Competent harbour authority


Competent harbour authorities in the United Kingdom are those harbour authorities that have been given statutory powers relating to the provision of pilotage in their waters. The description was created by the Pilotage Act 1987, at which point a CHA had to be one whose harbour was wholly or partly within a pilotage district where at least one act of pilotage had been performed, or where a pilotage exemption certificate had been in force, between 1984 and 1987. However, the act provided a procedure by which other harbour authorities could be assigned CHA status and some harbours have taken advantage of this process. The Marine Navigation Act 2013 amended the Pilotage Act to provide a reverse process, so that harbour authorities could be relieved of CHA status.
The following are those harbour authorities that are currently identified as CHAs:

England and Wales

NB: Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners was a CHA until 2015 when its pilotage functions were revoked.

Scotland