§ Mr. Dudley Smithasked the Minister of Transport whether he will publish in the Official Report the bids made by each county council for transport spending eligible for transport supplementary grants in 1981–82.
§ Mr. FowlerI encourage counties to publish their transport policy programmes which contain their bids for transport supplementary grant. But they are not statutory documents, and it is for individual counties to decide whether to publicise their bids.
§ Mr. Dudley Smithasked the Minister of Transport if he will give in 1980 survey prices the threshold level of transport spending set for each year since 1975–76 for the purposes of calculating transport supplementary grant.
§ Mr. FowlerThere has always been more than one threshold for transport supplementary grant, and grant entitlement has been calculated on accepted expenditure above whichever threshold was lower for each county. The main per capita threshold used each year was as follows, repriced to 1980 survey prices:
£ per capita 1975–76 *7.94 1976–77 20.266 1977–78 15.955 1978–79 15.038 1979–80 15.824 1980–81 14.463 * The threshold was this per capita amount plus the county's 1974–75 expenditure on highway maintenance. The alternative thresholds can only be repriced individually for each county. They varied from year to year. Details are given in the rate support grant orders for each year, which are available in the House of Commons Library.