Support Services for UK Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) Device

The UK is required to collect position information from UK administered commercial fishing vessels over 12m in length, and where said vessels are fishing in EU states and other 3rd countries' waters, forward those position reports to those states. This condition has been in place since 1998 when predecessor regulations came into force for over 15m vessels, and it is required that said vessels send position reports from a UK approved transponder.

In 2011-12 the ageing transponders on the UK fleet, as well as equipping 12-15m vessels in line with emerging requirements under 1224/2009. The refresh was carried out under an open tender awarded to Applied Satellite Technologies.

This contract (RMP6270) was largely for equipping but also provided the required support arrangements only available from the equipping company. When this contract expired in June 2017 the UK fishing authorities could not operate without this support, which was not free from the supplier. Therefore, a single supplier support only contract was put in place.

The transponders are proprietorial in that AST Marine Science Ltd are the suppliers of the terminal, the bespoke firmware and the proprietorial network applications that receive and forward the position reports. It would not be feasible for a 3rd party to take control of these services.