101, 111, 105 and 999: which UK number to call and when

The UK has a small family of three-digit service numbers — 999, 101, 111, 105 and a few others — and knowing which to call in a given situation saves time, frees up emergency lines for genuine emergencies, and gets you to the right help faster. The headline rule is simple: 999 (or 112) is for emergencies, 101 is the police non-emergency line, 111 is the NHS non-emergency line, and 105 is for power cuts. But the detail matters, because calling the wrong one can delay help or tie up a line someone else urgently needs. This guide explains exactly what each number is for, when to use it, what it costs (almost all are free), and the other short numbers — like 999, 112, 18000 and 159 — that are worth having in your mental toolkit.

#999 (and 112): the emergency number

999 is the UK's emergency number, and 112 works identically — it is the Europe-wide emergency number and reaches exactly the same operators in the UK, so you can dial either. Call 999 or 112 when there is an immediate threat to life or property, a crime in progress, someone is seriously injured or in danger, there is a fire, or you need an ambulance for a life-threatening medical emergency. When you call, an operator asks which service you need — police, ambulance, fire or coastguard — and connects you. The call is free from any phone, including mobiles with no credit and even, in many cases, a phone with no SIM for genuine emergencies.

Because 999 lines must stay clear for true emergencies, it is important not to use them for things that are not urgent — a noise complaint, a crime that happened days ago, or a general enquiry should go to 101, not 999. A useful test: if someone is in danger, a crime is happening right now, or a delay would make things significantly worse, call 999. If not, one of the non-emergency numbers below is the right choice. There is also a silent solution for situations where you cannot safely speak: after dialling 999, if you cannot talk, you can be prompted to press 55 (from a mobile) to let the operator know it is a genuine emergency, which helps in cases such as domestic abuse where speaking aloud is dangerous.

#101: the police non-emergency number

101 is the number for contacting the police when it is not an emergency. Use it to report a crime that is not still happening (for example a burglary discovered after the fact, or criminal damage you have just found), to give the police information about a crime or a suspect, to report a non-urgent incident, or to make a general enquiry to your local force. The principle is that 101 handles everything that needs the police but does not require an immediate, blue-light response — keeping those situations off the 999 lines. Calls to 101 are free across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

It is worth being clear about the dividing line, because people often hesitate. Call 999 if a crime is in progress, a suspect is nearby, someone is in immediate danger, or there is a serious risk to life or property. Call 101 if the incident is over and there is no immediate danger, you are reporting something after the event, or you simply need to speak to the police about a non-urgent matter. Many forces also offer online reporting through their official websites for non-emergencies, which can be quicker than waiting on the phone, and some have specific online tools for things like reporting a lost item or providing information about an ongoing investigation. If you are dealing with nuisance or scam calls specifically, note that those are usually reported to other bodies rather than 101 — our report a scam call guide explains exactly where to send them.

#111: the NHS non-emergency number

111 is the NHS non-emergency number, used across England, Scotland and Wales to get urgent health advice and help when the situation is not a life-threatening emergency. Call 111 when you need medical help fast but it is not a 999 situation — for example, you are unsure whether you need to go to A&E, you need urgent advice out of hours, you think you need to see a GP but cannot wait for a routine appointment, or you do not know which service is right for your symptoms. Trained advisers (and clinicians) assess what you need and can direct you to the right place: self-care advice, an urgent GP or out-of-hours appointment, a pharmacy, an urgent treatment centre, or — if it turns out to be serious — they can arrange an ambulance. In England you can also use 111 online for many issues. Calls to 111 are free.

The key distinction mirrors the police one. Call 999 for medical emergencies: someone is unconscious or not breathing, has chest pain that could be a heart attack, is having a stroke, is bleeding heavily, has a severe allergic reaction, or is in another immediately life-threatening situation. Call 111 when you need urgent help or reassurance but life is not at immediate risk — it is the route that stops people either sitting on a serious problem or, at the other extreme, going to A&E for something that could be handled faster elsewhere. Used well, 111 gets you to exactly the right level of care without clogging emergency services, and it is available 24 hours a day, every day.

