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Television Licences: Non-payment

Question for Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

UIN HL1385, tabled on 5 February 2020

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to de-criminalise non-payment of the BBC licence fee.

Answered on

13 February 2020

On 5 February, the Government announced an 8 week consultation on whether to proceed with the decriminalisation of TV licence evasion by replacing the criminal sanction with an alternative civil enforcement scheme. The Government believes that it is right to look again at whether the criminal sanction remains appropriate for TV licence fee evasion, given ongoing concerns about whether the criminal sanction is unfair and disproportionate. Following careful consideration of the responses, the Government expects to publish a response by summer 2020.