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Keir StarmerLabour PartyHealth

Meet the 18-week NHS waiting time standard

“ending hospital backlogs to meet the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment”

DeliveringPlan for Change, PM's foreword, page 6, 5 Dec 2024
  5. Delivering

Where it stands

NHS England's plan sets March 2029 for the 92% standard, and the Spending Review 2025 ties the NHS settlement to it. The share of waiting-list pathways (cases) under 18 weeks met the interim 65% goal in March 2026 (65.3%) and stood at 65.4% in July 2026, 26.6 percentage points below the 92% standard, so the card sits at Delivering.

What has happened

  1. Dec 2024PM sets the 18-week milestone in the Plan for Change, Promised
  2. Jan 2025NHS England's elective reform plan commits to meet the 92% standard by March 2029, with 65% by March 2026, In plan evidence
  3. Jun 2025Spending Review 2025 links the NHS settlement to 92% of patients starting treatment within 18 weeks by the end of the Parliament, Funded evidence
  4. May 2026March 2026 figures: 65.3% of waiting-list pathways (cases) under 18 weeks, meeting the interim 65% goal, Delivering evidence
  5. Mar 202992% of patients due to wait no longer than 18 weeks, Deadline

About the cost

No separate costing. The Spending Review 2025 links the NHS settlement (a £29bn real-terms rise in day-to-day spending from 2023-24 to 2028-29) to this milestone but does not say how much of it pays for the target.

Contracts behind delivery

Public contracts an editor linked to this promise. Figures come from the contract notices and are read again every night; a change adds a new entry and never rewrites an old one.

1 contract, £52,269 in all at their latest values; 1 awarded without competition.

More detail

Sources (6)
Corrections (1): what we fixed, in public
  1. Corrected on 6 Oct 2026: Wording of the “Delivering” entryThe statistic counts waiting-list pathways, not people; one patient can have more than one pathway. NHS England reports it as 65.3% of cases.Was: “March 2026 figures: 65.3% of patients waiting under 18 weeks, meeting the interim 65% goal”Now: “March 2026 figures: 65.3% of waiting-list pathways (cases) under 18 weeks, meeting the interim 65% goal”Source for the correction
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