What do armed response officers do when an armed response isn't required? Do they work as unarmed response?

Fyi i live in Gloucestershire.

The reason I ask is that armed response responded to an incident just around the corner from me last week. And it's very rare to hear or see armed police around here, except for outside of our local spy agency ofc.

So are these officers working as traditional response officers most of the time and just being armed when required. Or are they doing something else?