But bad winters - bringing with them an upsurge in flu cases which put massive strain on NHS resources - and a shortage of beds for emergency patients have often led to routine operations being cancelled.
At the end of March 2000 there were 121,000 fewer people on the waiting list than there were in March 1997. There are now 1,037,000 patients waiting for operations.
At the same time, the number of people waiting longer than 13 weeks for an appointment to see a hospital specialist fell by 94,000 in the three months between December 1999 and March 2000.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn told the BBC that the figures suggested government reform and investment in the NHS was beginning to yield tangible results.
He said: "There is no crowing about this - this is very much work in progress.
"We know that there is a long way to go to get the sort of waiting times patients want and expect in a 21st century health service."
The figures come at a time when the prime minister is focusing on the quality of care the NHS is delivering to patients, and has launched a mass consultation exercise over the future of the service.
Controversial indicator
The waiting list target has always been controversial with opposition politicians claiming fiddles, and health experts declaring it virtually useless as a way of judging the true performance of the NHS.
Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox said that issues of quality, waiting times and access to speedy treatment by the sickest patients were of greater importance than simple waiting list figures which he described as a "statistical trick".
Dr Fox told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't think patients will share New Labour's self-congratulation.
"Up and down the country, doctors have told us that clinical priorities have been distorted, with many more minor cases being treated, often at the expense of more serious cases.
"We have got numerous examples of the statistics being massaged artificially to remove patients from the list. There has created a huge waiting list for the waiting list, with over half a million people waiting to go on the list."
But he said: "What we hope is that it can be put in its rightful place as one of a range - and not the most important of the range - of performance indicators, and we can get on with the important job, which is tackling waiting times, access to service, quality of service and actually improving the health service, rather than concentrating on a totally artificial indicator."
Key pledge
The pledge to slash waiting lists was one of Labour's key election pledges and one which it expected to meet early in its first parliament.
But bad winters - bringing with them an upsurge in flu cases which put massive strain on NHS resources - and a shortage of beds for emergency patients have often led to routine operations being cancelled.
These factors have led to the waiting list target being harder than expected to achieve.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the numbers waiting have in fact gone up, while the figures for England may yo-yo up and down for some time.
When Labour came to power in May 1997, the number of people waiting for hospital treatment in England stood at 1.16m.
But by March the following year, the list had risen to 1.3m.
Over the past two years the government has struggled to get the figures down.