asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many miles of the A.74 dual carriageway from Glasgow to the English Border have been completed; how many are at present under construction; on how many miles construction has not yet commenced; and what is the estimated date of completion of each of these two last categories.

Mr. Campbell:

I refer my hon. Friend to the Reply my right hon. Friend gave to the hon. Member for Dunbartonshire, West (Mr. Steele) on 22nd June.

Is my hon. Friend aware that the A.74 carries about three-quarters of all the road traffic between Scotland and England? Will he, therefore, regard it as a matter of special urgency to have the work pressed ahead on the section which constitutes something of a bottleneck between Beattock in Dumfries and the Lanarkshire county boundary, and can he state when work on that section will begin?

Mr. Campbell:

My right hon. Friend recognises the importance of the road to which my hon. and learned Friend refers. I can tell my hon. and learned Friend that the Secretary of State has just authorised Dumfries County Council as his agents to seek tenders for the scheme which he mentioned, and work should start this summer.

In the reply which the Secretary of State gave me earlier this week, it was said that this whole stretch from Uddingston to the Border would be finished by 1970, but I had a letter in 1955 saying that it would be finished by 1965. Since the project is now five years behind anyway, may we have a firm assurance that the work will, in fact, be completed by 1970?

Mr. Campbell:

I can repeat what my right hon. Friend said to the hon. Gentleman in his earlier Answer. It is certainly his intention that the work should be completed by 1970.