NHS: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the month-by-month progress that will be needed to be compliant with the NHS' 92 per cent 18-week target by March 2029; and what progress has been made to date in 2025-26.
Answered by Karin Smyth
We are committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment.
NHS England’s 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance sets a national target to:
- improve the percentage of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks to 65% nationally by March 2026; and
- every trust is expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement by March 2026.
The NHS Medium Term Planning Framework sets out plans for 2026/27 to 28/29, with the expectation that local NHS organisations improve access and performance standards across core services over the next three years. This includes a target that 70% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks by March 2027.
A number of providers have already made significant improvements in their referral to treatment performance according to published data, including within 2025/26, which demonstrates the progress we asked the system to deliver is possible.
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