Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost of imprisoning people aged over 75 who have been prosecuted for not holding a valid TV license.

No estimate was made of the potential cost of imprisoning people aged over 75 for not holding a valid TV licence by the Ministry of Justice. The lead department on TV licencing is the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DDCMS). The BBC is responsible for the over 75s TV licence fee concession. A person cannot receive a custodial sentence for TV licence evasion but can be committed to prison for wilfully refusing to pay the fine. Imprisonment is only pursued as a matter of last resort.

The Ministry of Justice reviewed prosecution data between 1992 and 1999 for TV licence fee evasion, prior to the introduction of the concession, and established that there were no prosecutions of defendants over the age of 75 during this period.