§ Mr. Holtasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many convictions for television licence fee evasion there have been in each calendar year for the past five years; and how many cases were dismissed;
(2) in each of the past five calendar years, how many people have been successfully prosecuted for television licence fee evasion; and if he will break this figure down on a regional basis.
476W
§ Mr. Giles ShawThe number of convictions and acquittals was as follows:
Convictions Acquittals 1980 61,417 941 1981 67,299 504 1982 80,979 268 1983 93,827 284 1984 108,830 313 The regional distribution of convictions was:
Region 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 London 10,382 11,470 13,194 14,461 16,721 South East 3,349 4,469 5,442 6,594 7,392 South West 6,986 6,923 9,792 9,925 10.732 Eastern 3,072 3,851 4,803 6,755 8,499 Midland 7,569 8,668 10,947 13,860 18,577 North East 12,556 13,941 15,901 16,006 17,936 North West 8,403 9,315 10,395 11,529 12,938 Wales and Marches 4,354 4,434 5,582 7,527 7,788 Scotland 4,726 4,148 4,628 6,643 7,619 Northern Ireland 20 80 295 527 628 61,417 67,299 80,979 93,827 108,830
§ Mr. Holtasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many of those convicted of television licence fee evasion during the last five years had been unemployed for over one year;
(2) how many of those prosecuted in each of the past five calendar years for alleged television licence fee evasion have been retirement pensioners.
§ Mr. Giles ShawInformation of this kind about the circumstances of persons convicted of television licence evasion is not available.
§ Mr. Holtasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in each of the past five years, what has been the average fine imposed on people convicted of television licence fee evasion.
§ Mr. Giles ShawInformation about the level of fines imposed for the special offence of television licence evasion is not kept routinely and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Holtasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much income the Post Office has received in payment for collecting television licence fees in each of the past five calendar years; and how much this was in each year as a percentage of the full amount of fees collected.
§ Mr. Giles ShawPayments to the Post Office for television licensing work in the last five financial years, including VAT and adjustments for under or overpayments in previous years, and the proportion these payments represent of the total licence fee revenue in each year are as follows:
Year ended 31 March Payments £ million Percentage of total revenue 1980 31.5 7.3 1981 28.8 5.4 1982 38.8 6.4 1983 54.3 7.3 1984 49.8 6.5