Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of pets found dead near roads whose owners were identified by the Highways Agency in each year since May 2010; and how many of those owners were informed that their pets had been found.

Existing records relating to identified and contacted pet owners are not held centrally by the Highways Agency.

I have however written to the Highways Agency to instruct that steps are taken to ensure current and future road maintenance contracts include requirements to formalise the record keeping arrangements covering pet fatalities on the Strategic Road Network. If the honourable gentleman is interested in this topic I refer him to the transcript of my adjournment debate of 2^nd March 2015.