Guidance

UK Seafood Fund: Infrastructure Scheme draft assessment criteria

Published 27 December 2021

This guidance was withdrawn on 2 February 2022

Feedback on the draft documents for the infrastructure scheme has now closed. You can find out about the UK Seafood Fund: Infrastructure Scheme.

Applications will be assessed in 3 stages.

The first stage will consist of qualification questions such as:

• is the application for between £250,000 and £5 million?
• has the applicant secured match funding?

In the second stage, applicants will be scored against 5 technical criteria. These are partly informed by the views of officials in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each application must score a minimum of 50% in each of the criteria to be considered for funding.

The third stage will consider which of the bids that meet the 50% threshold will be awarded funding to make sure a reasonable geographic and sectoral (catching, processing and aquaculture) split.

Successful projects will be considered for funding in rank order, from highest to lowest.
Defra, in collaboration with the devolved administrations, reserves the right to consider the geographical and sectoral (catching, processing and aquaculture) spread of applications when assessing funding awards.

1. Technical criteria

1.1 1. Value for money

Projects that demonstrate the best value for money while meeting planned objectives will be prioritised. This will be assessed through the application’s breakdown of how funding will be spent.

Applicants must quantify (in £s) the benefits likely to be delivered through the project or, where benefits are difficult to quantify, describe the likely benefits and compare them with project costs.

Applications must:

• clearly state the total amount of funding requested (written as £0.00)
• detail (in £s) match funding contributions (which must be in the form of a fiscal contribution) and evidence of this confirmation
• include a break down of how funding will be spent
• include any strategies and methods that will be used to increase value for money
• describe why current support packages are not sufficient to support business viability, or why support is needed
• maintain a Risk to Benefits log with appropriate mitigation
• demonstrate that plans are fully costed
• break down costs by specific milestones or work packages, such as ‘stakeholder meeting’ rather than generic categories such as ’employee costs’
• detail how staff at different paygrades will be appropriately utilised, or by paying reasonable costs for any equipment purchased
• use relevant benchmarking data or evidence from previous projects or quotes to help justify that cost estimates deliver value for money
• justify staff time including the seniority and pay scale of staff and the number of hours or days they will contribute, and explain how the time requested has been calculated
• demonstrate the process in place to make sure funds are spent in a correct, transparent and effective way

1.2 2. Ability to deliver

Projects with the necessary skills, experience and capacity will be prioritised. This includes planning for sufficient staff time, considering relevant milestones and risk, and having access to all necessary equipment and non-staff resources.

Applications must:

• demonstrate the necessary experience and skills for quality and timely project delivery
• identify partners who may be important in agreeing and defining key challenges, objectives or evidence
• include the necessary permissions such as planning, building warrants, Crown Estates and Harbour Revision Orders - if permissions have been sought, evidence should be provided including the expected timescale for decision
• provide evidence of land ownership or permission from the landowner, or proof that this is being sought
• provide a detailed project delivery plan describing the processes in place to make sure project milestones and outputs are achieved, including details of business, environmental and health and safety systems, risk management and plans to make sure quality
• include proposed mitigating factors for identified and significant risks to project delivery in terms of cost and timescales

1.3 3. Strengthen the supply chain

Projects that strengthen the supply chain through infrastructure improvements will be prioritised.

Applications must cover:

• the nature and extent of the current capacity shortfall
• how much the project is expected to increase capacity or efficiency, stated as empirically as possible and including a baseline (for example, the increase in seafood that can be handled by the expanded harbour or processing facility)
• how the increase in capacity or efficiency will affect the rest of the supply chain
• evidence that there are achievable markets for the increased seafood production

We are working with officials from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to make sure local strategies and policies are included in the assessment. This includes the risk of displacing activity that is currently being done in one location in the UK to another. You will need to demonstrate you have considered these issues in your application.

1.4 4. Social and economic benefits

All applications will be assessed against their benefits to the wider community. Projects that will benefit more deprived communities will be prioritised.

Applicants must state the community that will benefit from the investment. This should include where it falls in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation and what the importance of the seafood sector in that community is: 

• England: Indices of Deprivation 2019 (IMD 2019) 
• Wales: Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 (WIMD 2019)
• Scotland: Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 (SIMD 2020)
• Northern Ireland: Multiple Deprivation Measure 2017 (NIMDM 2017)

On increasing social sustainability, applications must cover how the proposal will lead to positive outcomes more widely. Examples could include:

• health  
• quality of life
• equality of opportunity 
• community relation building 
• maintain cultural heritage

On increasing economic sustainability, applications must describe (and quantify where possible) how the proposal will lead to positive outcomes more widely. Examples could include: 

• employment 
• work related skills 
• levels of innovation  
• reduction in poverty  
• reduction in inequality 

1.5 5. Fisheries health and environmental sustainability

Projects that will help to reduce the seafood industry’s impact on the environment will be prioritised. All applicants will be asked to describe how they will do this.

Applications must say and quantify as far as possible how the project will:

• reduce the amount of resources (other than people) used for catching, processing and producing fish
• support decarbonisation and the transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources, in line with the UK’s net zero ambitions

All project proposals may not be able to achieve both objectives for sustainability. Applicants can still meet the criteria if one of the objectives is well demonstrated.

Examples could include (but are not limited to):

• electrification of ports for vessels to plug into renewable electric sources when docked
• facilities to store or process fish or shellfish waste products for secondary use, such as feedstuffs
• facilities for innovation in land-based aquaculture production
• infrastructure to support scientific research or activities associated with the restoration of coastal fisheries, such as laboratories, hatcheries or seagrass cultivation