Ambulance sector

Incidents (data from March 2026)

• There were 811,827 ambulance incidents this month. This is the highest figure for March since records began (August 2017). This is shown in Figure 3.
  
  
• There were 78,291 category 1 incidents (life-threatening injuries and illnesses) and 403,642 category 2 incidents (emergency calls). 

Figure 3
Ambulance incidents

Response times and handovers (data for March 2026) 

The national ambulance response time targets are seven minutes for category 1 incidents and 18 minutes for category 2 incidents. As part of the plan to recover urgent and emergency care, NHS England adjusted the category 2 target to 30 minutes, on a temporary basis.  

• The average response time across England for category 1 incidents was seven minutes and 46 seconds compared with seven minutes and 50 seconds for February. This is faster than the seven minutes and 52 seconds in March 2025, but is still missing the national standard of seven minutes. The last time the standard was met was nearly five years ago in March 2021. 
  
  
• For category 2 incidents, the average response time was 28 minutes and 18 seconds, compared with 28 minutes and 57 seconds in February. This is faster than the 28 minutes and 33 seconds in March 2025 and is within the 30-minute recovery target. This is the fastest that category 2 response times have been in almost five years. 
  
  
• There were 417,584 ambulance handovers where the handover time was known. The mean handover time was 26 minutes and 10 seconds, compared with 31 minutes and 19 seconds in March 2025.