Ambulance sector

Incidents (data for July 2026)

• There were 829,675 ambulance incidents this month, compared with 787,873 in July 2025. This is the fourth busiest month overall, and the second highest outside of winter, since records began (August 2017). This is shown in Figure 3. 
  
  
• There were 81,766 category 1 incidents (life-threatening injuries and illnesses), and 405,943 category 2 incidents (emergency calls).

Figure 3

Response times and handovers (data for June 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 eight minutes exactly compared with eight minutes and five seconds for May. This is slower than the seven minutes and 55 seconds in July 2025, and is missing the national standard of seven minutes. The last time the standard was met was more than five years ago in March 2021. 
  
  
• For category 2 incidents, the average response time was 29 minutes and 49 seconds, compared with 32 minutes and 31 seconds in May. This is slower than the 28 minutes and 36 seconds in June 2025 but is within the 30-minute recovery target. 
  
  
• There were 415,471 ambulance handovers where the handover time was known. The mean handover time was 28 minutes and seven seconds, compared with 25 minutes and 34 seconds in July 2025.