Eligibility
To be eligible to apply you must either be:
- a producer organisation (PO) that is submitting an application on behalf of your members (multi-PO applications will be rejected) and contain only vessels registered in England with a commercial fishing licence
- an English non-sectoral over-10-metre vessel - this includes over 10 metre Crown Dependency vessels - you can also submit a joint application with other non-sectoral over-10-metre vessels
You can submit a group application of non-sectoral over-10-metre vessels with a named person as the lead contact.
You must also:
- make sure no master or owner in your application has been found guilty of any fisheries offences in the last 3 years which resulted in an official written warning (OWW), financial administrative penalty (FAP) or finding of guilt by a court
- agree to only catch and land the quota - trading the allocation will not be permitted
- agree to be contacted and share information and scheme-relevant data such as landings and sales data, during and after the trial as part of an assessment by Defra, the MMO and their contractors
Information you'll need to provide
You must provide:
- your contact details
- the stock you’re applying for
- the minimum and maximum viable tonnage
- details of the vessels you’ll use to catch the quota such as the registration number and name of the master or owner
- details and evidence of the gears and modifications you’ll use
- details of the monitoring systems you’ll use
- details of the social and economic benefits you’ll bring to coastal communities
- the percentage of stock you’ll land in UK or Crown Dependency ports
When you can apply
Applications are open from 6 October 2025 and will close at 11:59pm on 31 October 2025.
Defra will not consider applications received outside of this period. Awaiting a response to a query will not be regarded as a justification for considering an application submitted after the deadline.