Fisheries and Seafood Scheme
Information about the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme
Applies to England
Measures removed: M26 Supporting allocation and management of fishing opportunities
Measures included: M28 – Improving infrastructure across the supply chain
Grant cap increases: M19/M28 - £250,000 maximum grant value
Health & Safety onboard vessel: M23 eligibility changed to focus on key areas of prevention/assistance in Man Overboard situations and vessel capsize
About the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme
The Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS) is a Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) grant scheme administered and delivered by Marine Management Organisation (MMO).
The FaSS provides financial assistance to projects in England that would not be possible without government support.
Aims of the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme
The FaSS delivers investments to safeguard the long-term sustainability, resilience and prosperity of the seafood sector across England. It provides grants to support the Secretary of State’s key priorities for Defra by funding projects that contribute to:
- Creating a sustainable and resilient seafood sector
- Reducing emissions and waste from the seafood sector
- Cleaning up rivers, lakes and seas and support nature recovery
- Boosting regional and economic growth within the seafood sector
FaSS Eligibility Measures
FaSS offers a wide range of project funding measures within each aim. You can click on each measure to take you to the relevant guidance.
| Fishing related activities including energy improvements on a vessel | M2 Improving energy efficiency of fishing and mitigating climate change M16 Improving the value and quality of fisheries products |
| Diversification and new forms of income | M21 Diversification and new forms of income |
| Support to improve the resilience and sustainability of shore-based facilities | M3: Enhancing the quality and/or the adding of value of aquaculture products M9: Increasing the potential or sustainability of aquaculture sites M10: Developing a sustainable aquaculture sector M16 Improving the value and quality of fisheries products M28 Improving infrastructure across the supply chain M33 Marketing Measures M34 Processing of fisheries products |
| Support for cooperative activities, building capability and advisory services | M17 Providing advisory services M18 Management, relief, and advisory services for aquaculture farms M19 Promoting skills, knowledge, and networking M20 Promoting skills, knowledge, and networking for aquaculture M22 Supporting new entrants into the industry M25 Supporting co-operative activities M31 Supporting partnerships between fishers and scientists |
| Achieving good environmental status through the conservation and restoration of the marine environment | M11 Aquaculture providing environmental services M12 Preventing and collecting Marine Litter M13 Support for the design and implementation of conservation measures M15 Protection and restoration of marine biodiversity |
| Health and Safety | M3: Enhancing the quality and/or the adding of value of aquaculture products M23 Improving Health and Safety on board vessels M34 Processing of fisheries and aquaculture products |
About the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme
The Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS), administered by MMO on behalf of Defra, delivers investments to safeguard the long-term sustainability, resilience and prosperity of the seafood sector across England.
Since opening in 2021, the scheme has been incredibly successful with £35 million invested in over 1,700 projects supporting England’s catching, aquaculture and processing sectors, as well as projects that are improving the marine environment.
This is the final year of the scheme, and government financial guidelines dictate that all claims and payments must be made between 9th June 2025 and 31 March 2026. Any expenditure beyond this date will not be eligible for reimbursement.
Who can apply for funding?
Government financial guidelines dictate that all claims and payments must be made between 9th June 2025 and 31st March 2026. Any expenditure beyond this date will not be eligible for reimbursement.
To be eligible for this scheme you must be one of the following:
- An individual or business engaged within commercial sea fishing, aquaculture or processing (1.), an organisation or business engaged within recreational sea fishing or an organisation or business engaged in the conservation, enhancement or restoration of the marine environment.
- An organisation or business that recycles/upcycles waste materials associated with the seafood sector and/or develops new technologies to improve environmental sustainability associated with the seafood sector.
- A public body or local authority in a local community that has a focus on fishing, aquaculture or processing activities (including trust ports and local authority ports, and public bodies, using funds for environmental improvements or the management of fisheries);
- A university or research institute;
- A new entrant to the industry or unemployed individual that could benefit from knowledge or skills in fishing, aquaculture or processing activities.
You will be required to declare if you have received funding from other government financial support schemes and, if so, what for.
Please note that each eligible applicant can have a maximum £250,000 in FaSS contributions over a financial year.
If you are a business, you will need to declare which of the following categories you fall under (definitions can be found in the general guidance document)
- Micro-entity
- Small business
- Medium-sized business
- Larger enterprise
You will be required to provide a level of match funding for your project. Please refer to guidance documents below to see the latest rates that apply.
Who cannot apply for funding?
You cannot apply for and receive funding if you:
- Have been convicted of fraud under any fisheries scheme
- Have been convicted for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
- Have been convicted of an offence that the MMO considers to be a ‘serious infringement’, in the 12 months before applying
- Have been found to have committed a serious violation of conservation or management measures within the preceding 12 months of applying
What activities the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme can support
You must review the relevant guidance note for the project you are seeking funding for. These set out what you can and cannot apply for. The detailed guidance notes cover:
- Fishing related activities including energy improvements on a vessel
- Diversification and new forms of income
- Support to improve the resilience and sustainability of a shore-based facility
- Support for cooperative activities, building capability and advisory services
- Achieving good environmental status through the conservation and restoration of the marine environment
- Health and safety.
