Section 51 — Licensing of NHS trusts

(1) In the National Health Service (Licence Exemptions, etc) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/2677), omit regulation 4 (which exempts NHS trusts in England from the requirement to hold a licence).

(2) After section 87 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 insert— Application and grant: NHS trusts 87A (1) An NHS trust established under section 25 of the National Health Service Act 2006 is to be treated, on its establishment, as— (a) having made an application for a licence under section 85, and (b) having met the criteria for holding a licence for the time being published under section 86. (2) An NHS trust established under section 25 of the National Health Service Act 2006 before the day on which section 51(1) of the Health and Care Act 2022 comes into force is to be treated, for the purposes of subsection (1), as having been established on that day.