Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many overseas visit trips (a) Ministers, (b) officials in his Department and (c) officials from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency have undertaken in each year since 2009-10 to promote the UK Shipping Register to ship owners; and what the (i) destination and (ii) cost was of each such trip.

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.