§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many pensioners over 75 years old in(a) the North West, (b) Lancashire and (c) Burnley receive free television licences. [65546]
§ Dr. HowellsTV Licensing, which administers the free television licence scheme for the BBC as Licensing Authority, is not able to provide geographical breakdowns of the number of free licences issued. However, estimates based on the 1991 Census indicate that there were approximately 368,000 people aged 75 or over in the North West Government Office Region, 97,000 in Lancashire and 6,400 in the Burnley constituency.
§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many prosecutions undertaken by Television Licensing in each of the last five years resulted in a custodial sentence; and what was the length of the sentence in each case. [65460]
§ Dr. Howells[holding answer 1 July 2002]Custodial sentences are not available for television licence evasion, the maximum penalty being a fine. However, custodial sentences can be imposed for non-payment of such a fine. The number of people in England and Wales received into prison for non-payment of fines for TV Licence evasion, by sentence length and year, in each of the last five years was as follows:
Sentence Lengths 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Up to and including three months 235 167 180 37 28 GT 3 LE six months 1 2 — — — GT 12 LE 18 months — 1 — — — GT 18 months LE three years — — — 1 — Total 236 170 180 38 28