Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the average length of time taken by the Marine Management Organisation to approve a marine dredging application using the outline marine licensing system since 2009.

The online marine licensing system came into force on 6 April 2011 following the formation of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in 2010. From the start of the licensing system the estimated average time taken by the MMO to approve marine dredging applications are as follows:

Aggregate dredging

Average length of time to licence a 15 year aggregate application is estimated at 300 hours (200 hours during application and 100 hours of pre-application advice)

Non-aggregate dredging