Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) men and (b) women were committed to prison for the non-payment of a fine for a television licence offence in the most recent year for which information is available; and how many days each such offender spent in prison.

According to TV Licensing's data, in 2014 232,290 women and 114,347 men were interviewed under caution by TV Licensing officers in the course of investigating TV licence offences.

The number of people prosecuted for licence fee evasion in 2014 is published here: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/428943/cjs-outcomes-by-offence-data-tool.xls From “offence” drop down list select 191A Television licence evasion. From “sex” drop down list select the male or female.

In 2014 11 men and 28 women were committed to prison for non-payment of a fine where the registered fine was for non-payment of the TV Licence. The average time spent in prison was 18 days for men and 20 days for women.