§ Ms MunnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to announce the outcome of the recent consultation on proposed boundaries for new health authorities in England. [24399]
§ Mr. HuttonI can announce today that, following 22 simultaneous consultation exercises across the whole of England, we are proposing to establish 28 new health authorities from 1 April 2002, when the existing health authorities will be disestablished. Subject to progress with the NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Bill these new health authorities are expected to become strategic health authorities by next October. The table indicates the new health authorities and their constituent existing health authorities.
273W
New health authority HAs involved Cheshire and Merseyside Liverpool North Cheshire Sefton South Cheshire St. Helen's and Knowsley Wirral Thames valley Berkshire Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Hampshire and Isle of Wight North and Mid-Hampshire Isle of Wight and Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Southampton and South West Hampshire Kent and Medway East Kent West Kent Surrey and Sussex East Surrey East Sussex, Brighton and Hove West Surrey West Sussex Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Avon Gloucestershire Wiltshire South West Peninsula Cornwall and Isles of Scilly North and East Devon South and West Devon Somerset and Dorset Dorset Somerset South Yorkshire Barnsley Doncaster Rotherham Sheffield Trent Lincolnshire North Derbyshire North Nottinghamshire Nottingham South Derbyshire Leicestershire Northamptonshire and Ruland Leicestershire Northamptonshire Shropshire Staffordshire North Staffordshire Shropshire South Staffordshire Birmingham and the Black Country Birmingham Dudley Sandwell Solihull Walsall Wolverhampton Coventry Warwickshire Herefordshire and Worcestershire Coventry Warwickshire Herefordshire Worcestershire