Asked by: Lord Botham (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people aged (1) 20–30, (2) 31–40, (3) 41–50, (4) 51–60, (5) 61–75, and (6) 76 and over, were prosecuted in (a) 2021, (b) 2022, and (c) 2023, for non-payment of their TV licences.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The requirement to hold, and pay for, a television licence is set out in the Communications Act 2003 and the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004. Under the Communications Act 2003, the BBC is responsible for the collection and enforcement of the TV licensing system.
The Ministry of Justice currently publishes the number of prosecutions, convictions, and sentencing outcomes for the non-payment of TV licence fees annually as part of its quarterly criminal justice statistics, which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly
The figures are not broken down in the exact age groups requested. A breakdown of people proceeded against for TV licence evasion in England and Wales broken down by the age groups provided in the Ministry of Justice’s figures is below:
21-29
2021 - 9,767
2022 - 7,498
2023 - 5,705
30-39
2021 - 18,635
2022 - 16,273
2023 - 13,139
40-49
2021 - 12,804
2022 - 11,712
2023 - 9,790
50-59
2021 - 8,337
2022 - 8,050
2023 - 6,927
60-69
2021 - 3,042
2022 - 3,071
2023 - 2,931
70+
2021 - 269
2022 - 279
2023 - 266