The costs associated with marine licence applications made to the Marine Management Organisation are planned to change from 1 September 2018.

This follows a consultation held by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on proposals to revise marine licensing application fees, held between December 2017 and February 2018. The consultation outlined changes needed in order to maintain marine licence applicant fee rates in-line with the costs incurred by the MMO in determining a marine licence application.

The fee rate for a marine licence has not been changed since 2014. Since that time, the cost of determining a marine licence application has increased. These changes will help to ensure that the cost of a marine licence is not subsidised by the UK tax payer.

Defra has now published its response to the consultation and laid a Statutory Instrument in Parliament to provide the legal basis for the changes to take place.

Marine licensing fees from 1 September

The planned implementation date for the changes to marine licence application fees is 1 September 2018. The impact of the changes depend on the band of marine licence applied for and when the application is received/determined.

The MMO will soon update its guidance to reflect the new proposed fees. The main change is a revision of the hourly fee rate from £94 to £122 for Band 2 and 3 applicants.

From 1 September 2018 onwards:

• new Band 2 and 3 applications received by the MMO will be charged the new hourly rate. This includes pre-application cases, applications and discretionary charges.

• marine licence variations and post-consent work on marine licences will remain at £94 per hour

• travel costs will be charged at the new hourly rate and will no longer be capped. Travel and subsistence costs will also be charged. MMO will publish details of their travel and subsistence policy shortly.

There will be a number of Band 2 applications ongoing at 1 September 2018 where the MMO has not yet made a determination. The MMO will introduce transitional arrangements for these and will provide bespoke advice and calculation of fees to applicants.

Band 2 applicants will continue to be charged under the old fee regime until they are determined. However the cap on total costs payable for the existing 2E category will be based on the new arrangements as this is set at a lower level than under the existing scheme.

There will be no transitional arrangements for Band 3 applications, ongoing cases will be charged at the new rate from 1 September.

Improvements to the marine licensing service

The consultation and Government response explain how the MMO has continued to improve marine licensing systems and processes and is committed to further enhancing these. Such changes, introduced since 2015 as part of a marine licensing improvement programme, are estimated to have collectively saved businesses around half a million pounds a year.

One such change was a self-service approach for some low-risk applications, which was included in the consultation.

In responding to the consultation the Government has made a number of commitments to further improve the marine licensing process and systems to make them more transparent and efficient. These commitments include:

• Ensuring service standards are published on the MMO website and the delivery against these standards is monitored and reported
• Ongoing monitoring of the marine licensing regime, with any opportunity to pass on efficiency savings to be considered under the next review of marine licensing application fees
• Reviewing and publishing guidance on travelling relating to marine licence applications, using comments received as part of the consultation to inform this
• Considering whether other specific activities could be added to the list of Band 1 activities when regulations are next reviewed.

The MMO welcomes feedback from marine licensing customers in order to further improve the system to meet their needs and continue to offer value for money.

Government Legal Department (GLD) lawyers have been providing crucial legal advice to the Government, helping bring about legislation for one of the toughest bans on ivory sales in the world.

The GLD legal team, based in Defra, have worked very quickly to progress the Bill. It was introduced on 23 May and it has already completed its stages in the House of Commons, and will be debated further in the House of Lords after summer recess.

The Bill concerns dealing in elephant ivory (including buying, selling and hiring) which, when passed will be an offence punishable by a custodial sentence of up to five years and/or an unlimited fine, or a civil penalty of up to £250,000.

The Ivory Bill follows the result of a consultation which concluded in December 2017, for which more than 70,000 people and organisations responded. Over 88% of responses were in favour of bringing in legislation to ban ivory sales in the UK.

Defra legal advisor Jane Beeko who led on the Bill said:

Since joining Defra last year, I’ve been fortunate to have had a mixed portfolio, which means I’ve worked on a variety of interesting pieces of work. This has included advising on the Aarhus Convention which concerns access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision making and access to justice in respect of environmental matters; the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the EU Timber Regulations.

Working on the Ivory Bill has been a fantastic experience. It took real team-work to get this Bill through to its current stage, and I feel very proud to work as part of a team producing the legal framework for such land-mark legislation.

Under the proposed legislation, dealing in an ivory item is prohibited under the Bill unless the items fall under one of the following exemptions:

• Pre-1918 item of outstanding artistic value or importance
• Pre-1918 portrait miniature
• Items with a small amount of ivory (less than 10%) and made before 1947
• Musical instruments with less than 20% ivory made before 1975
• Dealings to and between accredited museums

The Bill will continue its path through Parliament in September and if it faces no opposition could come into effect next year.

The Environment Agency publish surrenders that they issue under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).

This decision includes the permit, decision document and site condition report evaluation template for:

• Operator name: Cranswick Country Foods PLC
• Installation name: Preston Abattoir
• Permit number: EPR/BN5726IV/S006

If the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 without a deal, find out how this would affect:

• nuclear safeguards
• ownership and movement of nuclear material, equipment and technology
• management of spent fuel and radioactive waste
• reporting and notifications to the European Commission.

If the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 without a deal, find out how this would affect farmers who receive payments under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes. These include payments under the Basic Payment Scheme.