#105: the power cut number

105 is the free number to call if you have a power cut, or if you spot damage to electricity power lines or substations that could put someone in danger. It connects you to your local electricity network operator — the company that runs the cables and infrastructure in your area, which is not the same as the supplier you pay your bill to. That distinction trips people up: when the lights go out, many instinctively want to call their energy supplier, but for a power cut you want the network operator, and 105 routes you to the right one automatically based on your location, so you do not need to know who that is. It works from most landlines and mobiles across England, Scotland and Wales, and the call is free.

Use 105 to report a power cut, to get information about a power cut already affecting your area (including estimated restoration times), and to report a safety risk such as a fallen power line or damaged electrical equipment — though if someone is in immediate danger from fallen lines, that is a 999 situation. 105 is genuinely useful precisely because it removes the 'who do I even call?' problem during an outage, when you may have no internet and be working by torchlight. It is worth saving in your phone alongside 999, 101 and 111 so that, in a power cut, you are not trying to look up your network operator's number on a phone whose battery you are trying to preserve.

#A quick comparison

Keeping this picture in your head — emergency vs non-emergency, police vs health vs power — is most of what you need. The rest is detail you can look up calmly when it is not urgent.

#Other short numbers worth knowing

Beyond the headline four, a few other short numbers are genuinely useful. 159 connects you securely to your bank — it is a 'safe' number, backed by major UK banks and set up specifically so that, if you receive a suspicious call claiming to be from your bank, you can hang up and dial 159 to reach the real fraud team without hunting for a number a scammer might have given you. It is the phone equivalent of typing a web address yourself instead of clicking a link. 18000 is the emergency number for British Sign Language users and people who are deaf or have a speech impairment, connecting via text relay, and 18001 followed by a number routes ordinary calls through the relay service. 101 and 111 also have textphone and relay options for accessibility.

It is also worth knowing what these short numbers are not. They are not directory enquiries (that is the premium 118 range, which is expensive and rarely necessary — see our 118 directory enquiries guide for the cheaper alternatives), and they are not premium-rate numbers. The genuine three-digit public-service numbers are free or standard-rate and tightly controlled, which is exactly why scammers cannot simply mimic '999' or '111' to charge you — though they can, of course, spoof ordinary numbers to *pretend* to be these services, which is a different problem. If a call claims to be 'the police' or 'the NHS' and something feels off, the same rule applies as for any caller: hang up and contact the service yourself on its official number. Our who called me guide explains how to verify any caller, and you can always look a number up to check it.

#When people mix them up: common scenarios

A few real-world situations show how the choice plays out. You come home to find your shed has been broken into overnight and the burglar is long gone. No one is in danger and the crime is not in progress, so this is 101 (or online reporting), not 999. You see someone trying to force a window right now. A crime is in progress and there is immediate risk, so this is 999. Your child has a high temperature and you are not sure whether to worry. Not life-threatening, so 111 for advice — which may reassure you, send you to a pharmacy, or arrange an urgent appointment. Your power suddenly goes off and the whole street is dark. Likely a network fault, so 105 to report it and get an update. You get a call claiming to be your bank's fraud team and it feels suspicious. Hang up and dial 159 to reach your real bank — never act on the inbound call.

The thread running through all of these is the same question: is anyone in immediate danger, or is a crime happening right now? If yes, it is 999. If not, match the situation to the right non-emergency line — police to 101, health to 111, power to 105, bank-fraud worry to 159. Getting this right is not about memorising rules so much as pausing for a second to ask that one question, which almost always points you to the correct number. And if you genuinely are not sure whether a medical situation is an emergency, 111 advisers are trained to escalate to an ambulance if needed, so calling 111 is a safe default when life does not appear to be at immediate risk but you are worried.

#What these numbers cost and why it matters

Almost all of the UK's public-service three-digit numbers — 999, 112, 101, 111, 105 and 18000/18001 — are free to call, by design, because the whole point is that no one should ever hesitate to reach emergency or urgent help over cost. This is in deliberate contrast to premium services, and it is worth understanding the difference so you are never confused into thinking a genuine help line might charge you. The premium ranges to be aware of are 09 numbers (premium rate, often very expensive), 118 directory enquiries (premium, capped but still pricey), and 070 'personal numbers' that look like mobiles but can cost far more than a normal call. None of the emergency or non-emergency public numbers fall into these categories.

