Battered women won’t be chased for TV licence

VULNERABLE women will be protected from the BBC’s TV licence agents following a Daily Mail investigation, it was announced yesterday.

Instead, victims of domestic abuse at refuges will automatically be covered by a communal licence to prevent licence fee staff approaching them.

The order comes after an undercover Mail investigation exposed the tactics used by TV Licence enforcement officers.

Staff were pursuing seriously ill and vulnerable people for payments. Officials from Capita – the outsourcing firm paid £59million a year to collect licence fees for the

From the Mail, February 27 BBC – were under orders to each catch 28 evaders a week.

BBC Director-General Tony Hall ordered an investigation and the Public Accounts Committee called on the corporation to overhaul the way it collected the fees.

A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘We’re making it easier for those... in a refuge by no longer requiring a licence for every room.’