The Company may grant, upon such terms and conditions as it thinks fit, licences for pleasure craft to be let for hire to the public in the course of trade or business or to be used for carrying passengers for hire within the harbour, and to the boatmen or persons assisting in the charge or navigation of such craft.

Any such licence may be granted for such period as the Company may think fit, and may be suspended or revoked by the Company whenever it shall deem such suspension or revocation to be necessary or desirable in the interests of the public.

The existence of the power to suspend or revoke the licence shall be plainly set forth in the licence itself.

This article shall not be taken to require a person to be licensed as a boatman who takes on hire a pleasure craft for purposes other than for profit.

A licence under this article shall not be required for any craft which has a passenger certificate issued by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and valid for the voyage intended or, in the case of hovercraft within the meaning of the Hovercraft Act 196810, a certificate of safety valid for the voyage intended.

A person shall not carry or permit to be carried in any pleasure craft a greater number of passengers for hire than shall be specified in the licence applying to such craft, and every owner of any such craft shall before permitting the same to be used for carrying passengers for hire, paint or cause to be painted, in letters and figures not less that three centimetres in height and one half centimetre in breadth, on a conspicuous part of the said craft, their own name and also the number of persons which it is licensed to carry, in the form “Licensed to carry – persons”.

Any person who shall act in contravention of paragraph (4) or (7) above shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

Any person aggrieved by the withholding, suspension or revocation of any licence or by any term or condition subject to which a licence has been granted under the provisions of this article may appeal to the sheriff.

In this article “pleasure craft” means any vessel of not more than 100 tonnes gross used wholly or mainly for recreation or for the carriage of passengers for reward and includes pleasure boats.