Twenty-seven per cent of emergency calls received last year on 112 remained unanswered with the vast majority of them hanging up before five seconds not giving the police the chance to respond.

Some 65 per cent of those who did give officers enough time to pick up the phone, got answered within 15 seconds, which is considered to be the police’s target response time, according to fresh figures.

On average, calls are answered within five seconds.

The statistics published by the police yesterday give a clearer picture of the situation than was previously available.

In 2009, The Sunday Times had exposed shortcomings in the service, prompting a doubling of the number of consoles (six) used by the police and investment in software that provides more compre-hensive data.

Part of the problem at the time – which even saw the European Commission consider disciplinary procedures for a while – was that the police could not have a thorough analysis of the statistics. They could not, for instance, say how many of the calls they failed to answer had hung up right after the call was made. With the new software, however, that sort of information is available.

A total of, 564,188 calls were received last year, sharply down when compared with the 932,253 received in 2008. Of these, 44 per cent were written off as consisting of 34,860 hoax calls, 47,313 wrong numbers, 9,072 informing the police of incidents that were already reported and 158,467 unattended calls.

The drop in the number of emergency calls is probably explained by a clampdown on the internal use of one of the emergency lines.

Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said Malta now compared “well” with other EU countries considering that only 1.9 per cent of calls were left unanswered after 15 seconds.

Although the number of hoax calls dropped, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said many people were still calling 112 accidentally, especially from their mobile phones. “It happened to me once too,” he admitted.

Police Commissioner John Rizzo said more sophisticated software would provide the police with even more knowledge about the calls received on 112.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said this sort of investment could be expected later on this year.

To mark 112 awareness day tomorrow, the police have printed a number of information leaflets, posters and bookmarks to continue making the public more aware of the service.

The 112 line is the EU-wide emergency number, so Maltese people can use this number in any member state.

2011 statistics

•Total number of calls: 564,188*

•Total number of answered calls: 411,050

•Answered before 15 seconds: 366,026

•Total number of unanswered calls: 150,104

•Unanswered calls after 15 ­seconds: 10,471

•Calls automatically redirected to Civil Protection Department: 3,065

•Hoax calls: 34,860

•Unattended calls: 158,467

•Average ringing time: 5 seconds