Historical trend
Trend summary
Mean Category 1 ambulance response time was 8 minutes 41 seconds in April 2026, above the 7-minute national target.
Trend
- Category 1 response times exceeded 9 minutes in some months of 2022–23 and have since improved partially.
- Category 2 (emergency) mean response times peaked at over 90 minutes in winter 2022–23 before recovering.
Context
- NHS England restructured ambulance call categories in 2017; Category 1 replaced the former 8-minute Red 1/Red 2 targets.
- Response times are measured from call-connect to first resource arrival.
Commentary contains no editorial judgement — describes direction, magnitude, and official projections only.
About this indicator
- Source
- NHS England
- Update frequency
- Monthly
- Last updated
- 22 June 2026
- Licence
- OGL v3
- Direction
- ↑ Rising
Statistics
- Latest
- 7.9 minutes
- Period high
- 8.1 minutes
- Period low
- 7.7 minutes
- Period average
- 7.9 minutes