asked Her Majesty's Government:

What financial arrangements are being made in respect of the National Health Service trusts dissolved on 1 April 1999, 1 May 1999 and 1 October 1999 and in connection with new National Health Service trusts established on those dates.

Pursuant to the dissolution of 48 National Health Service trusts on 1 April 1999, 1 May 1999 and 1 October 1999, and their reconfiguration through the establishment of 23 new trusts on those dates, we propose to create originating capital for the new trusts equal to the net assets transferred to them and therefore to remit the outstanding debt of the dissolved trusts.

Those operations will involve no overall loss to the Exchequer. Her Majesty's Treasury has presented a minute to the House on 10 March giving particulars and circumstances of the proposed remission, which it has approved in principle. The dissolution of a further eight NHS trusts involved the transfer of their net assets to existing NHS trusts and so no significant remission of debt is required in these cases.