Marine licence fees

Marine licensing fees

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) will be charging the following fees to deliver the marine licensing service in Wales.

Pre-application services

General enquiries

You will receive 2 hours free advice and guidance on the marine licensing process. 

General queries may include:

• Confirming if an activity requires a marine licence
• Guidance on the marine licensing process
• Directing to application forms, fees and guidance 

General advice does not include attending meetings or seeking project specific advice from technical experts. 

Any queries that take longer than 2 hours will be charged at an hourly rate of £120 and be treated as bespoke pre-application.

Bespoke pre-application

The bespoke pre-application service is open to all users of the marine licensing service. The ability of the team to offer this service will be dependent on the capacity of the team at time of request.

This is a customer led service dependent of the level on pre-application and technical advice required for the project.

The Permitting Service encourage customers, particularly of complex, novel and/or large scale developments, to utilise this service as there are many benefits, including:

• Identifying issues upfront
• Understanding requirements of the marine licensing process
• Potential to reduce the formal determination period 

The Permitting Service will agree the requirements with you in advance, enabling a tailored pre-application service to be provided. 

The types of activity that may be included in this service are:

• Attending meetings
• Facilitation of meetings with technical experts in advance of a formal application
• Providing informal advice
• Discussing potential monitoring and data requirements
• Any engagement that falls beyond the scope of general queries 

Once the initial scope of the pre-application has been agreed between you and the Permitting Service, you will be charged at an hourly rate of £120. A deposit may be requested. 

Invoices will be issued monthly, in arrears.

Screening opinions

Before submitting a marine licence application you can request a Screening Opinion from the marine licensing team (MLT) to determine if an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required.

Screening Opinion requests will be charged at a fixed fee of £600. You will need to pay the fee upfront on submission of the Screening Opinion request.

Scoping opinion

For projects that may require EIA and an Environmental Statement (ES) to be submitted in support of a marine licence application, you can request a Scoping Opinion. 

Scoping Opinion requests will be charged at an hourly rate of £120 with no maximum fee. You will be invoiced in arrears.

Screening and scoping opinions

Screening and Scoping Requests can be submitted together. These will be charged at an hourly rate of £120. You will be invoiced in arrears. 

If the Permitting Service conclude that the project does not require an EIA, and therefore a scoping opinion is not required you will only be charged the screening fee of £600.

If you are unsure whether your project may require an EIA, please contact the Permitting Service in the first instance who can advise whether you should make a Screening Option request. 

Review of Environmental Statements

Before submitting a Band 3 marine licence application, you can request the Permitting Service to review a draft Environmental Statement (ES) or chapters of an ES. The ability of the team to offer this service will be dependent on the capacity of the team at time of request.

The Permitting Service will assess the adequacy of the ES through this process and provide advice and guidance to inform the final ES. This may require consultation with technical experts. 

You will be charged at an hourly rate of £120 with no maximum fee. You will be invoiced in arrears.

Sediment sample analysis fees

Before dredged material can be deemed suitable for disposal at sea, it must first be analysed for a range of physical and chemical properties, in line with OSPAR guidelines. 

You are encouraged to approach the Permitting Service where a sampling plan may be required. If you are unsure, please contact the Permitting Service who will advise. The Permitting Service can facilitate the production of sampling by external advisors and any sample analysis if required. 

This service will be charged at a fixed fee of £420 payable upfront, during pre and post application. This does not cover scientific advisors time or sample analysis costs, these will be charged for in addition to this fee.

Sample analysis costs will vary depending on the bespoke sampling plans for the associated works. Time spent by NRW case officer will be covered by the licence application fee. If this work is associated with post consents, you will be charged at an hourly rate of £120 with no maximum fee. You will be invoiced in arrears.

Please see the sediment sample analysis page for further information on how to submit a request.

Formal applications 

Marine Licence applications fall under 3 different payment bands. Further information on the type of activity which is considered under each band can be found here.

Band 1

Band 1 projects are defined as low risk activities that are subject to a simpler licensing process. These are charged at a fixed fee of £600. You will need to pay the application fee upfront on submission of the licence application.

