Light dues
Light dues are the charges levied on ships for the maintenance of lighthouses and other aids to navigation. British Isles. Light dues are levied on commercial vessels and larger pleasure boats calling at ports in the British Isles and paid into the General Lighthouse Fund (GLF), which is under the stewardship of the UK's Department for Transport and is used to finance the lighthouse services provided by the three general lighthouse authorities that cover all of the British Isles: The main principles of the light dues system are: Increasing automation of aids to navigation in the British  Isles has seen the rate of light dues fall in real terms over recent years. The first increase in the light dues rate for twenty years occurred in 2009. In 2010, with the rate at 41p, the UK Government announced that there would be no further increases for at least the next three years. The rate was then cut by one penny in each of 2014, 2015 and 2016, with a further half penny in 2017 to reach 37.5p. Since 2021 the rate hs been increased twice and is now again at the 2010 level. Also in 2010, the UK  Government announced it had reached agreement with the Irish Government that aids to navigation off the coast of the Republic of Ireland would be wholly funded from domestic sources there by 2015-16. Changes to the way light dues payments are enforced in the UK and Ireland were implemented from 1 April 2015 to give effect to this agreement.