§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many people are employed on television detector vans, and in other aspects of the campaign against television licence evaders;
(2) what was the total amount recovered in unpaid television licence fees during 1979;
(3) how many cases of television licence evasion were detected in 1979; and how many of these were prosecuted;
(4) what is his policy towards prosecution of those found having a television without a licence;
(5) what is his estimate of the annual amount of revenue lost in evasion of television licence fees.
§ Mr. MayhewThe enforcement of the television licensing system is carried out by the national television licence records office, a part of the Post Office which acts as agent for the Home Office. About 1,400 Post Office staff are employed on work in connection with the television licensing system throughout the country; of these about 50 are employed on television detector vans. It is not possible to say how many staff are directly involved in the current campaign against television licence evaders.
The Post Office decides on behalf of the Home Office whether a person suspected of using a television set without a licence should be prosecuted in the light of the circumstances of each case. In 1979, about 72,000 statements were taken from suspected offenders and there were about 48,000 prosecutions, the vast majority of which resulted in a conviction and a fine. There is no legal provision for the recovery of unpaid television licence fees relating to earlier periods.
The current estimate of the annual loss of revenue due to television licence evasion is about £35 million. Estimates in connection with evasion are of necessity imprecise and subject to considerable error.