Introduction and fishing licence category

You can apply once you have:

• the certificate of registry from the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) UK Ship Register in your name(s)

• at least one fishing entitlement in your name to licence your vessel

• an English port, letter, number (PLN) on your vessel

The application form must be filled in by:

• the registered owner(s) of the vessel to be licensed
• an authorised signatory for the registered owner(s)
• a person with power of attorney for the registered owner(s)

To complete this application, you will need to have available:

• the certificate of registry
• vessel owner(s) contact details
• nominee and/or nominated person contact details
• the details for the entitlements you want to use to licence this vessel (found on your AFL7 section D or AFL19 section F). The holder's details on the entitlements must be the same as the vessel owner details on the certificate of registry

Please make sure the entitlement(s) you want to use to licence this vessel are suitable for your requirements:

• overall length of the vessel (over 10 metres, or 10 metres and under)
• licence category
• licence permits – shellfish (all vessel lengths), scallop and beam trawl areas 4 and 7 (over 10m vessels only)
• engine power
• tonnage

Important

If the entitlements do not contain enough engine power or tonnage to licence this vessel, you will need to obtain another entitlement to cover the shortfall.

If the engine power and tonnage on the entitlement are greater than the vessel requirements, any excess will be lost forever unless you first submit an AFL19 application to separate a fishing vessel licence entitlement. This is also known as disaggregating an entitlement.

Before you proceed with an application to separate a fishing vessel licence entitlement, please ensure that by disaggregating an entitlement it won’t affect the resulting shellfish, scallop or beam trawl permit. To access an AFL19 application form select this link (opens in new tab))

Licence category you are applying for.

Over 10 metre vessels

Please select the category of licence you are applying for from the list below. For more information on the licence categories please select this link fishing vessel licence categories (opens in new tab).

Vessels 10 metres and under

You need to tell us if the licence you are applying for is full or limited. You will need to check the status of your entitlement to determine this.

• if your entitlement status is full, you can apply for a full licence.

• if your entitlement status is limited, you will apply for a limited licence.

• if you are combining entitlements which are a mix of full and limited, your licence type will be allocated to the lowest status, which is limited.

• if you are using an entitlement from outside the Marine Management Organisation your licence may revert to limited.