asked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish in the Official Report a comparison between the cash budget and the actual cash spent for (a) motorway and trunk road construction, (b) motorway and trunk road

Road construction, improvement and maintenance, Wales
	£ million cash
	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
Motorways and Trunk Roads*
New construction and improvement
1. Planned expenditure	60	59	62	64	82	94
2. Actual expenditure	59	46	51	63	81	‡88
3. Shortfall (-)/Excess (+) as percentage of 1	-2%	-22%	-18%	-2%	-1%	-6%
Road maintenance†
1. Planned expenditure	8	8	8	10	11	17
2. Actual expenditure	7	8	12	12	11	‡20
3. Shortfall (-)/Excess (+) as percentage of 1	-13%	—	+50%	+20%	—	+18%
LOCAL AUTHORITY BIDS
New construction and improvement*
1. Planned expenditure	24	28	40	47	54	50
2. Actual expenditure	29	27	34	43	50	║46
3. Shortfall (-)/Excess (+) as percentage of 1	+ 21%	-4%	-15%	-9%	-7%	-8%
Road maintenance†
1. Planned expenditure	36	34	38	44	52	70
2. Actual expenditure	31	37	44	48	53	¶
3. Shortfall (-)/Excess (+) as percentage of 1	-14%	+9%	+16%	+9%	+2%
* Including lighting installation.
† Including lighting maintenance, snow clearing and gritting.
‡ Provisional outturn.
║ This represents the Department's estimate of outturn, based on local authority returns. For 1981–82 local authorities were given the freedom to switch capital provision between roads and their other services.
¶ Not yet available.

The underspending on trunk road construction in 1981–82 is mainly due to two major bypasses in North Wales being delayed by appeals to the High Court. Lower tender prices were also a factor. The increase in trunk road maintenance is largely due to the unusually severe weather in December and January.The outturn for expenditure on local authority roads in 1981–82 has not yet been reviewed with the county councils.