Types of activities
The type of activity will determine which regulatory controls apply within the marine environment.
Please select from the range of activities below for more information.
- Burial at sea
- A licence is required (for which no charge is made) where it is proposed to bury a body at sea. Such a burial must be undertaken in accordance with instructions (a separate note is available from the licensing authority) which are designed to minimise the risk of the body moving from its place of interment and to minimise any risk to human health or impact on the marine environment. No such licence is needed for the scattering of cremation ashes.
- View FEPA licence charges
- View detailed guidance
- Oil spill treatment products
- The MFA administers applications for the testing and assessment of oil dispersants and other oil treatment products intended for use in UK waters, for which approval is required under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
- The current approval process requires that dispersants undergo and pass an efficacy test.
- View detailed guidance (Oil & Chemical Spills section)
- Construction Licence renewal
- As with disposal licences, construction-related licence will normally be valid for a period of 12 months but may be renewed thereafter for a further 12 months for which a renewal charge will be payable.
- Where works are expected to continue for longer than one year, for example, large development schemes or coast protection and flood defence works, the licensing authority will usually grant a licence (subject to annual review) not normally exceeding a total duration of 5 years to cover the length of a contract, the duration of a phase of the works or a number of years of periodic recharge for beach nourishment schemes.
- For such licences, the licence charge will be payable in annual instalments, the second and any subsequent amounts being at reduced rate. However, should a further licence be required for subsequent works (e.g. further periodic beach recharge) a new application will be necessary.
- View FEPA licence charges - Licence renewal
- Beneficial use licences
- The licensing authority has a statutory duty to consider what practical alternative disposal options are available before granting a disposal licence.
- The policy of the Department / Assembly is to encourage licensees to make maximum use of dredged material, for example, in the recharge of beaches, enhancement of mudflats and salt marsh, the creation of habitat or used for a commercial purpose.
- A separate licence category is provided for licences in respect of operations involving the beneficial use of material, more than 50% of which has been derived from dredging activity and which would otherwise have been licensed for disposal at sea.
- FEPA licence charges - Beneficial use
- Maintenance works
- Certain activities are exempted from licensing control by virtue of the Deposits in the Sea (Exemption) Order 1985. Paragraph 20 of the Schedule to the Exemptions Order allows for the - "Deposit of any articles or substances in the maintenance of harbour, coast protection (other than beach replenishment), drainage or flood control works, if made on the site of the works".
- The licensing authority normally applies this exemption where the work is to be undertaken on an existing structure or facility to refurbish or replace parts of it with materials or articles of a similar nature (essentially "like with like") so as to extend the serviceability or continue the purpose of that structure.
- The exemption will not normally be taken to apply where it is proposed to extend, alter, or to significantly enhance existing works including the construction of additional temporary works adjacent to the existing site of the works. In any case of doubt, advice should be sought of the MFA.
- FEPA licence charges - not applicable
- See also - Maintenance of Vessel Hulls at Sea
- Disposal of fish waste
- Although fish and fish waste returned to the sea from a fishing vessel taken from the sea by the vessel in the course of normal fishing operations is exempt from licence control, such waste is licensable if taken back to sea for disposal or deposited into the sea after it has been landed.
- A licence will not normally be issued if there is a practicable alternative disposal option available. OSPAR published guidance for the dumping of fish waste from land-based industrial fish processing operations following the Ministerial meeting in Sintra during July 1998.
- FEPA licence charges - Fish waste
- See also - Summary Record OSPAR 98/14/1-E, Annex 44 (Word document, opens in new window)
- Disposal at sea of disused offshore installations and scuttling of vessels
- The disposal at sea of disused offshore installations is now very circumscribed following the adoption by the UK of OSPAR Decision 98/3.
- Essentially, only the following may be considered: the leaving in place of the footings of steel installations (weighing more than 10,000 tonnes in air) emplaced before 9 February 1999; and the leaving in place or dumping of concrete gravity-based installations, floating concrete installations or concrete anchor bases.
- Similarly, the Government is committed under the OSPAR Convention to phase out the disposal of vessels by means of scuttling by 31st December 2004 and currently only permits scuttling in exceptional circumstances.
- In such cases, a detailed assessment would be undertaken before agreeing to license any disposal of offshore installations in the sea / scuttling. Such assessment is liable to vary considerably according to the nature of the operation, its location, the proposed disposal site and what alternative options are available. The charge for this type of licence application will, therefore be calculated on an individual basis in consultation with the applicant.
- FEPA licence charges - Oil and gas related waste
- Disposal of waste arising from offshore oil & gas exploration and production
- A licence is required for the disposal, by means of seabed injection, of wastes arising from the exploration for or the production of offshore hydrocarbons.
- These are likely to be principally drill cuttings and associated drilling fluids, and produced waters. Any chemicals used in such offshore activities require approval from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform under the Offshore Chemicals Regulations 2002.
- See also - Oil and chemical spills
- Incineration at sea
- In accordance with its obligations under the OSPAR Convention, the Licensing Authority no longer permits incineration at sea.
- FEPA licence charges - Not applicable
- See further information on Disposal of Waste at Sea
- Sewage sludge licences
- All licences to dispose of sewage sludge at sea were terminated by 31 December 1998 in compliance with the requirements of the OSPAR Convention and the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive.
- FEPA licence charges - Not applicable
- See further information on Disposal of Waste at Sea
- The use of tracer dyes, biocides and other such materials
- A FEPA licence is required where it is proposed to use a tracer dye, biocide or similar substance where this involves the material being deposited directly from a vehicle, vessel, aircraft, marine structure etc anywhere below the Mean High Water Spring tide mark.
- No such consent is necessary if the deposit is to be effected by other means - such as spraying from a backpack. However, other controls - such a those exercised by the Environment Agency - may apply.
- FEPA licence charges - Miscellaneous