§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what would be the cost of providing free television licences to all retirement pensioners; and what percentage of the British Broadcasting Corporation licence fee this represents.
§ Mr. BrittanIt is estimated that the current cost of providing free television licences to all households containing one or more retirement pensioners would be between £155 million and £170 million in a full year. This would represent about one-third of the gross annual receipts from current television licence fees.