It may no longer be a crime in
future not to pay the television licence fee, after the Government announced it
will consult on the issue.
The Government has agreed to an
amendment to the Deregulation Bill currently passing through Parliament, that
will see the review commencing within three months of the Bill passing into law
and which will last no longer than one year.
The BBC, which is funded by the
licence fee, is opposed to decriminalisation, arguing that it will lead to more
individuals dodging the fee, resulting in reduced revenue and forcing it to cut
services.
Failure to pay the £145.50 fee
accounted for more than one in ten of all prosecutions last year, with 155,000
people convicted.
The amendment was initially
proposed by Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who wants non-payment of the fee to
be a civil offence, rather than a criminal one. As
a civil offence, non-payment would not result in a criminal record and would
require wrongdoers to pay the fee and legal costs.
When is a fee required? And what
are the current criminal penalties for evasion?
The Television Licence Fee
Section 363(1) of the
Communications Act 2003 provides that a television receiver must not be
installed or used unless the installation and use is authorised by a licence.
Under section 363(2) of the 2003
Act, a person acting in breach of section 363(1) is guilty of an offence.
Similarly, under section 363(3) of the 2003 Act, a person is guilty of an
offence if they possess or are in control of a television and intend to install
or use it without a licence, or knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that
another person intends install or use it without a licence.
An offence is not committed by a
person acting in the course of a business who installs a television receiver on
delivery, or who demonstrates, tests or repairs televisions: section 363(5) of
the 2003 Act.
A person guilty of an offence is
liable to fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale: section 363(4) of
the 2003 Act. The standard scale of fines is set out in section 37 of the
Criminal Justice Act 1982. Level 3 allows a maximum fine of £1,000.
Fines
What happens when an individual
is prosecuted and fined for non-payment of a television licence? The fine is
due to be paid in full immediately, although the magistrates’ court may allow
payment by instalments under section 75(1) of the
Magistrates’ Court Act 1980.
If an offender fails to pay the
whole or any part of the fine in the time allowed by the court, the court may
require the offender to appear before the court and consider the offender’s
ability to pay, under section 83 of the 1980 Act. Ultimately, if the court has
considered the offender’s ability to pay and concludes that the offender has
wilfully refused or neglected to pay and that the court has tried all other
methods of enforcing the fine but they are inappropriate or unsuccessful, the
court may order the immediate imprisonment of the offender: section 82 of the
1980 Act. For a £1,000 fine, the maximum period of imprisonment under Schedule
4 of the Act is 28 days.
Comment
The review on decriminalising
non-payment of the television licence fee will have to consider very carefully
whether decriminalisation would affect the quality and sustainability of the
BBC, which is a rightly treasured national institution.
What are your thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment