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• Marine regulation and licensing
• Marine licensing
  • Licensable activities and exemptions
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Construction (including renewables)

The construction, alteration or improvement of any works either in or over the sea or on or under the sea bed requires a marine licence.

Works is a broad term and includes harbours, marinas, piers, jetties, wind farms, outfalls, sea walls and more. It also includes soft-engineered coast protection works such as groynes and revetments.

Coast protection, drainage and flood defence works

There is an exemption for maintaining coast protection, drainage or flood defence works where the activity is carried out by or on behalf of the Environment Agency.

This is also an exemption for maintaining coast protection works where the activity is carried on by or on behalf of a coast protection authority.

Maintenance of harbour works

There is an exemption for maintaining harbour works where the activity is carried out by or on behalf of a harbour authority and is within the existing boundaries of the works.

Renewables

We are responsible for licensing offshore generating stations including wind farms, wave and tidal devices with a capacity between 1 and 100 megawatts. Generating stations of a greater capacity qualify as nationally significant infrastructure projects and are subject to a different system of consent.

In addition to a marine licence, these applications may also require consent under the Electricity Act 1989. Application fees for these consents are set out in The Electricity (Offshore Generating Stations) (Applications for Consent) Regulations 2006. They are:

• £5,000 for a generating station less than 200 megawatts capacity
• £12,000 for a generating station between 200 and 500 megawatts capacity
• £20,000 for a generating station more than 500 megawatts capacity.

Further information

Marine licensing guidance 2: Construction (including renewables) and removals (PDF 339 KB)

Marine licensing guidance 7: Emergency and high risk works (PDF 211 KB)