WA Parliamentary Question on Notice regarding DFES triple zero call taking statistics, staffing levels, and call answering times. The response provides some data but cites limitations in data availability and resource constraints for some requests.

AnsweredQoN 1119Legislative Council
Asked
17 November 2022
Portfolio
Emergency Services

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to question without notice 1116 answered on 16 November 2022 in relation to triple zero call taking, and I ask: (a) how many triple zero call takers are employed, by full time employee (FTE) by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES); (b) how many vacancies exist (by FTE) for triple zero call takers in DFES; (c) of the 33,151 triple zero calls answered in 2021-22, what proportion were answered within: (i) 0-5 seconds; (ii) 5-10 seconds; (iii) 10-15 seconds; (iv) 15-20 seconds; and (v) More than 20 seconds; (d) in 2021-22, how many triple zero calls went unanswered; (e) in 2021-22, how many calls were diverted to other call centres and for what reason did these diversions occur; (f) for each of the past five financial years to and including 2020-21: (i) how many triple zero calls were received; (ii) how many triple zero calls were not answered; and (iii) of the calls that were answered, how many were answered within: (A) 0-5 seconds; (B) 5-10 seconds; (C) 10-15 seconds; (D) 15-20 seconds; and (E) more than 20 seconds; (g) for each of the last six financial years to and including 2021-22: (i) what was the authorised strength (by FTE) of triple zero call takers?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
14 February 2023
Responded by
Minister for Emergency Services
Response time
7 days
(a) Thirty-Five (35) FTE.
(b) Two (2) FTE vacancies as at 17 th November 2022.
(c) (i - iv) Telstra advise that this information is not available within Telstra systems.
(c) (v) Of the 33,151 calls, 6.8 per cent (2,286 calls) were answered after more than 20 seconds.
(d) No Triple Zero calls went unanswered.
(e) Telstra advise that they do not have the resources to complete this task.
(f) (i)-(ii)
Year
Calls Received
Calls Unanswered
2016-17
34,687
850
2017-18
30,979
392
2018-19
32,566
354
2019-20
35,156
954
2020-21
30,839
604
(iii)  The Department of Fire and Emergency Services advise that significant resources would be required to manually prepare, collate and examine this data. As such, it is not considered a reasonable or appropriate use of Government resources to compile this information. If the Member has a more specific question about the matter, I will endeavour to answer it.
(g)(i) 35 FTEs for each of the last six financial years.

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