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Christie - Dispersant Use and Product approval process in the UK 
It is possible for applicants to provide their own test result information from a different source 
but these results must be reviewed and agreed by Cefas before MMO could accept. 
Further details of the UK testing process and also the relevant fees can be viewed here: 
https://www.aov.uk/aovernment/publications/qet-an-oil-spill-treatment-product-approved-tests 
https://www.aov.uk/aovernment/publications/aet-an-oil-spill-treatment-product-approved-fees 
Applicants are updated throughout the testing process and only once MMO are satisfied that 
a product is proven suitable for the intended task, it is included on the Approved Product List 
for a period of 5 years from approval date. 
https://www.aov.uk/aovernment/publications/approved-oil-spill-treatment-products 
Marine Emergencies 
MMO operate a 24 hour pollution response via emergency number 0300 2002024 office 
hours which diverts to a Duty Officer on evenings and weekends. 
Ordinarily Marine emergencies are notified to MMO either by telephone or by Pollution re 
ports (Polreps) or Situation reports (Sitreps) by fax and email from UK coastguard offices. As 
we work closely with other organisations such as Environment Agency, Natural England and 
Natural Resources Wales, we often pass information regarding incidents to each other if we 
feel that the situation merits it. 
Receipt of an incident notification 
Once a call or a report has been received it depends upon the nature of the information as to 
the action MMO would take. 
In the UK, the MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency) take the lead role in all significant 
Marine incidents. 
If we use a Marine Emergency (perhaps a vessel in trouble with fuel and oil on board) as an 
example we need to make a judgement call on the potential severity of the incident. There is 
no easy answer to deciding the severity of an incident as it depends on factors like: 
• How much has been spilled or has potential to be spilled? 
• What has been spilled? 
• Where it has been spilled (and what it is near)? 
• If dispersants are used or a request for the authorisation of dispersant use is made, it 
is considered a significant incident. 
• If protected areas/species/habitats are impacted or have potential to be impacted, the 
incident is likely to be significant. 
• If the incident appears on the news or there is other media interest, it is likely to be 
significant regardless of the size, cargo, location etc. 
MMO are often most heavily involved at the outset of an incident. This is primarily because 
we undertake to make a decision on dispersant use within one hour of such a request 
being received. This first hour can be extremely demanding and involves MMO liaising with 
other organisations (particularly Cefas) to consider their advice in our decision making pro 
cess. 
It depends upon the location of the incident as to which organisations we contact but as a 
rule, use of dispersant is not an automatic first choice. MMO will always consider whether 
from an environmental viewpoint it would be better to let any spillage disperse naturally. We 
would only authorise dispersant use if it was believed that this was likely to be more advan 
tageous to the situation.