Technical fault caused Police Scotland to lose recordings of non-emergency calls

Police Scotland has confirmed it has lost a “quantity” of recordings of phone calls made to the non-emergency 101 phone number.

The BBC has reported up to 100,000 archived recordings were lost as a result of a technical fault in the force’s call recording system, which was discovered in February 2025.

Police said the fault was “quickly rectified” and it had not affected the ability to answer 101 calls.

The force also stressed that at no point was the emergency 999 call line affected.

The Police Scotland website says the 101 number is to enable people to speak to the police in non-emergency situations.

This includes, it says, to speak to a local police officer or to report a crime that does not need an emergency response, such as a stolen car, damage to a property, or a minor traffic collision.

Superintendent Gordon Fotheringham said: “In February 2025, a technical fault was discovered on the archived 101 non-emergency call recording platform meaning a quantity of 101 call recordings were unable to be retrieved.

“The fault was quickly rectified and did not impact the ability to answer 101 calls. It did not affect the emergency 999 call line at any time.

“Upon further investigation, it was confirmed that while the archiving of the 101 calls did not take place, the call data was still available.

“A new recording system has since been implemented that mitigates the risk of any future technical faults and enhance resilience in our telephony structure.”