§ Mr. Gregory CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, against how many people successful prosecutions have been taken for the non-payment of television licence fees in the past five years. [123999]
§ Estelle MorrisI have been asked to reply.
The available information for England, Wales and Scotland relates to all offences under the Wireless Telegraphy Acts of 1949 and 1967, though the great majority of these involve licence fee evasion.
225WFigures for Northern Ireland, provided by TV Licensing, relate specifically to unlicensed use of a television receiver. The number of convictions recorded in the United Kingdom in each of the last five years for which information is available was:
Year Number of convictions 1997 179,898 1998 78,804 1999 256,929 2000 108,680 2001 86,118 1 Excludes Northern Ireland, for which figures for 1997 are not available. 2 1999 returns for Scotland may be incomplete.
§ Mr. DoddsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many prosecutions proceeded in relation to TV licensing in 2002 in Northern Ireland, broken down by constituency. [131574]
§ Estelle MorrisI have been asked to reply.
As I indicated in my reply to the hon. Member on 8 September 2003, Official Report, columns 30–31W, the total number of prosecutions proceeded with by TV Licensing in Northern Ireland in 2002 for installation or use of television without a licence was 1,448. I understand that TV Licensing does not record prosecutions by constituency.