Band 2

Band 2 projects are charged at a fixed fee of £1920. You will need to pay the application fee upfront on submission of the licence application.

Band 3

Band 3 application are charged at an hourly rate of £120, with no maximum fees. You will be invoiced in arrears.

Post licensing

From 1^st April 2017 the Permitting Service will charge for any new licence variation or post-licensing work packages. This also applies to licences issued before 1^st April 2017.

Post licence discussions 

General post licence queries will be dealt with in the same way as general queries.

If you wish to discuss further any potential changes to your licence, you will be charged at the hourly rate of £120. This is comparable with the bespoke pre-application service.

This service can included discussions and informal gathering of views from consultees on proposed changes to a licence and/or monitoring specification, amongst other topics. 

Discharge of Conditions

Some marine licences will have conditions that need to be discharged over the course of the licence. These will be charged at the following rates: 

Licence Band	Description	Fee
Bands 1 and 2	One off fixed fee to discharge all conditions on the marine licence. This does not include conditions associated with ongoing monitoring.  Payable upfront on the submission of the first condition to be discharged	Fixed fee £480
Band 3	Hourly rate charged for Permitting Service time spent on discharging marine licence conditions.	Hourly rate of £120 with no maximum fees

 

These fees are not applicable for notification conditions, for which there is no fee. 

For existing licences, if you are unsure about which band your licence falls under please contact the Permitting Service.

Monitoring

Some marine licences will have monitoring requirements to ensure that an activity is not causing detrimental impacts. This could be in the form of annual monitoring reports, or more frequently at the beginning of the operational period of novel projects.

For all monitoring work packages, you will be charged at the hourly rate of £120 with no maximum fee. This is applicable to all fee bands. You will be invoiced in arrears.

Variations

Requests to vary any marine licences that are made to the Permitting Service in writing, will be charged at the following rates: 

Type	Description	Proposed Fee
Variation 0	Change to licence instigated as a result of NRW action.	No Fee
Variation 1	Administrative change – request by the Licence Holder to change licence eg change of name or address or contractors	Fixed fee £240
Variation 2	Complex changes – for example a request by the Licence Holder to change licence that requires NRW to consult with relevant advisors.	Hourly Rate of £120
Variation 3	Routine change – request by the Licence Holder to change licence which do not require NRW to consult or very minimal consultation eg licence extension.	Fixed Fee £480

Transferring of Licence

Requests to transfer a marine licence from one licence holder to another that are made in writing to the Permitting Service will be charged a fixed fee of £480.

You will need to pay the fee upfront on submission of the transfer request. 

Charges for travel

This will be considered on a case-by-case basis and negotiated with the Permitting Service.

External advice costs

For any work package where advice or analysis is required that cannot be fulfilled internally by NRW, external advice costs may be incurred. You will be charged any external advice costs, in addition to relevant marine licensing fees. 

External advice would primarily be sought for Band 3 applications, monitoring and some discharge of conditions, as well as sediment sampling analysis. For Band 1 and the majority of Band 2 applications, external advice would not be required. Should you incur external advice costs, you will be informed upfront with an estimate of costs provided by the MLT. 

Welsh Archaeological Trust (WAT)

External advice sought from the WAT is charged at an hourly rate. Developers should engage with the WAT prior to submission of marine licence applications and discharge of conditions where chargeable advice is likely to be incurred by the WAT to ensure they are aware of the estimated costs. Chargeable work includes, but is not limited to, the review and approval of a written scheme of investigations.

External charges incurred by the WAT will be invoiced to the developer directly from the WAT.

Estimates and invoicing procedure

The Permitting Service are not able to provide accurate quotes for Band 3 marine licence applications and other services that are charged at an hourly rate.

If, however you wish to be notified once a specific number of hours has been exceeded, please raise this with the Permitting Case Officer once they have been assigned.

You will be invoiced by NRW for the actual number of hours spent on the work package. Time is charged in 15 minute units, with a minimum of 15 minutes for each work item. Invoices will be issued monthly, one month in arrears. 

The Permitting Service will review applications and work packages prior to acceptance to ensure the correct fee band is applied.

