Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many people were convicted for not paying their TV license under the provisions of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 since 1992.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The requirement to hold, and pay for, a TV Licence is set out in the Communications Act 2003 and the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004.
Parliament approved the BBC assuming the role of the TV Licensing Authority in 1991, and under the Communications Act 2003, the BBC is authorised to collect and enforce the Licence Fee by law on the government's behalf.
The TV licence fee was administered under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 until the passage of the 2003 Act.
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 their criminal justice statistics quarterly publications, which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly
Figures for each year since 2005 up to 2021 are available in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, and can be found in the following tables:
2017-2021: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1076459/outcomes-by-offence-tool-2021-v2.xlsx
2016: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1063880/outcomes-by-offence-2020-revised.xlsx
2005-2015: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524326/cjs-outcomes-by-offence.xlsx
To view the relevant figures in these tables, select ‘191A Television licence evasion’ in the Offence filter.
The number of people convicted for TV licence evasion in the years between 1992 and 2004 can be found in the attached tables. Table 1 sets out the number of convictions for television licence evasion in this period under the Communications Act 2003. Table 2 sets out convictions for offences against the Wireless Telegraphy Acts, 1949 to 1967 in the same period. While television licence evasion was an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949, the figures in Table 2 may include other offences under the specified Acts.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to protect children from (a) harmful online content and (b) pornography.
Answered by Damian Collins
Protecting children online is a priority for the government. The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill are for children. All companies in scope will need to assess whether their service is likely to be accessed by children and if so, deliver additional protections to protect children from harmful content or activity. If they fail to do so, they will be subject to tough enforcement action by the regulator, Ofcom.
The Bill will cover all online sites that offer pornography, including commercial pornography sites, social media, video sharing platforms, forums and search engines. There is also a separate additional duty in the Bill which will require providers who publish pornographic content on their services to prevent children from accessing that content.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the definition of legal but harmful in the Online Safety Bill.
Answered by Damian Collins
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is currently reviewing the adult safety duties and the definition of content that is harmful to adults. This is to ensure that we strike the right balance between protecting users from harmful content online and protecting users’ rights to freedom of expression.