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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much money in each of the past five years was raised by the BBC licensing fee; how such fees were collected; and what was the (1) total collection cost, and (2) average cost per fee of collection.

The BBC is responsible for the collection and administration of the television licence fee, not the government. The government is therefore not involved in TV Licensing operations.

TV licencing sets out the amounts collected within it’s annual review. The 2020/21 report is due to be published.

The total income raised by the TV licence fee is stated as being £3.78bn in 2016/17, £3.8bn in 2017/18, £3.6bn in 2018/19 and £3.5bn in 2019/20.

The total collection cost is stated as being £82.2m in 2016/17, £101m in 2017/18, £102.6m in 2018/19 and £119.5m in 2019/20.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport does not hold information on the average cost per fee of collection. This information may be held by the BBC.