§ 30. Mr. Weetchasked the Secretary of State for Transport what was the total transport supplementary grant paid to metropolitan and shire county authorities to maintain passenger rail services for the last year for, which figures are available; and if he will provide a list of the amounts paid to each.
§ Mr. FowlerTransport supplementary grant is a block grant which cannot be attributed to particular types of expenditure, because it is paid on the total of each county's accepted expenditure above a per capita threshold. For 371W 1981–82 I accepted for grant purposes all the bids made for support for rail services, which totalled £34.831 million for metropolitan counties and £0.444 million for shire counties. The figures for each county are:
Metropolitan Counties (£m at November 1979 prices) Shire Counties (£m at November 1979 prices) Greater Manchester 11.188 Buckingham 0.200 Merseyside 7.813 Essex 0.003 South Yorkshire 1.400 Hereford and Worcester 0.215 Tyne and Wear 2.300 Hertford 0.003 West Midlands 6.000 Humberside 0.015 West Yorkshire 6.130 Suffolk 0.008