Today's Home Office related coverage includes previews of the Prime Minister's speech on tackling terrorist content on the internet, and a rise in 999 calls.
Terrorist content online
There is widespread coverage of the Prime Minister's visit to America where she will be co-hosting a meeting at the United National General Assembly regarding terrorists' use of the internet. Outlets including the BBC, Telegraph and Independent report she will use the summit to urge technology companies to do more to rid the internet of hateful propaganda, and ask them to develop technological solutions to prevent the content going online. Media report she will urge other leaders to join forces with the UK to battle online extremism.
The Prime Minister will be speaking later today (Wednesday, 20 September). A press release previewing the Prime Minister's speech can be found here.
999 calls
The Telegraph and Mail report that Freedom of Information figures reveal that the number of 999 call rose by 15% in the 12 months up to June 2017 and abandoned calls rose from 8,000 to 16,300.
The papers quote Calum Macloed from the Police Federation, who said that because police are less visible and there is more public anxiety people are more likely to ring 999.
A Home Office response can be found below.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
Every person contacting 999 and 101 deserves a good service from the police and their calls to be handled within a reasonable time. We expect the crimes reported to them to be taken seriously, investigated thoroughly and, wherever possible, the perpetrators brought to justice.
That is one of the reasons why this Government has protected overall police spending in real terms in a fair funding deal. We are sensitive to the pressures the police face and so we have begun a programme of engagement with the police to better understand the demands they face, and how these can best be managed.