Why does this matter? Because scammers sometimes try to exploit confusion about numbers and costs — for example by advertising a premium 'helpline' for a service you would expect to be free, or by sending texts urging you to call an unfamiliar number about an 'urgent' matter. Knowing that the real public-service numbers are short, memorable and free is a useful baseline: if something purporting to be an official emergency or government service is pushing you toward a long, unfamiliar or premium-looking number, treat it with suspicion and verify independently. Our UK area codes explained guide sets out how the different number ranges and their costs work, which makes spotting an out-of-place 'official' number much easier.

#Scammers who pretend to be 999, the police or the NHS

Although the genuine three-digit numbers cannot be charged for or faked as such, scammers do impersonate the *services* behind them, and it is worth understanding how, because the defence is the same calm habit every time. A common version is the call that claims to be 'from the police' or 'from your local force', often using caller-ID spoofing so your screen shows a plausible local landline or even a number that, if you searched it, looks like a real police station. The caller may say they are investigating fraud on your account and need your help — perhaps asking you to withdraw cash, move money to a 'safe account', or buy gift cards as part of a 'sting'. No genuine police officer will ever ask you to do any of those things, and the real police do not run investigations that require you to move your own money. Treat any such request as conclusive proof of a scam.

Health-themed versions also circulate: texts or calls claiming to be 'from the NHS' about a missed appointment, a fine, or a vaccine that needs paying for, again carrying a link or a number to call. The NHS does not charge for its core services or ask for payment by text link, so those are scams too. In every case, the protection is identical: do not act on the inbound contact, hang up, and reach the real service yourself — the police on 101 (or 999 if it is an emergency), the NHS on 111, and your bank on 159 — using the genuine short number rather than anything the caller or message provided. Because spoofing makes the displayed number unreliable, that 'hang up and dial the official number yourself' rule is your single best defence, and it works no matter how authentic the caller or the number on your screen happens to look. Our spoofed UK numbers guide explains exactly how caller-ID faking works and why even a convincing 'official' number on your screen proves nothing about who is really calling.

#Save them now: a 60-second tip

The single most useful thing you can do with this guide is to make sure the right numbers are reachable when you need them, because emergencies and outages are exactly the moments when looking something up is hardest. Take a minute to save 999/112, 101, 111, 105 and 159 into your phone's contacts, perhaps in a single contact card labelled 'Help numbers', and consider doing the same on the phones of any older relatives or children who might need them. For households, a small note on the fridge with these five numbers and a one-line description of each is genuinely valuable — especially 105 and 159, which people rarely remember in the moment. You do not need to memorise everything; you just need the right number to be a tap away when a calm, clear head is hardest to keep.

It is also worth a brief conversation with family about *which* number is for what, because the instinct in a crisis is often to call the wrong one — to ring 999 for a non-urgent matter, or to phone an energy supplier rather than 105 during a power cut, or to engage with a 'bank' caller rather than hanging up and dialling 159. A two-minute chat now, anchored to the simple 'is anyone in danger right now?' test, means everyone reaches the right help faster when it counts. And if a suspicious call ever leaves you unsure whether it was a genuine service or a scam, you can always check the number afterwards with a quick lookup and report anything dodgy using our report a scam call guide.

#Bottom line

The UK's three-digit service numbers are easy to use once you know them: 999 or 112 for any emergency where life, safety or property is at immediate risk; 101 for the police when it is not an emergency; 111 for urgent NHS help that is not life-threatening; and 105 for power cuts. All are free to call. Add 159 for reaching your bank securely if you suspect a fraud call. When unsure between 999 and a non-emergency line, ask: *is anyone in danger right now?* Save these numbers in your phone today, keep them away from premium look-alikes, and if a caller claims to be an official service and something feels wrong, hang up and verify — our who called me guide shows how.