Fishing Grants and Licences
The Agency oversees the administration of a national restrictive licensing scheme for UK commercial fishing vessels which is designed to control the capacity and fishing activities of the UK fleet. This is intended to bring catching effort into better balance with fishing opportunities.
A key element of this important work is advising fishermen about procedures for licensing a registered fishing vessel, any capacity penalties that may have to be paid when transferring and aggregating licences, how to make changes to an existing licence and derating engine power.
For vessels over 10 metre in length, the licence holder must ensure that there is a real economic link between the vessel to which this licence relates and the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man.
The Agency develops and operates a grants and state aid regime which supports and encourages sustainability and profitability and meets EU and Government standards of financial propriety and accountability.