General Consent for Non-Exclusive Sampling

The Crown Estate will grant a general consent to appropriate companies for non-exclusive prospecting. This allows non-intrusive surveys, limited grab sampling and boreholes, subject to notification. The general consent is only issued to companies who agree to comply with the codes of practice of DEFRA / Marine and Fisheries Agency (MFA), WAG, the Royal Commission for Historic Monuments in England (seabed developers), English Nature and the Countryside Council for Wales.

The procedure relating to the general consent comprises the following stages.

The general consent is valid between the dates 1 January to 31 October inclusive in any year. Applications for a general consent must be made using Crown Estate forms NES1, NES2, NES3 and NES4, which are available through our agents as directed below.

Companies must write to The Crown Estate using form NES1 giving notification of their intention to undertake non-exclusive sampling. It is recommended that this is no more than four weeks before the commencement of the proposed sampling period. At the same time the company will enclose form NES2 detailing their proposal to undertake non-exclusive sampling.

Providing there are no objections to the proposed sampling, The Crown Estate will issue a letter of non-objection (Crown Estate form NES4).

If we issue a letter of non-objection to the proposed sampling, then in undertaking any sampling the company will abide by The Crown Estate's general conditions for non-exclusive sampling for the sampling period (Crown Estate form NES3). In addition the company shall abide by the then relevant codes of practice and any other conditions notified by The Crown Estate.

Within three months of the expiry of the sampling period, the company shall furnish to The Crown Estate a sampling report of all operations conducted by the company in the sampling area during the sampling period. The report will contain information obtained from such operations, together with positional information and one copy of all borehole logs and details of sieve analysis of material sampled; the report shall cover all areas searched and not be restricted to areas where sand or gravel has been found.

Copies of forms NES1 - 4 are available from our offshore agent:

John Bingham
Haskoning UK Ltd
Burns House
Harlands Road
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 1PG

telephone 01444 458 551