Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions for television licence fee evasion were made by magistrates' courts in (a) Dorset and (b) England in the last 12 months for which information is available; and if he will make a statement.

The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions and court outcomes by police force area, which can be found in the Court Outcome by Police Force Area data tool available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804509/court-outcomes-by-PFA-2018.xlsx

In the data tool:

• Use the ‘Court type’ filter and select ’02: Magistrates court’.

• Use the ‘Offence’ filter to select ‘191A Television licence evasion’.

• Under the ‘Row Labels’ filter deselect ‘Dyfed-Powys, Gwent, North Wales and South Wales’ to include on the results for England. The number of prosecutions in a) each police force area, and b) the combined total across all areas, will then be visable by year.

  Following the introduction of Single Justice Procedure (SJP) offences in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, adults tried for summary non-imprisonable offences at the magistrates’ court can be dealt with remotely (the defendant does not need to physically attend court). Caution should be taken when interpreting trends by Police force area as particular courts may be allocated all the SJP offences for the entire region.