Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to change the penalties imposed on people who have not paid for their TV licence because they cannot afford to.

The BBC is responsible for the collection and enforcement of the licence fee, not the Government. The Government expects the BBC to collect the licence fee in an efficient and proportionate manner.

The requirement to hold a TV Licence is set out in the Communications Act 2003 and the Communications (Television Licensing) 2004. The current cost of a TV licence is £159 with the maximum penalty for TV licence evasion being a fine of £1,000. The sentencing court will determine the level of the fine. MOJ statistics indicate that the average fine is around £175.

In February 2020, the Government launched a public consultation on decriminalising TV licence evasion. The responses highlighted the considerable stress and anxiety the criminal sanction can cause for individuals, including the most vulnerable in society.

The Government remains concerned that a criminal sanction for TV licence evasion is increasingly disproportionate and unfair in a modern public service broadcasting system. We will be looking at ways to ensure the BBC’s funding model is sustainable in the long-term, which will include asking whether a mandatory licence fee with criminal penalties for individual households is still appropriate.

The Government has also taken steps to support licence fee payers. This includes freezing the licence fee for two years, which aims to support households at a time when they need that support the most. The Government also introduced the Simple Payment Plan in April 2020, a flexible payment instalment scheme that allows customers to pay in fortnightly or monthly instalments throughout the year, and is available to certain customers who currently struggle to pay the TV licence fee. More information on the Simple Payment Plan and its eligibility criteria can be found here.