Treatment starting within two months of an urgent cancer referral, September 2010 to August 2025

A line chart from the Institute for Government showing Treatment starting within two months of an urgent cancer referral, September 2010 to August 2025. Performance steadily declined from 87% in September 2010 to 60.5% by September 2023, falling well short of the 85% national target. The NHS introduced a new metric in 2023, after which performance improved slightly to about 68.7% by August 2025.

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Source: Institute for Government analysis of NHS England, ‘Cancer waiting times’ ('Monthly data – Two month wait from GP urgent referral to a first treatment' table), August 2025.Notes: Figures relate to England and show a 12-month rolling average. The NHS introduced new cancer metrics from April 2022 and retired the previous metric in August 2023.Get the dataEmbed Download image