On Sunday morning, and seemingly due to a technical fault, emergency services across the country reported that 999 calls were failing to connect. According to The Guardian, the issue was confirmed shortly after 8.30am, but by 9.52am, BT — which manages the 999 phone system — said that its back-up platform was “now working.”

Ofcom’s rules require BT and other providers to take all necessary steps to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations as part of any call services offered. Further, they require providers to take all necessary measures to ensure the fullest availability of calls and internet in events such as network breakdown.

“Our investigation will seek to establish the facts surrounding the incident and examine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that BT has failed to comply with its regulatory obligations,” the regulator said in a statement.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was one of the Scottish emergency services that shared alerts on Sunday, saying that “The National 999 system is experiencing technical issues” and that “many calls are not connecting,” redirecting callers to control room staff instead.

This was before they issued a later update, advising callers to “Please call 999 in the event of an emergency” as normal.

The Scottish Government took to social media on Sunday to also provide guidance, in one post stating that “There is a technical issue with the 999 call system which may cause some delays,” before later saying that “The technical issue affecting 999 calls in some areas across the UK has now been resolved” and that “Systems are working as normal and people should dial 999 in an emergency.”

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The following Monday, 26 June, Viscount Camrose — the Parliamentary Under-secretary of State for the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) — shared in the House of Lords that the now-resolved issue with the 999 call system was reported to the UK Government at 9.20am on the Sunday.

Further, he said that in addition to Ofcom’s investigation, BT is also performing its own internal investigation.

According to The Guardian, a BT spokesperson has said that the telecoms company is nearing the end of its internal investigation and will share the findings with the government, Ofcom, and emergency services on Thursday.