Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to ensure that people over 75 who do not use the internet are not digitally excluded and will receive the necessary support to pay for a TV licence from June 2020.

The future of the over 75 licence fee concession is the responsibility of the BBC. In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government and the BBC agreed that responsibility for the concession would transfer to the BBC in June 2020.

However, the Government is disappointed with the BBC’s decision as it has been clear that it wants and expects the BBC to continue this concession. Since the BBC took its decision, I have met with the Chairman of the BBC Board and the Director-General of the BBC and I have asked them to do more to help the most vulnerable groups affected by the decision.