Roads: West Midlands

Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much funding his Department has allocated to each local authority in the West Midlands for road improvement in each of the last five years. [207314]

Mr Goodwill: The Department for Transport provides funding to local highway authorities through a number of programmes which can be used to improve local roads.

The following table provides the funding allocated to the West Midlands authorities since 2010-11. This funding includes Integrated Transport Block, Maintenance Block, Additional Block funding, the Pothole Fund, Severe Weather funding, Local Major Projects and the Local Pinch Point Fund.

In addition the Department is providing £625 million to Birmingham city council for their Highways Maintenance PFI project which became operational in 2010 for a 25 year period. Local authorities are also able to use revenue funding which is provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government through the Revenue Support Grant for highway improvements.

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Roads: Wildlife

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidance he gives on procedures to be followed by highways authorities and police forces with respect to the identification of deceased animals on the road network. [207900]

Mr Goodwill: No specific guidance has been provided on this subject.

Section 7.17 of the Highways Agency’s Network Management Manual (NMM)

http://www.dft.gov.uk/ha/standards/nmm_rwsc/docs/nmm_part_7a.pdf

describes processes that must be followed when canine remains are found on the strategic road network although it does also recognise that it is impossible to guarantee that remains can be fully identified due to the high speed nature of the Agency’s roads.

Local highway authorities also remove dead animals from all roads and public spaces for which they are responsible. This includes wild animals such as badgers, foxes, and deer along with domestic pets such as cats and dogs. If pets are found, authorities try to identify the owners if the pet has a collar or microchip.

Shipping: Registration

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) 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; [207097]

(2) 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. [207104]

Mr Hayes: The table 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.

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Telephone Services

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport under what timetable his Department plans to phase out use of telephone lines with the prefix (a) 0845, 0844 and 0843 in accordance with the Cabinet Office guidance on customer service lines published in December 2013 and (b) 03 and 08, where 03 is the primary number under a dual numbering system. [207289]

Claire Perry: The process for phasing out telephone lines with the prefix (a) 0845, 0844 and 0843 in accordance with the Cabinet Office guidance is now well advanced. There is one legacy 0845 850 0095 DVLA Drivers Medical Enquiries fax number published on GOV.UK which is retained for legacy reasons in case some literature with this number is still in circulation. Other numbers have transitioned to 0300 numbers which are charged at standard geographic rate (the same as 01 or 02 numbers) and are free as part of “inclusive minute” packages. In response to (b) there are no 03 and 08 combinations.

Television

Mr Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much his Department spent on the purchase of televisions in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 to date. [207224]

Claire Perry: The requested information is provided as follows.

UK Chamber of Shipping

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many officials from the UK Chamber of Shipping have been seconded to work in his Department since May 2010; and in what areas of maritime policy each such member of staff has been so employed. [207103]

Claire Perry: No officials from the UK Chamber of Shipping have been seconded to work in the Department for Transport since May 2010. The Department works very closely with the UK Chamber on many key aspects of maritime policy, and discussions with them are on an ongoing basis. The Department is also keen to increase secondment opportunities more generally with transport industries, both encouraging incoming secondees to the Department, and outward secondments for staff.