Payment methods 

Fixed fee payment must be made at the same time the application is submitted. The work will not be progressed without the appropriate fee. 

Hourly rate charges will be invoiced to you monthly, one month in arrears. 

All payment can be made by one of the methods below: 

1. Cheque 

Cheques or postal orders should be made payable to Natural Resources Wales. Make sure ‘A/C Payee’ is written across the cheque if it is not already printed on. 

We will not accept cheques with a future date on them. 

To enable us to allocate the cheque to the correct application, please label the back of the cheque with an identifier in the following format:

Name followed by “Marine Licence Application” followed by the works description. For example: “Mr Smith Consulting – Marine License Application - Construction of jetty at Anglesey.”

Send your completed cheque to: 

Permit Receipt Centre
Natural Resources Wales
Welsh Government Offices 
Cathays Park 
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

2. Paying by electronic transfer BACS reference 

If you choose to pay by electronic transfer you will need to use the following information to make your payment. 

Company name: Natural Resources Wales 

Company address: Income Department, PO BOX 663, Cardiff, CF24 0YD 

Bank: RBS 

Address: National Westminster Bank Plc, 2 ½ Devonshire Square, London, EC2M 4BA 

Sort code: 60-70-80 

Account number: 10014438 

Payment reference number: PRCAPPXXXXXYYY 

You will need to create your own reference number. It should begin with PRCAPP to reflect that the application is for a permitted activity, and it should include the first five letters of the company name (replacing the Xs in the above reference number) and a unique numerical identifier (replacing the Ys in the above reference number). The reference number that you supply will appear on our bank statements. 

You should also e-mail your payment details and a reference number to permitreceiptcentre@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk 

Making payments from outside the UK 

If you are making your payment from outside the United Kingdom (which must be received in sterling), our IBAN number is GB70 NWBK6070 8010 014438 and our SWIFT/BIC number is NWBKGB2L. 

If you do not quote your reference number, there may be a delay in processing your payment and application. 

3. Paying by phone 

Fixed fee payments can be made over the phone by calling us on 03000 653 770 between 9 and 5, Monday to Friday.

4. Invoicing details

For work packages which are charged at an hourly rate you will be required to provide us with the information below in order to allow us to invoice you in arrears. Invoicing details must be provided prior to your application or request being considered .

Customer Name:
For the Attention Of:
Purchase Order Number:
Address for invoice:
Telephone Number:
Email address:

We do not invoice for applications or services which are a fixed fee, another method of payment must be used.

Marine Licensing Fees and Charges for Wales 

Model Section	Work package/Service	Fee Type	Fee from April 2017
Pre Application	General Enquiries (up to 2 hours)	No Fee	No Fee
	Screening	Fixed Fee	£600
	Scoping*	Hourly Rate	£120 per hour
	Screening and Scoping*	Hourly Rate	£120 per hour (If only results in  Screening, the charge will be £600)
	Bespoke Pre-application*	Hourly Rate	£120 per hour
	Review of Environmental Statements*	Hourly Rate	£120 per hour
	Sediment sampling analysis fees *	Fixed Fee	£420
Formal Application	Band 1 - Low Risk	Fixed Fee	£600
	Band 2 – Non Complex Cases*	Fixed Fee	£1920
	Band 3 – Complex Cases*	Hourly Rate	£120 per hour
Post Licence	Post Licence Discussions*	Hourly Rate	£120 per hour
	Discharge of Conditions Band 1 and 2* - for all conditions	Fixed Fee	£480
	Discharge of Conditions Band 3*	Hourly rate or bespoke arrangement with customer	£120 per hour
	Monitoring *	Hourly rate or bespoke arrangement with customer	£120 per hour
	Variation 0 – instigated by licensing authority	No Fee	No Fee
	Variation 1 - Administrative changes	Fixed Fee	£240
	Variation 2 - Complex changes*	Hourly Rate	£120 per hour
	Variation 3 - Routine changes *	Fixed Fee	£480
	Transferring of licence	Fixed Fee	£480

Work packages may incur external advice costs. If this this is applicable to you, the Permitting Case Officer will communicate this to you. External advice costs will be charged separately, in addition to any Permitting Service fees.