The NHS elective waiting list stood at 7.31 million in November 2025, according to the NHS England Integrated Performance Report presented to the Board in February 2026.

This represents:

• A reduction of 86,517 patients (-1.2%) compared with October 2025
• A reduction of 170,939 patients (-2.3%) compared with November 2024

The report confirms that the overall waiting list has continued to fall during autumn 2025.

RTT performance

In November 2025, 61.8% of patients were waiting less than 18 weeks for treatment, unchanged from October 2025 and 2.6 percentage points higher than November 2024.

The Board paper reiterates that improving Referral to Treatment (RTT) performance remains a core priority for 2025/26 and 2026/27.

Long waits

The report also references continued reductions in long-wait cohorts, including patients waiting over 52 weeks.

National actions cited in the paper include:

• Ongoing validation incentivisation
• Enhanced oversight through Tiering arrangements
• A Q4 elective performance sprint
• Support from the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme where required

These actions are described as supporting progress in reducing long waits.

Variation across systems

The Integrated Performance Report includes data illustrating variation across integrated care boards (ICBs) and providers.

For November 2025:

• The largest elective waiting list recorded at ICB level was 418,560 patients
• The smallest was 52,571 patients

At provider level, RTT performance varied substantially, with the highest-performing acute trust reporting 97.1% of patients waiting under 18 weeks, and the lowest reporting 48.8%.

The report presents these figures descriptively, without commentary.

Data integrity and digital impact

The Board paper notes that waiting list validation activity continues nationally.

It also references work with the Frontline Digitisation Programme to support providers implementing new Electronic Patient Records (EPRs), stating that EPR deployment can lead to short-term waiting list inflation during pathway reconciliation.

The report does not attribute overall list reductions solely to activity increases, and recognises the role of data validation in ensuring accuracy.

Children and young people

As at the week ending 28 December 2025, the number of under-18 patients on the elective waiting list was 708,715, representing:

• A 2.7% reduction compared with the week ending 30 November 2025
• An 8.6% reduction compared with the week ending 29 December 2024

The paper states that NHS England continues to monitor children and young people’s elective performance across a range of metrics to support equitable improvement.

Source

• NHS England. Integrated Performance Report, Board Paper, February 2026 (Item 4.1).