§ 31. Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the amount of revenue lost through the non-payment of television licences in 1974, 1975 and to the latest date for which figures are available.
530W
§ Mr. JohnI refer my hon. Friend to my reply to a Question from the hon. Member for Burton (Mr. Lawrence) on 19th July.—[Vol. 915, c. 338–9.] Current estimates suggest losses of the order of £7.7 million in 1974, £7.9 million in 1975 and £7.5 million a year now.
§ Mr. Corbettasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions there have been in each of the last three years against people for not holding a valid TV licence and with what result; what is the latest estimated number of people operating TV sets without a valid licence and what is the estimated loss of revenue; and what is the current number of TV licences issued.
§ Mr. JohnI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave to a Question by the hon. Member for Burton (Mr. Lawrence) on 19th July.—[Vol. 915, c. 338–39.]
The Post Office, which undertakes prosecutions on behalf of the Home Office in these cases, has provided the following information:
Financial year Prosecutions Convictions 1973–74 … … 54,359 54,210 1974–75 … … 53,257 52,915 1975–76 … … 49,646* 49,188* * England and Wales only; it is estimated that there were about 4,000 further prosecutions in Scotland and Northern Ireland. There were about 17.9 million television licences in force on 31st May 1976.