asked the Secretary of State for Transport, further to the statement in the Departmental Press Notice No. 224 of 10th July that the shortfall in county council spending on road maintenance in 1975–76 was £65 million and in 1976–77 was £50 million, whether he will list the councils responsible for the shortfall and the amounts by which they underspent.

Underspending on maintenance was fairly general in the years in question. The transport supplementary grant system is designed however to allow flexibility between heads of expenditure and I would be unwilling to suggest that the decisions of individual counties on this were wrong.