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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether a television licence is required solely to view live streaming video of Parliamentary proceedings or recordings of such proceedings on www.parliamentlive.tv.

The legal requirements around the television licence are set out in the Communications Act 2003 and the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004/692. That Act provides that a television licence is needed to "operate equipment capable of receiving a television programme service". This does not cover on demand services. However, whether live services that www.parliamentlive.tv provide qualify as a television programme service is a question of interpreting the Act and ultimately one for the courts to make.