The monthly performance data shows 75% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E departments within four hours in March.
There were 2.39 million attendances at A&Es across England in March, the second-highest level on record, the data reveals.
Category 2 ambulance average response time for March was 28 minutes and 34 seconds, against the 30-minute target for 2025/26, and the average Category 1 ambulance response time was 7 minutes and 52 seconds in March - the fastest time since May 2021.
The data reveals that in February, 80.2% of cancer patients were told they had cancer or had it definitively ruled out within 28 days, against the target of 75%.
Category 1 ambulance response times were the fastest in almost four years (7:52) – since May 2021 (7:25) – despite services facing the busiest March ever for ambulance incidents (772,322 incidents compared to 765,396 in March 2021)
The average response for category 2 ambulance calls (28:34) was almost three minutes quicker than the month previous (31:22) and more than five minutes faster than the same month last year (33:51).
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: ‘Today's figures are yet more evidence of signs of genuine progress across a range of services and thanks to the ambitious elective reform plan, the NHS and the government are determined to continue on this trajectory for the benefit of patients.
‘It is fantastic to see that a record proportion of people have received vital results from cancer checks within the four-week standard, despite more people continuing to come forward, helping to give people clarity with that all-important diagnosis so they can plan next steps in terms of treatment or the relief of the all clear.'
He added: ‘Despite services facing the busiest March ever in A&E and for ambulance incidents, staff continue to bring down waits for urgent and emergency care, but we know there is much more to do to reduce waits and delays across all NHS services.'
Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, said: ‘Through this government's Plan for Change, we are starting to see a real difference. Fixing our NHS is a long road and this is just the start – but we're doing the work and delivering for patients.'
In response, Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘This data shows some very welcome performance improvements across waiting lists, cancer, and urgent and emergency care, despite continued high demand.
‘The drop in waiting lists for the sixth month in a row is testament to the hard work of NHS leaders and their teams working around the clock to boost productivity. But our members are under no illusions that there is still a long way to go to reduce the waiting list to more manageable levels and hit the 18-week target.'
He added: ‘A&Es and ambulances continued to see very high demand in March, with emergency departments seeing their second highest level of attendances on record. Despite this, staff managed to treat three-quarters of A&E patients within the four-hour target and improve ambulance response times. But it is clear that while winter is over there is no end in sight to rising demand for NHS care.'
