How to apply for a marine licence
Details on what you need to do to apply for a standard marine licence.
To apply for a marine licence, you need to register on MMO’s online licensing system and set up an online account.
Before you apply
If you’re unsure if you need a marine licence, use our marine licence tool before continuing.
Before applying, please ensure that you are familiar with the methodology, location, and scope of the work. This includes understanding all licensable activities within the work, as some methodologies may involve multiple activities. If there are any changes within the scope of the work, you should revisit the tool.
After registering, we recommend before submitting your application and after following the guidance on what you may need to supply with your application, if you are unsure what you may need to supply you can use our pre-application service. We will then be able to advise on what you should include in your application. To use this service, submit an enquiry from your account on our online licencing system. This service may incur a charge.
If you submit a marine licence application with incomplete information, we will not process it. In most cases we’ll ask you to supply the missing information. In some circumstances we’ll need to reject the application. Check here to understand what you may need to supply with your marine licence application.
How to Apply for a marine licence
You can apply for a marine licence account using our online licensing system once you are registered or have an existing account.
You can use the online licensing system to:
- submit a marine licence application (pre-application service)
- request advice by submitting an enquiry
- notify us about an exempt activity
- request an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening opinion
- request an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping requests
- request an environmental statement review
- request a sample plan, sediment analysis or laboratory validation
- request a variation to a marine licence
- view a starts of work notifications
- view a disposal returns
- view a monitoring reports
- submit returns to fufil marine licence conditions
For help using the online licensing system, read our guidance document.
After you have applied for a standard marine licence
You can log in to your online licensing system account to check the progress of your application at any time.
Once you submit your application, we’ll do an initial assessment to check you’ve included all the necessary information. If we require more information from you to support your application, we’ll contact you by email. Your application will be given an ‘on hold’ status until the information required has been supplied. In some circumstances, we might need to reject your application.
When we’ve completed our initial assessment of your application we’ll contact you with a fee estimate. You have 14 days to accept the fee estimate. If you do not accept the fee estimate within 14 days your application will be rejected. Please be aware that fee estimates are subject to change. You will only be charged for the time spent on the application. If a new fee estimate is issued, the application will go on hold until the new fee estimate has been accepted.
We aim to process your application within 13 weeks from the date you accept our fee estimate for your application (excluding on hold time).
After you accept the fee estimate we’ll allocate your application to a case team. A case officer will contact you by email to confirm this. If you’ve not been contacted by a case officer 7 days after accepting the fee estimate, please send an email to marine.consents@marinemanagement.org.uk or phone 0300 123 1032 and include your case reference number.
It is not unusual for an application to be given an ‘on hold’ status once the case team start processing your application. This is usually because we need further information from you. In these instances, your case officer will tell you what information we need, and when we need it by. For a standard marine licence we will always consult our primary advisors and undertake a public consultation. We may also decide to consult interested parties about your application. This usually includes other public authorities and agencies. If we do this, we may contact you to place notices in national and local publications as part of your application process and request further information. The consultation may also lead to requests for further information from you.
The time an application is given an ‘on hold’ status is not included within the 13-week target. Therefore, your application may take longer to process in real time. You can see you application status by logging in to your online licensing system account.
When the case team has finished processing your application, we’ll either:
- grant the marine licence
- grant the marine licence subject to conditions
- reject your marine licence application
In case we apply conditions to your license or refuse your application, we’ll set out a record of reasons.
After you receive an application decision
During the marine licence application process the MMO will send the draft marine licence for you to review.
You may then be required to fulfil conditions associated with your licence on our online licensing system, for example, provide any updated versions of documents required before you can start the activity. The MMO will review this document and confirm if it is sufficient to discharge the condition.
Some conditions may only be able to be actioned once the activity is happening. For example, noise reports for piling activities. Others may only be able to be actioned after the activity has been completed. For example, assessments on mitigation measures.
Any post-consent monitoring completed by the MMO of your marine licence, which includes any reviews or approvals which are required, may incur a fee. Read more about our fees.
Appeals
You can appeal our decision if:
- we refused to grant you a marine licence
- you disagree with the conditions attached to your marine licence
- you disagree with the length of time your marine licence has been granted for
In England appeals are heard by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) on behalf of the Secretary of State. Only you as the applicant can appeal a decision. However, a challenge in the courts by judicial review may be available to a third party.
You have 6 months from the date of our decision being made to notify PINS that you want to make a formal appeal stating your preferred procedure. The available procedures are:
- written representations
- hearings
- inquiries
We will also be asked to indicate a preferred procedure and PINS will then decide which will be followed.
The start date of the appeal is the date that we receive notification of this decision from PINS.
PINS will appoint an inspector on behalf of the Secretary of State to consider your appeal.
There are legal time limits for parts of the procedure that you and MMO must keep to. This is given in detail in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs guidance
The inspector may dismiss your appeal or allow the appeal and quash our original decision in whole or in part. If our licensing decision is quashed, then we may be directed to grant a marine licence to you or grant a licence subject to conditions defined by the appeal decision.
An appeal decision can be challenged by judicial review.
Both sides will normally be expected to pay their own expenses during an appeal. However, the inspector has the power to award costs to any party where a hearing or inquiry is held, or scheduled, but subsequently cancelled at a late stage. There is no provision for costs orders to be made in written representation cases.
We encourage all outstanding issues or differences of opinion on an application to be resolved during the application process, which may save time and money for all sides if a formal appeal is avoided. If you are unhappy with a potential decision to refuse an application, you can ask the MMO to carry out an internal review of the decision before it is formally issued. To do this, contact marine.consents@marinemanagement.org.uk.
Information on how your personal information will be processed for the purpose of marine licensing appeals is published in the Defra marine licensing privacy notice.
Making a change to your licence
If you need to make a change to your marine licence you can apply for a ‘licence variation’ from your online licensing system account. The request must be made at least 3 months before the change is required or at least 3 months before the licence end date. If your request is not submitted within the correct time frames your request will be rejected and a new application would need to be submitted.
MMO are allowed to vary, suspend or revoke your marine licence on any grounds. These include:
- a breach of any conditions
- a change in circumstances relating to the environment or human health
- a change in scientific evidence
- navigational safety
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