§ 33. Mr. McNair-Wilsonasked the Postmaster-General if he will introduce legislation to make it a punishable offence to sell a wireless receiver or television set to a purchaser who does not produce a valid licence.
§ 44. Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Postmaster-General what steps he now proposes to take to eliminate evasion of payment of television licence fees.
§ Mr. BennI would refer the hon. Gentlemen to the reply which my hon. Friend gave on 26th April to my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Mr. Ogden). We are at present reviewing our measures against evasion.
§ Mr. McNair-WilsonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that very large numbers of people are using both wireless and television sets without licences and that we are now reaching a situation in which the honest are paying for the dishonest? Unless he plugs this gap in his policy he will have to go on increasing revenue to cover the situation, which will get progressively worse. Would he also agree that instead of increasing the licence fee to £5 he would do better to look at this urgently?
§ Mr. BennThe human dilemma has always been that the honest pay for the dishonest. It is not limited to the problem of licence evasion. The difficulty is that very heavy expenditure—£2½ million a year—is spent simply on issuing the licences and trying to prevent evasion. In order to get better results than we now have, an even greater expenditure might be necessary. I can reassure the hon. Member on one point, that even if there were no evasion whatsoever the B.B.C.'s current financial problem would not be solved by the revenue coming in from what were previously evasions by itself.
§ Mr. AllaunWould not this proposal, which I ask him to take as a serious one, help to relieve the old-age pensioners of having to pay their T.V. and broadcasting licence fee, as well as the increase which has recently been introduced?
§ Mr. BennThat is another question. Whatever arrangements one makes about old-age pensioners, the subsidy to them would be borne by other licence holders. Since the apparatus of reviewing need would be a very complex one in return for about a farthing a day increase per viewer, I think that the disadvantages would outweigh the advantages.
§ Mr. WalkerOn a point of order. The Postmaster-General took Questions 33 and 44 together. Question No. 44 is in my name.
§ Mr. SpeakerI beg the hon. Gentleman's pardon. His case is not the same as that of the hon. Member for Brixton (Mr. Lipton). I am very sorry. I made a mistake, but I cannot go back to it now. I ask for his forgiveness.