Marine Fund Scotland 2023 to 2024: guidance

Additional rules and obligations

This section sets out additional rules and obligations for those applying to the Marine Fund Scotland 2023-24. These are:

• it is essential that applicants are open, honest and accurate when making applications to the Marine Fund Scotland 2023-24. It is a criminal offence to supply information in the application, supporting documents or in any additional information or documentation provided following a request from us, knowing it to be false or not believing it to be true, and you may be liable to a fine or imprisonment if you do so.
• the Scottish Ministers (which, for this purpose, includes officials within the Scottish Government's Marine Scotland Directorate) will scrutinise your application and may from time to time conduct random checks on your application and the supporting documents, including contacting proposed suppliers. In the event of irregularities, Scottish Ministers may in their absolute discretion refuse applications.
• in the event that false or inaccurate information is discovered, the Scottish Ministers will give consideration to investigating the matter further and may take such enforcement action, including reporting the matter to Police Scotland or any other law enforcement agency, as they consider appropriate. In such circumstances the Scottish Ministers may also seek to recover any grant paid.
• if your project is approved and a grant offered, specific contractual grant conditions will apply and these will be specified in the grant offer letter in accordance with the Scheme established by the 2022 Regulations. These grant conditions are not set out fully in these General Guidance notes and you must refer to any grant offer letter received for the full grant conditions applicable to any offer of grant. Any breach of these grant conditions may lead to recovery of any grant paid, and if necessary the Scottish Ministers may seek recovery through appropriate criminal or civil action.
• if you are offered a grant and the grant is not used for the purpose for which it was granted, the Scottish Ministers may seek recovery of any grant paid through appropriate criminal or civil action.
• it is the responsibility of each applicant and/or their organisation (as appropriate) to ensure that the project for which they are applying for funding complies with all relevant health and safety legislation, any other project- specific safety requirements, and all other relevant laws.
• if your proposed project involves modification to a vessel you must contact the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to determine the effects of the modifications on the vessel's safety and stability, before submitting an application to Marine Fund Scotland. See the statutory guidance MIN 593 (F) Amendment 1 Vessel modifications - pre-approval by MCA for further details. Please confirm the date on which you contacted the MCA in the documents accompanying your Marine Fund Scotland application. All installation and/or modification work undertaken by the owner/skipper of the vessel must meet all relevant MCA safety/stability requirements, whether funded by Marine Fund Scotland grant funding or otherwise. Responsibility for any work undertaken which renders a vessel unstable or unsafe remains entirely with the owner/skipper of the vessel.
• where there is a close connection between an applicant (or their organisation) or one of their close relatives or a partner(s) in a project and a company or companies that will supply goods and services to that project, the eligibility of the project costs associated with said company or companies shall be entirely at our discretion.
• receipt of funding from another public source may affect your/your organisation's ability to access Marine Fund Scotland funding. We may withhold, withdraw or require grant funds to be repaid in whole or in part depending on the source, value, and conditions of other public funding. Any application for Marine Fund Scotland funding must disclose the source(s) and amount(s) of any other funding awarded in connection with the project in question. If any further awards of public funding are made in relation to a project after the related application has been submitted to us, the applicant (or their organisation) must inform us as soon as reasonably possible after this award.