Calling the Police 101 Single Non-Emergency Number - From 1 April 2020 this is always a free call.

Ian011

From 1 April 2020, calling the police single non-emergency number (snen) on 101 is now a free call from all landlines and from all mobiles. This applies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Previously, callers usually paid 15p per call with this revenue flowing to the telecoms provider that routed the call onwards to the correct police force. A small number of phone providers had waived the 15p fee for certain of their callers. 

The Home Office has now found an extra £7 million per year to fully fund the call-forwarding aspect of the service, as announced in May 2019. As before, the police also pay a per minute rate for each call they receive.

Note: 101 is not available in the Channel Islands or Isle of Man.


See also
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/general-public-should-not-have-to-pay-for-101-non-emergency-calls-from-tomorrow

Ian011

For those who are unable to call 101 (such as when needing to call from abroad) most police forces also have an ordinary geographic 01 or 02 number or a non-geographic 03 number.

The police no longer publish a list of those numbers but there is a copy of the original list archived here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20171002180022/https://www.police.uk/contact/#alternative-numbers