Surrey Police has placed eighth in the ranking of the slowest call response times in the UK, according to a new study.

New research has revealed the police forces in the UK with the fastest and slowest call response times, with Lincolnshire Police landing at the top of the list and Bedfordshire ranking at the bottom.

Personal injury experts at Claims.co.uk gathered data on the average time it takes for a call to be transferred to each police force in the UK from March 2023 to February 2024; the mean answer time for each month was weighted to calculate the final average and determine the ranking.

A spokesperson from Claims.co.uk said: "The time it takes for the police to respond to a 999 call is crucial – the longer the caller waits, the higher the risk of harm and danger to the individual. While it's great to see that the average call response time for the top ranking forces is under ten seconds, those that rank at the bottom will likely be concerning to locals.”

Surrey Police has placed eighth in the ranking of the slowest call response times in the UK, according to a new study. Picture: Contributed

placeholder image — Surrey Police has placed eighth in the ranking of the slowest call response times in the UK, according to a new study. Picture: Contributed

"However, the slowest response times should not instigate doubt on the perseverance and effort of police forces throughout the UK, as it instead suggests that the bottom-ranking forces are understaffed; these areas perhaps need more funding so that they can offer as much support as possible to residents of their areas."