Group set up to monitor 999 emergency call service

Thursday 01 June 2023

A new committee has been set up to monitor and improve the quality of Jersey's 999 emergency call service line following a number of outages in recent years.

The Jersey Competition and Regulation Authority (JCRA), which is responsible for regulating telecoms, is behind the creation of the new 999 Liaison Committee.

Darryl Keen QFSM DL, former Chief Fire Officer, and former Chair of the UK's 999 Liaison Committee, has been appointed as Chair of the new group, which held its first meeting yesterday.

It comes after the JCRA slapped telecoms providers JT and Sure with major fines for 999 outages.

In April last year, JT was fined £90,000 by the JCRA for a network blackout that caused problems with island-wide broadband and the 999 service in July 2020.

Pictured: In April last year, JT was fined £90,000 by the JCRA for issues with the 999 service. 

In April 2021, just one year prior, both Sure and JT were fined a combined total of £810,000 by the JCRA for total of six failures to the 999 service between January and April 2020. 

The JCRA hopes that the new 999 Liaison Committee will improve the service, and bring the island into line with the UK, where such a committee has existed for more than 20 years, as COO Sarah Price explained.

"When we learned of the benefits and assurance the UK's long-established 999 Liaison Committee has provided regarding the UK's emergency call service, the Authority considered it right and appropriate for Jersey to benefit from the same," she said.

"We look forward to working with the Jersey committee to always ensure everyone in Jersey benefits from a reliable and high-standard emergency call service. It will also consider opportunities for the future development of Jersey's emergency call service to ensure Islanders are receiving the best service available."