Statutory guidance

MMO Licence Freeze Policy May 2020

Updated 5 January 2021

A licence freeze is the restraining of a vessels fishing licence so that the ownership cannot be transferred between two parties during the course of a criminal investigation.

The purpose of a licence freeze is to allow for the effective enforcement of fisheries legislation and to prevent vessel owners avoiding the full consequences of enforcement action by transferring vessels and associated licences before cases can be heard at Court. This is to ensure criminal investigations are not frustrated.

A licence will ordinarily be frozen at the beginning of a formal investigation, however a licence freeze may be applied or altered at any time during a formal investigation. The decision to freeze a licence is kept under review during the course of an investigation.

The freezing of the licence does not affect fishing operations, the vessel may continue to fish as long as the ownership of a vessel does not change.

0.1 The Freezing of a Licence

When a licence is frozen, the MMO will write to the licence holder to inform them that the licence has been frozen, except where to do so would frustrate the investigation. When we notify you that we have frozen a licence we will set out the the details of the alleged offence unless we judge by doing so, it would frustrate the investigation.

Ordinarily when a licence is frozen, the MMO will not accept an application to transfer ownership of that licence until the formal investigation has been concluded and:-

• A decision is taken not to prosecute you; or
• If you are prosecuted, you are acquitted; or
• If you are prosecuted and convicted, any fines and costs awarded have been paid in full.

Where an owner of a vessel is prosecuted and convicted, it will be the vessel owner’s responsibility to notify the relevant office of administration for the MMO that any fines and costs have been paid in full. The MMO will then confirm this with the relevant court, and, once the Court has confirmed that the fines and costs have been paid in full, the MMO will remove the licence freeze and the owner will be notified in writing.

If a vessel is sold whilst the licence is frozen, the entitlement resulting from that sale will be created and immediately frozen.

Other than in exceptional circumstances, a licence will be permanently removed where any fines and costs imposed by a court are outstanding:

• Three years after the date of conviction; or
• On the date for payment specified by the court if this falls after the three year period.

0.2 The right to request a review of our decision to freeze a licence.

When a licence has been frozen the owner will be notified of this in writing. The letter will set out how the owner can ask the MMO to review the decision to freeze the licence. We will consider whether or not to unfreeze the licence on a case by case basis, in light of the specific circumstances of each case. Ordinarily, we expect to receive a request to review of our decision to freeze the licence within 28 days of the owner being notified that the licence has been frozen.

When an owner requests a review they should set out in their request detailed reasons why they consider the licence freeze should not be applied in the specific circumstances of their case. If appropriate they should also provide copies of any documents referred to in their request.

We aim to review our decision to freeze the licence within 14 days of receiving the request. Our decision on review will be communicated to the owner in writing within 5 days of our review being completed.

0.3 Requests to freeze a licence by a separate enforcement body.

The MMO may be approached by other enforcement agencies and asked to freeze a licence where that party is investigating criminal offences in relation to fishing activities of the vessel associated with that licence.

The MMO will only accept requests by such bodies where they are made in writing, and where they set out sufficient detail of any alleged offending to allow the MMO to make an appropriate decision. We will keep a record of any such requests we receive.

We will only agree to freeze a licence on request where we are satisfied that it is appropriate to do so and in making this decision, we will apply the principles set out in this policy. Where we freeze a licence on the request of another enforcement body, we will notify the relevant owner in writing that we have frozen the licence. This letter will set out the reasons why the licence has been frozen and will identify the enforcement body who made the request, except where, in our view, to do so would frustrate any investigation.

Where we freeze a licence on the request of another enforcement body the owner can ask us to review that decision, using the review procedure set out in Section 3. We will review our decision and respond in accordance with the process outlined in Section 3. We will however, seek the views of the body requesting the licence freeze before making our decision whether or not to uphold the freeze. We will also disclose to the separate enforcement body the reasons why the owner feels that the licence freeze is inappropriate for comment.

We will inform both the owner and the relevant enforcement agency of the outcome of the review in accordance with the process set out in Section 3.

Where we have frozen a licence on the request of another enforcement agency, and we are informed by that agency that the investigation has concluded and no court proceedings are to be instigated, we will unfreeze the licence and the owner will be notified of this in writing. Where the investigation leads to court proceedings being instigated, the unfreezing of the licence will follow the same process as outlined in section 2 above.