If we consider that you can afford your project without the scheme’s support, your project will not be approved.
As a minimum, all projects will be assessed for value for money, benefits to be delivered, affordability and deliverability.
It is your responsibility to ensure that:
- Your project is technically viable and complies with all relevant health and safety legislation, other project specific safety requirements, and all other legal requirements;
- Items purchased with scheme funding meets all necessary legal requirements. If items purchased subsequently becomes obsolete or illegal, then this is at your own risk. There can be no refunds or claims against the scheme;
- All relevant legal requirements of the project are complied with.
What activities the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme can’t support
You cannot get funding for:
- Items and services that are statutory or mandatory requirements of law and bylaws cannot be funded;
- Projects that risk leading to fisheries or fish stocks being overfished (based on best available evidence)
- Transferring the ownership of a business or fishing vessel, including through the creation of joint enterprises
- Operations that increase the fishing capacity of a fishing vessel, or for equipment that increases the ability of a fishing vessel to find fish, except where they meet legitimate public policy goals such as improved safety or sustainability
- Fishing for fish stocks managed by a Regional Fisheries Management Organisation or Arrangement to which the UK is not a member
- Fishing or fishing-related activities conducted without the permission of the flag state where required and, if operating in another state’s waters, without permission of that State
- Building, purchasing, importing or acquiring fishing vessels,
- Carrying out exploratory fishing;
- Pulse trawling;
- The same type of equipment for the same vessel if you have already received support through the scheme;
- Preventative or scheduled maintenance costs including those relating to vehicles
- Purchasing or leasing of vehicles that are not used exclusively to provide a direct contribution to the project;
- Interest on a debt or the re-payments of loans on any item(s) you have purchased;
- The costs of any item(s) bought with a loan until the loan is repaid (this does not include leased items if your offer letter allows funding for them);
- The purchase of land or housing that’s worth more than 10% of your project’s total expenditure;
- Your business’s operating costs unless MMO has told you otherwise in your offer letter;
- Any costs that have been fully or partially funded through an alternative grant;
- Any costs that you could recover in part or in total by making a claim on an insurance policy or by seeking compensation or damages;
- The cost for any items purchased prior to receiving acknowledgement of receipt of your funding application by MMO Grants Team.
- Items that have been purchased with a Hire Purchase Agreement.
- Consumable items such as office equipment (printers, memory sticks, tablets) as well as phones, laptops and subscription services are not eligible for funding.
- Any costs related to the preparation or completion of Grant applications or claims.
Please contact MMO Grants Team if you are unsure whether your project is eligible or ineligible for funding. The above list is not exhaustive, the MMO Grants Team retain the right to refuse funding for any items in relation to the list, the decision is final and cannot be appealed.
The application process
Expression of Interest (EOI)
You may wish to submit an ‘expression of interest’ form to see if a project is eligible before completing an application form or responding to a funding round. It is not essential but may help you understand whether your project is likely to fit the criteria for funding.
Please see our additional guidance for support on how to Lodge an Expression of Interest
FaSS Panels
Applications with a total project cost of £150,000, or more, must be considered by the FaSS panel, which is responsible for reviewing and recommending projects in line with the overall objectives of the scheme. The panel is expected to meet to consider applications in September 2025.
Making an application
All applicants applying to the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme must read the general guidance document as well as the project specific guidance before applying.
You can apply for funding online. You may need to complete more than one application if your project has different elements within it. You should read the associated guidance for each part of your application.
You will need the following information to hand in order to complete the application:
- The appropriate guide for completing your application form
- Your business details such as your accounts, business registration number and VAT registration number.
If your application is successful, you will need to be able to pay for your entire project up front - you can then claim the costs back from MMO.
After you apply
We will contact you within ten working days to confirm receipt of your application. After this you can begin work on the project, but this is entirely at your own risk. The items, suppliers and costs must be the same as in your application: any deviation will make the costs ineligible.
We will assess your application within twelve weeks of its receipt and notify you if any further information is required. Once we have all the required information to allow us to make a decision, we will contact you to tell you if your application has been successful or not.
You can also find further details in the post-application guidance document.
All guidance notes are located in the main guidance page
Applying to FaSS
If you have submitted an application prior to 10 June 2024 you can still access the Fisheries and Seafood Support E-system. to review your application or complete a task requested by MMO’s grants team.
Important Documents
Successful Applicants
Details of the projects that have been awarded a FaSS funding can be found here:
More information
Grants team
Marine Management Organisation
Lancaster House
Hampshire Court Newcastle upon Tyne
NE4 7YH
Telephone: 0208 026 5539
Updates to this page
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Monday 09 June 2025 update.
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10 June 2024 update
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May 24 update
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Update included to say that the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme has closed for applications.
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Addition of a link to new guidance for pollock fishers
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Update 23 February 2024
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Update 25-01-24
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Transparency initiative update
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Update 25/08
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Successful applicants update
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Updated to reflect revised guidance for 13 April 2022 Launch
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Health & Safety update
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Document updates
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Updated 11
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New file
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Additional guidance provided on 'Lodging an FaSS Expression of Interest'
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Page updated with SOP7 Payment Details Form
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General Document update
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First published.