Licensing Section 4: Licences
23.This section allows the Secretary of State to grant licences for the purposes of this Chapter. Such a licence will permit, under the terms and conditions laid down in the licence, the carrying on of one or more of the activities mentioned in section 2. However, in order to make use of the sea, the seabed or spaces under the seabed for the purpose of these activities, an operator would in addition have to obtain a lease or (outside the territorial sea) authorisation from The Crown Estate, who administer the relevant rights to the offshore area vested under section 1 (or, within the territorial sea, vested in the Crown under common law). Subsection (2) accordingly allows the geographical coordinates covered by the licence to be linked to those covered by the lease or authorisation from The Crown Estate (see also section 6(2)).