Marine pen fish farming: Charging changes

Breakdown of costs    

This section explains how we have calculated the costs of the monitoring requirements . The proposed costs follow the risk-based approach of the framework, ensuring that our monitoring efforts are targeted and deliver the evidence required to support the adaptive nature of the framework. A more detailed explanation of the costings is provided in annex 1. We propose to raise the funds to support the scale of work required. We are committing to delivering this overall scale of work: not necessarily all the specifics detailed in Table 1. It should be stressed that the monitoring programme will evolve as our understanding improves and this will influence our future assessment of costs.  

We will use the funding raised to deliver a monitoring programme each year which will be developed in discussions with stakeholders. We consider that this additional funding will allow us to make substantial progress in collecting the information that we need to inform the application of the sea lice regulatory framework, delivering one of our obligations in the Wild Salmon Strategy Implementation Plan 2023 to 2028. 

Table 1:  Summary of costs 

How do we propose to increase charges? 

We are proposing increases in charges for marine pen fish farms in order to recover the cost of additional resources required for the monitoring work set out in the Monitoring proposals section. We are proposing to recover these charges by increasing the environmental component paid by marine pen fish farms, as part of their annual charge.  

The environmental component means, in relation to each environmental category attributable to the authorised activities, the environmental score multiplied by the financial factor.  

For marine pen fish farms, the relevant financial factor is “for all other discharges to water” (see paragraph 9 of the charging scheme). The current financial factor is £353, although this is subject to any increase in line with the Retail Price Index on 1 April 2025. We are not proposing to increase the financial factor as part of this consultation. 

The environmental score means the score calculated in accordance with the environmental assessment scheme. We propose to increase the environmental score for marine pen fish farm operators in proportion to their current environmental score in order to recover the costs outlined in the Charging proposals section (£910k). This will ensure that the increase in charges is related in some way to the scale of the relevant fish farm. 

The following steps explain how we will calculate the increase in an environmental score. 

1. Calculate the total environmental scores for all marine pen fish farms which are subject to an environmental component in a given financial year.  

2. Calculate the additional environmental component required to recover the £910k.  

3. Take the current individual marine pen fish farm operator’s environmental score as a percentage of the total environmental score.  

4. Apply this percentage to the additional environmental component score that requires to be recovered.  

5. Add the additional environmental score calculated to the current environmental score.  

This methodology, using current data, results in an increase of approximately 32% in an operator’s environmental component. 

We plan to update the Environmental Assessment Scheme, which explains how environmental scores are calculated, at the same time as we update the charging scheme itself.