Ambulance sector

Incidents (data from January 2026)

• There were 837,464 ambulance incidents this month, the highest January figure on record (since August 2017). This is shown in Figure 3.
  
  
• There were 82,634 category 1 incidents (life-threatening injuries and illnesses) and 429,214 category 2 incidents (for emergency calls). 

Figure 3
Ambulance incidents

Response times and handovers (data for January 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 and eight seconds compared with seven minutes and 59 second for December. This is faster than the eight minutes and 16 seconds in January 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 35 minutes and four seconds, compared with 32 minutes and 43 seconds in December. This is faster than the 35 minutes and 39 seconds in January 2025 but misses the 30-minute recovery target. 
  
  
• There were 422,850 ambulance handovers where the handover time was known. The mean handover time was 37 minutes 39 seconds, compared with 40 minutes and 23 seconds in January 2025.