Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of additional annual BBC revenue following the implementation on (a) ending free TV licence for all over 75's and (b) proposed increases in the annual licence fee.

In 2015, the Government agreed a licence fee funding settlement with the BBC for a five year period between 2017 and 2022. We agreed that responsibility for the over 75 licence fee concession would transfer to the BBC in June 2020. In return, we closed the iPlayer loophole, committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation for each year of the settlement period, and reduced a number of other BBC spending commitments.

The BBC reports annually on the revenue raised by the licence fee in the ‘Television Licence Fee Trust Statement’ available on the TV Licensing website. For 2017/18, it said that it received an additional £23m as a result of the uplift in the level of the licence fee. For 2018/19, it said that it received an additional £79 million to BBC revenue as a result of the increase.

The estimate for the impact on BBC revenue following the implementation of the revised over 75 licence fee concession from June 2020 is a matter for the BBC.