Guidance

Catching sector - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Updated 6 May 2020

1. Why this funding is needed?

Fishing and aquaculture businesses provide jobs and support our food supply. They also contribute to the economy and significantly to the economies of local coastal communities.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) statistics and analysis evidences that the majority of the fleet, particularly smaller vessels fishing in the inshore and those fishing for shellfish, have experienced substantial adverse impacts due to the downturn of export, hospitality and processing markets in recent weeks.

2. What is the support for?

There will be two funds, administered by MMO, which will target those most in need.

The first to be called the Fisheries Response Fund (FRF) of £9 million will directly contribute towards the fixed business costs of over 1000 catching and aquaculture businesses that have been adversely impacted by the loss of export and domestic markets for fish and shellfish.

A further £1 million will fund grants for local projects in coastal communities. MMO will administer applications for this grants scheme and will provide further details from next week.

3. What payments will be available to vessel owners?

Funds payable under the FRF to fishing vessel owners for fixed business costs are calculated from the average fixed business costs for the size of the vessel, as surveyed and published by Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish), in their 2018 economic survey.

Eligible fishing vessel owners will receive fund payments for up to three months, with initial payments paid to cover two months (for April and May 2020). Payments will be made directly into nominated business bank accounts.

Fund payments may be extended to a third month, dependent upon a review of industry and market conditions. Further updates on this will be given at the end of May.

Fund payment amounts will vary according to the overall length of the vessel, as detailed in the table below.

Vessel length	Month 1 April 2020	Month 2 May 2020	Total payable for April and May
0 to 5.99m	£600	£600	£1,200
6 to 7.99m	£800	£800	£1,600
8 to 9.99m	£2,100	£2,100	£4,200
10 to 11.99m	£4,200	£4,200	£8,400
12 to 14.99m	£7,800*	£2,200*	£10,000
15 to 23.99m	£10,000*	£0*	£10,000

**The maximum payment from any aspect of the FRF will be £10,000 in total per vessel.

Further details will be announced for aquaculture businesses.

4. Is the FRF a ‘tie-up’ scheme?

No, the fund provides targeted support to help businesses cover their fixed business costs during this unprecedented time.

Businesses may continue to fish and still receive this funding.

Businesses may also qualify for other Government support. MMO has produced a guide to what is available.

5. What is the £1 million fund for local fish for?

A fund of £1 million has been announced to pay grants for assistance for local projects supporting fishing in coastal communities. MMO will administer applications for this grants scheme and will provide further details from next week.

Grants will be assessed by a panel which will include fishing industry representatives.

6. Who is administering the funds?

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) will administer both funds. MMO has successfully delivered over £100 million through funds for fisheries and coastal communities in five years and currently operates the UK’s Maritime and Fisheries Fund (MFF).

7. Is MMO big enough to cope?

Yes. We have prioritised this area of work and mobilised quickly to develop a simple system able to provide a high level of service as we administer the grants. To further support industry, MMO will also temporarily extend its opening hours from 20 April 2020 to 7pm and Saturdays.

8. How do fishing vessel owners apply?

From 20 April 2020, registered fishing vessel owners will be contacted directly in stages by MMO, by email and asked to fill in an application form, which they must complete and return by email. To allow the grants team to work as quickly as possible through all applications, please avoid contacting them unless you have a query on a live application.

9. Who is eligible for support?

The Fisheries Response Fund, administered by MMO, has been set up to help support fixed business costs of English fishing vessels. Fishing vessel owners may continue to fish and may also qualify to receive payment in addition to other government assistance, including the business loan scheme, self-employed income support scheme, and other benefits.

Qualifying fishing business vessel owners must meet the following criteria:

• They must be the owner of an English registered fishing vessel under 24m (overall length)
• The vessel must be currently registered with MCA
• The vessel must be licenced to fish by MMO
• The vessel must have sales of £10,000 or more as recorded on sales notes supplied to Registered Buyers and Sellers, during the period 1 March 2019 to 23 March 2020.

Details of the eligibility of aquaculture businesses for support will be notified shortly.

