GovWire

Overview

Fishing anywhere by a British fishing boat is prohibited unless authorised by a licence, unless youre exempt. If you fish without a licence or dont comply with your licence conditions, you may be prosecuted. All owners are jointly liable for any offences committed by the vessel.

To protect fish stocks no new licences are created and there are a limited number of licences in circulation. The only way you can get a licence is by transferring an existing one to your vessel. You need a licence entitlement to do this.

Exemptions

If any of the following points are true, you dont need a licence. If your vessel is only used:

• to fish for salmon or migratory trout you do need arod licence
• within the 12 nautical mile limits around Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man you may need a licence from the suitable authority
• to fish for pleasure

Register your vessel

You must register your vessel on the UK Ship Registry to get a fishing vessel licence, unless your vessel is registered in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

For more information contact the:

• UK Ship Register
• Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA)

Get a licence entitlement

You can get an entitlement by obtaining:

• the entitlement from a vessel that has sunk, been scrapped or is no longer being used for fishing
• a licence currently on a vessel

You need to make sure the entitlement(s) is:

• the correct licence category for your fishing requirements. See licences and permits
• suitable for a vessel over 10 metres
• suitable for any shellfish, scallop, and beam trawl area 4 or 7 requirements (if applicable). See licences and permits
• the correct tonnage of your vessel and
• the correct engine power (kilowattage) of your vessel

If required, you can aggregate two or more entitlements to cover your vessel. You can also split an entitlement via an Application to Disaggregate a Fishing Vessel Licence Entitlement (AFL19) form Commercial fishing vessel licence application forms if you have surplus KW or tonnage.

Aggregation and disaggregation rules:

Only licences of the same type and category may be aggregated together. Where this is not possible, the licence issued to the incoming vessel will be downgraded to take the lowest common level of authorisation of all the donor licence entitlements.

On disaggregation any beam trawl, scallop dredging, or shellfish permits associated with the licence, will be permitted to be allocated to be used, in one transaction only, either collectively or singly (nominated in the AFL19 form). However, other components of the disaggregated licence, not allocated with any of these permits will retain track record and may be aggregated with base licences which do carry any of these permits, without the resultant licence losing that authority (aggregations involving components without such permits or track record would result in the loss of these permits).

Transferring a licence/licence entitlement to another party

The current licence/entitlement holder will complete application Establish or Transfer an Entitlement and Transfer of a Licence (AFL7) declaring that they are surrendering the licence/licence entitlement to a new holder. In this application they will provide the current licence/licence entitlement details and the new holders name, address, email and mobile phone number. The MMO will check the application and notify the new holder that the application has been received and will be processed within 5 working days.

Becoming the holder of a licence entitlement

The current licence entitlement holder will need to complete application Establishment or transfer of an entitlement and transfer of a licence that is administered by Marine Management Organisation (AFL7) to transfer the licence entitlement into your name.

If you are wanting to transfer a licence entitlement into your name, you do not need to complete this application but you will need to provide the current holder with the following details so they can tell us that they are surrendering the rights to their licence/licence entitlement to you.

The current holder will need the following details for all new holders.

• name
• address
• email address
• mobile phone number
• your company registration number if you are a UK company.

Once Marine Management Organisation receive the application from the current holder, we will notify you by email and you will be able to check the licence/licence entitlement details. If everything is in order, we will aim to send your Notification of Entitlement within 5 working days.

You should note that a Notification of Entitlement is NOT a valid fishing vessel licence.

Apply for your licence

Select this link to open our application form page to apply for an fishing licence for a British registered fishing vessel (AFL2).

You may need to demonstrate an economic link between the vessel and the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man to make landings at certain ports within designated times. For more information, please contact yourlocalMMOoffice.

Your vessel licence covers the UK EEZ. If you want access to non-UK waters, you should contact the UK Single Issuing Authority (UKSIA)

Moves in and out of England

Entry into the English Non-sector

With the introduction of the Fisheries Concordat in 2012 each of the four national UK Fisheries Administrations were given their own quota allocation for non-sector vessels. As quota is allocated according to the FQAs attached to the licences of vessels in the non-sector, the MMO needs to ensure that any new vessel entering the English non-sector brings in at least as many FQAs equivalent to the quota intended to fish.

If you intend joining the English non-sector you must complete a Fish Plan Notification form Commercial fishing vessel licence application forms to help ascertain if FQAs will be required based on the UK and England quota management rules.

Category changes when coming from Marine Scotland

On 01 July 2017 Marine Scotland created a single licence category for the over ten metre fleet in Scotland. However, category A, B or C licence entitlements transferring from Scotland will be received as a Category A, B or C as they were prior to 1 July 2017.

Scottish licences created through disaggregation or aggregation in Scotland after 30 June 2017 will be tracked back to the lowest common denominator and received accordingly on transfer to England. For example, a licence aggregation between an ex-Category B and an ex-Category A licence in Scotland will be received in England as a Category B licence.

FQA moratorium

There is a current embargo on the trading of FQA units to and from Scotland and the rest of the UK. Therefore FQA units will need to be removed from a licence entitlement before the entitlement can move to or from Marine Scotland.

The ban on the movement of FQA units from Scotland to the rest of the UK has been in place since January 2014. The embargo on units transferring from the rest of the UK to Scotland has been in place since December 2016

Request to change UK fisheries administration

Any vessel wishing to change administration within the UK should submit an application to change UK fisheries administration to its current administration for consideration.

The request to change a country of a

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