Written Statement of 16 January 2004

  NHS Foundation Trusts: Applications
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner)
  My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health has decided to support the applications of 24 National Health Service trusts in becoming NHS foundation trusts.

  The applications will now be sent to the office of the independent regulator. The final decision on whether a trust can become an NHS foundation trust rests with the independent regulator.

  The NHS trusts concerned are:

  Addenbrooke's NHS Trust

  Basildon & Thurrock General Hospitals NHS Trust

  Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust

  Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Trust

  WS 36

  City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust

  Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Trust

  Doncaster & Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Trust

  Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust

  Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust

  Homerton University Hospital NHS Trust

  King's College Hospital NHS Trust

  Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Trust

  North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Trust

  Papworth Hospital NHS Trust

  Peterborough Hospitals NHS Trust

  Rotherham General Hospitals NHS Trust

  Royal Devon & Exeter Health Care NHS Trust

  Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

  Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospital Services NHS Trust

  Stockport NHS Trust

  The Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Trust.

  The Royal Marsden NHS Trust

  University College London Hospitals NHS Trust

  University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust