.