Fees for 101 police calls may be scrapped
Ministers say they will review charges, as phone firm bows to Telegraph campaign
VICTIMS of crime may soon no longer have to pay to telephone the police after the Home Office announced it would review the charge for 101 calls.
The move by Sajid Javid’s department came as Vodafone, one of Britain’s biggest telecoms companies, became the first to declare it would scrap the charge for 101 non-emergency calls for millions of its customers.
Vodafone will make 101 calls free for all of its seven million pay-as-you-go users from the end of this month, exempting them from the 15p flat-rate charge. The moves come after The Daily Telegraph revealed growing outrage over the fact that victims are having to pay to report offences.
Baroness Newlove, the Victims’ Commissioner, has led calls for the charge to be abolished, with the backing of MPS and charities.
The review could result in the taxpayer footing the cost of running the service, or may require the telecoms firms to pay for it, as is the case with the 999 emergency line. The charges generate £3.3 million a year, more than £550,000 of which currently goes to the Treasury in VAT. The service is supposed to be self-funding with no one making a profit.
Responding to the Vodafone announcement, a Home Office source said: “We welcome Vodafone’s decision and would encourage other mobile phone operators to follow their lead whilst we review charges for the non-emergency 101 line.”
Last night a spokesman for O2 suggested it would review the charges. Vodafone currently has the contract to run the service on behalf of the Home Office, police and other telecoms firms.
Baroness Newlove also welcomed the company’s move: “It’s a step in the right direction,” she said. “I very much hope other phone providers will quickly follow the Vodafone initiative.”
Tim Loughton, a former minister and senior member of the Home Affairs committee, said: “This is great news and shows what can be achieved when pressure is brought to bear by a newspaper and a disgruntled public bizarrely penalised for doing their duty as citizens.
“Vodafone is to be congratulated for taking the lead. We need to make it easier to contact the police and I hope in return they will respond more urgently and appropriately.”
An investigation by the Victims’ Commissioner found the 101 phone service was not only failing victims by leaving them waiting for up to 40 minutes, but victims were also being deterred from calling by the charge.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary warned that members of the public were losing confidence in the service and were increasingly turning to 999 to report minor offences and non-urgent incidents.
The number using 101 fell by 675,000 to 22million last year, while 999 calls rose by five per cent or 500,000.
A Vodafone spokesman said: “We have been looking to make improvements for customers. It was decided it would be beneficial for pay-as-you-go customers who tend to be more vulnerable to zero-rate the 101 service.”
In a victory for this newspaper, Vodafone has announced that it will no longer charge for 101 calls made on pay-as-you-go contracts – and the Home Office has said it will hold a review. This is an excellent start and we can tell Sajid Javid now what his department ought to conclude, namely that there is no reason why anyone on any contract with any company should have to pay to report a crime. At present these calls cost 15p and the Treasury takes 20 per cent VAT from them. By contrast, 111 calls for non-emergency health advice are free, as is a 105 call to report a power cut. So why should anyone be hit by a flat-rate fee for reporting a crime?
It is hard not to conclude that responsible citizens are being used as an income generator, which sends a terrible message, and it is not as if the service is always stellar. Last week Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary warned that there has been a sharp drop in 101 usage in England and Wales in the past year, while calls to 999, supposedly reserved for emergencies, are on the rise. No wonder: in some parts of the country, 101 users have been kept on hold for 40 minutes. Matt Parr, HM Inspector of Constabulary, said that these figures could indicate that people are “losing confidence” in the service.
One way to restore confidence would be to make it free. It is fashionable nowadays to talk of crime as taking the form of a contagion – in which case the 101 number, which is often used to report anti-social behaviour, could be a useful tool in fighting the disease in its early stages. The Home Office and companies should follow the logic of Vodafone’s action and ensure that 101 calls are free for everyone.