Fishing vessel licensing: license variations
General guidance and advice for fishermen regarding Scottish fishing vessel licensing.
Weekly variations to Scottish fishing vessel licences are published online. If you would like to receive an email notification when these variations are published, please send a request by email to AccesstoSeaFisheries@gov.scot.
Assignation of fishing licenses and quota
Solicitors, banks and vessel agents periodically request that the Marine Directorate acknowledge, sign over and receipt Intimations and assignations in connection with fishing licences and quota allocations. It is established departmental policy not to comply with such requests and this will remain the Marine Directorate ’s position.
Our long-stated position on quota ownership is that quota is allocated at the discretion of Scottish Ministers and, as such, fishermen neither own nor have property rights over it. Indeed it is difficult to see how the situation could be interpreted otherwise given that the coverage and level of quotas and their allocation are dependent on international negotiations and agreements. Ministers will continue to allocate quota at their discretion in order to ensure optimal uptake of the fishing opportunities to the Scottish and UK fleets.
Ministers do not accept that any fishing licence granted at their discretion, or any entitlement to apply for such a licence, may be assigned to another party.