§ Lord Tebbitasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many (a) women and (b) men were convicted of watching an unlicensed television in the last year for which statistics are available; how many of each category were subsequently imprisoned for failure to pay the resultant fine, and how many are currently imprisoned.
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch)Information held centrally by my department on the number of convictions under the Wireless Telegraphy Acts 1949 to 1967 cannot separately identify the offence of TV licence evasion. I understand from the
82WA
Number of females aged 21 and over sentenced at all courts to immediate custody for certain offences, 1993 England and Wales Offence Total sentenced (= 100 per cent.) Immediate Number Custody Per cent. Indictable offences Violence against the person 1,996 223 11 Murder 10 10 100 Wounding or other act endangering life 60 27 45 Other wounding 1,774 145 8 Cruelty to or neglect of children 87 10 11 Sexual offences 67 15 22 Burglary 480 91 19 Robbery 82 56 68 Fraud and forgery 3,271 263 8 Fraud 2,945 244 8 Drug offences 1,661 287 17 Motoring offences 469 13 3 Summary offences Common assault, etc 644 19 3 Cruelty to or neglect of children — — — Prostitution 5,868 1 0 Motoring offences 62,112 108 0 TV Licensing Authority that the number of convictions secured in England and Wales for the financial year 1994–95 were: 127,417 for females, 63,161 for males and 4,969 for "others" (gender unknown). Provisional figures for 1994 show that 503 males and 260 females were imprisoned for default on fines imposed for using a TV without a licence. As at 28 February 1995 six males and no females were in prison service establishments in England and Wales for default on fines imposed for using a TV without a licence.