UK Home Office backs AI triage for 20 million annual 101 calls

TL;DR

• The UK Home Office is introducing an AI system to assess and redirect non-emergency police 101 calls intended for other services.
• The Home Office said the 101 service receives about 20 million calls a year, including around 4 million calls meant for other organisations.
• The system was co-developed by the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs’ Council with Vodafone Business, with £1.4 million in government funding.
• The Home Office said the system could save policing up to £8.5 million a year and is part of a wider £16.5 million police modernisation programme.

The UK Home Office is introducing an AI system for the non-emergency police 101 service to assess calls and redirect callers to the relevant agency without connecting them to a call handler.

According to the Home Office, the 101 service receives around 20 million calls per year in the UK, and about 20% of those calls, or 4 million, are intended for other services such as local councils. The new system is designed to remove those calls from police queues more quickly and also screen out deliberate nuisance calls. During a pilot, the system reportedly filtered calls about a missing umbrella and requests for a police lift.

The Home Office said the AI system could save policing up to £8.5 million each year. The service was co-developed by the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs’ Council in partnership with Vodafone Business as delivery partner, backed by £1.4 million in government investment.

The 101 triage system is part of a broader police reform programme with £16.5 million allocated to modernise how police and the public interact. The programme also includes AI tools to transcribe 999 and 101 calls and to link crime reports to identify patterns in demand.

Related questions

• How many calls does the UK police 101 service receive each year?
• How many 101 calls are intended for other organisations?
• Who developed the UK police 101 AI triage system?
• How much government funding supports the 101 AI project?
• What savings does the Home Office expect from the AI triage system?