The Fishing Vessels (Decommissioning) Scheme 1993

Consideration of applications

6.—(1) As soon as reasonably practicable after the date specified in a notice under paragraph 4(1) as the closing date for applications the Ministers shall—

(a) identify those applications made in pursuance of that notice which satisfy the foregoing provisions of this Scheme,

(b) divide the bid included in each such application by the number of capacity units of the vessel concerned, and

(c) place each such application in rank according to the result of the calculation referred to in paragraph (b) above.

(2) The Ministers may reject any such application for grant under this Scheme if they consider the amount of the bid in the application to be unreasonable, having regard to—

(a) the extent to which approval of the application would contribute towards the objectives of the United Kingdom’s multiannual guidance programme for its fishing fleet pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 4028/86 on Community measures to improve and adapt structures in the fisheries and aquaculture sector(1), as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3944/90(2), Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2794/92(3) and Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3946/92(4), and as approved in Commission Decision 92/593/EEC(5) ;

(b) the amount of money allocated for this Scheme.

(3) The Ministers shall reject any application for grant under this Scheme if they have reasonable grounds for suspecting that there has been any fixing or adjustment of the amount of a bid by or under or in accordance with any agreement (whether legally binding or not) or arrangement with another person.

(4) Subject to sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) above, the Ministers shall approve applications by proceeding through the rank referred to in sub-paragraph (1)(c) above from the application incorporating the lowest amount bid per capacity unit towards the application incorporating the highest amount bid per capacity unit until the maximum amount of money allocated for the Scheme is reached.

(5) Where as a result of the procedure referred to in sub-paragraph (4) above there are two or more identical bids per capacity unit which are higher than the amount of any other bid which has been approved, and there is insufficient money to meet all of them, in deciding which bid or bids to accept the Ministers may take into account the amount of time spent at sea on fishing trips by each of the vessels concerned during the calendar years 1991 and 1992 with a view to giving preference to vessels that spent more time at sea in those years.

(1)

O.J. No. L376, 31.12.86, p.7.

(2)

O.J. No. L380, 31.12.90, p.1.

(3)

O.J. No. L282, 26.9.92, p.3.

(4)

O.J. No. L401, 31.12.92, p.1.

(5)

O.J. No. L401, 31.12.92, p.33.