To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what consideration he has given to the implications for road safety of the proposal that a new dual carriageway section of the A1 should end at the border.

An A1 steering group has been formed to monitor traffic growth and to develop an appropriate programme of route improvements and accident remedial schemes between Newcastle and Edinburgh. Following the inaugural meeting of the group on 21 June, the Scottish Development Department and Department of Transport agreed to look at the possibility of further improvement to the existing road immediately north of the Marshall Meadows dualling scheme, for which a public inquiry is likely to be held later this year.