Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) annual budget was for promoting the UK Shipping Register internationally to encourage ship owners to register their ships in the UK in each year since 2009-10; and what the MCA's budget is for such work in 2015-16.
The table below shows the overseas visits made by officials from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to promote the UK Shipping Register (UKSR) to ship owners since 2009-10. It also shows the cost per year for these trips and the MCA’s planned expenditure for promoting the UKSR.
The expenditure in 2013 -14 was higher than originally planned because of the decision to raise the profile of the UKSR in international markets, in particular China and the Far East. This included attendance by UKSR officials at shipping industry and ship building trade shows, and also official receptions for shipping industry leaders at UK missions overseas.
Ministers attended the events in Athens in June 2012 and 2013, and Singapore in February 2014 with the MCA. Those attendances were part of a wider programme of events involving shipping and transport in general. Costing the element involved in the promotion of the UK Shipping register is not possible.
2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | |
April
| Thailand and Germany | Singapore and India | |||
May
| Oslo | Vietnam | |||
June
| Oslo | Athens | Germany | Athens | Oslo and Athens |
July
| |||||
August
| Germany | ||||
September
| Germany | Germany | Germany | ||
October
| India | ||||
November | Rotterdam | Shanghai | Athens and Singapore | ||
December
| Shanghai | Hong Kong | Shanghai | ||
January
| |||||
February | Tokyo and Copenhagen | Singapore and Germany | |||
March
| Germany | ||||
PLANNED EXPENDITURE
| £44,500 | £32,400 | £25,000 | £21,739 | £19,284 |
TOTAL SPEND
| £16,048.57 | £5,082.48 | £26,040.48 | £19,083.68 | £40,272.52 |