10. How have you calculated the fixed business costs contribution?

Fixed business costs are calculated from the average fixed business costs for the size of the vessel, as surveyed and published by the Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish), in their 2018 economic survey. Seafish’s definition of fixed costs is: “Vessel owner costs (insurance, repairs, gear, hire & maintenance, other vessel expenses), depreciation, interest and other financial costs”. It does not include variable costs, such as crew costs and fuel.

11. How have you defined vessel length?

Vessels have been grouped into categories based on their ‘overall length’. This information is supplied to us by the Marine and Coastguard Agency from the Register of Shipping and Seamen. A vessel’s ‘registered length’ is a distinct parameter to ‘overall length’ and has not been used to group the vessels.

12. Why have you chosen to use ‘overall’ length?

‘Overall length’ in almost all cases is longer than registered length, and is a universally used measure for the sector. The descriptions of fishing boats as under-24m or under-12m is referring to their overall length, which is also the measure used to calculate average fixed business costs. As it happens, using the registered length would have reduced the benefit of the scheme.

13. Why are you basing eligibility on registered business sales?

Sales have been assessed using information held by the MMO, which is sales notes supplied to UK fisheries administrations by Registered Buyers and Sellers members (domestic and foreign).

14. Why is £10k per vessel maximum amount payable for FRF?

Government has announced a significant range of financial support for businesses and individuals in these unprecedented times and this fund operates alongside those.

This additional support, like all other government schemes, has limited funds available. We are using the FRF to target those currently most in need within the funds available. Additionally, businesses may continue to operate and still receive FRF payments.

15. Why are vessels 24m and over not included?

Like all other funds, there is a limit. We recognise the whole of industry is impacted but we have used the fishing evidence available to identify which parts of the fleet have been most impacted. We have allocated this finite fund fairly across those sectors.

From this data, we know that at the moment, the vessels of 24m and over are meeting considerably more of their fixed business costs than the smaller vessels, some of which are meeting less than 50% and some even less than that. We will continue to review this situation.

16. Why are vessels with sales of less than £10,000 not included?

Like all other funds, there is a limit. We recognise the whole of the fishing industry is impacted and we have used the evidence available to identify which parts of the fleet are seeing the greatest financial impact.

We recognised the impact on our smaller fishing fleet in particular, which is why we decided to make payments to vessels operating at a commercial level with sales of £10,000 and over.

17. Will MMO use information from the recently launched digital catch app?

We are basing the eligibility criteria on recorded sales of fish to Registered Buyers and Sellers as this data helps us to identify the parts of the fleet most financially impacted.

The digital catch app is used by under-10m fishing boats to record the size and type of their catch, not what is sold. The catch app was launched in Autumn 2019 and is already helping to build a much fuller picture of fishing activity by this key part of the fishing fleet.

18. What if someone has just bought a boat within the last year?

No matter how many months they have owned the boat, the vessel will qualify if there were sales of more than £10,000 or more as recorded on sales notes supplied to Registered Buyers and Sellers during the period 1 March 2019 to 23 March 2020 and meet the other criteria.

19. Where is the money coming from?

The £15.4 million Maritime and Fisheries Fund (MFF) has supported 286 long-term coastal community projects since it was launched in October 2019. We have re-purposed the remaining £5 million and targeted it for immediate assistance for the fishing industry. This £5 million is has been matched with a £5 million contribution from HM Treasury creating total of £10 million.

20. What is happening to the rest of the MFF funds?

MMO will continue to prioritise payment of existing claims, and process the currently outstanding applications to the MFF. There are no remaining funds to support MFF.

21. Does the FRF have a complaints and disputes process?

MMO is committed to providing good customer service.

If you are not satisfied with our service please let us know and we will do our best to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

For complaints about the quality of customer service, for example - delays, unclear advice or discourteous behaviours, please contact us using our published customer complaints procedure.

For disputes about FRF payments, please contact fisheries_response_fund@marinemanagement.org.uk with details of your concerns and any supporting evidence you want MMO to consider in the dispute.

22. More information?

Further information available at www.gov.uk/mmo. To allow the grants team to work as quickly as possible through all applications, please avoid contacting them unless you have a query on a live application.

Fisheries Response Fund
Telephone: 03300 416579
Opening Hours: 9-7 Mon-Fri, 9-1 Sat
Email: fisheries_response_fund@marinemanagement.org.uk