True2025-11
What is circulating
“In her Budget speech on 26 November 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the NHS waiting list in England had fallen by 230,000.”
Claimed by Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer · official statement
The facts
Full Fact found the headline figure accurate but noted the fall was relatively slight. The waiting list went from about 7.62 million cases in July 2024 to about 7.39 million in September 2025, and median waiting times have fallen and are now shorter than in 2022.