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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many people (a) have been (i) fined, (ii) arrested and (iii) imprisoned for non payment of their television licence in each of the last three years and (b) are subject to legal action for non payment of their television licence.

The maximum penalty for non-payment of the TV licence fee is a fine. A person cannot receive a custodial sentence for TV licence evasion but can be committed to prison for wilfully refusing to pay the fine or culpably neglecting to pay. Imprisonment is only pursued as a matter of last resort.

In 2019, 122,603 people were proceeded against for non-payment of the licence fee. Of these, 113,002 people were fined. The number of people admitted to prison for failing to pay fines in respect of the non-payment of a TV licence in England and Wales in 2019 was two or fewer (the actual number has not been released in order to protect against personal identification).

In 2020, 53,301 people were proceeded against, and 49,948 were fined. In 2021, 49,126 people were proceeded against, and 44,364 were fined. In 2020 and 2021, there were no admissions into prison associated with failing to pay a fine in respect of the non-payment of a TV licence in England and Wales.

We do not hold data on the number of people arrested for non-payment of a fine which relates to non-payment of their television licence.

The information on prosecutions, convictions and sentencing outcomes is published online in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, available here.