Today's leading story is the Home Secretary's announcement that call charges to the 101 non-emergency police number will be scrapped.
101 call charges to be scrapped
Non-emergency police call charges are to be scrapped, the Telegraph reports in a page two exclusive this morning.
The 15p charge to call 101 will be abolished, with the Home Office making £5 million available to fund the 32 million calls that the line receives every year.
Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove called the announcement “great news” and told the paper she was “glad the Home Office had listened”.
The Telegraph story also carried details of new funding, agreed by the Home Secretary, for a centralised online policing hub where people can report crimes and track investigations online.
The Today programme followed up on the story in this morning’s bulletins with the BBC’s website also carrying the news.
The Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:
It’s vital members of public have confidence in the police and are able to report any non-emergency incidents in a convenient and accessible way.
Scrapping the charge for making a 101 call will benefit millions of people every year - especially the vulnerable.
We are also continuing to work with the police to develop a new website, the Single Online Home, to provide the public with the option of reporting crime online.