Minister blasts ‘unfair’ TV fee punishments

CRIMINAL sanctions for not paying the TV licence fee are “increasingly disproportionate and unfair”, says Culture Minister Julia Lopez.

The illegal watching, recording or downloading of TV programmes can lead to a £1,000 fine.

Now Ms Lopez says she is “concerned about the impact” of the punishments for non-payment.

In a letter to campaigners Defund The BBC, Ms Lopez wrote: “The Government sees these sanctions as increasingly disproportionate and unfair in a modern public service broadcasting system and we have committed to keep this issue under consideration.”

She said the Government expects the BBC to be “fair, measured and proportionate” about fee collection, “in particular treating vulnerable people or those facing financial hardship with sensitivity”.

The fee – which, for a colour TV, will next month go up from £159 to £169.50 – generated £3.74billion in 2022/23 and made up 65 per cent of the corporation’s funding. Evasion of fee payment nearly doubled from

5.5 per cent in 2012/13 to 10.31 per cent in 2022/23, with the BBC’S audience share falling from 34 per cent in 2008 to 32 per cent last year.

Prosecutions in England and Wales fell from 128,000 people in 2017/18 to 44,000 in 2021/22, the BBC says.

Defund The BBC’S Rebecca Ryan said: “People across the country are fed up with the pious holier-thanyou attitudes of the BBC and their all-too-often flagrant bias.”

The group has asked all candidates in “red wall” seats to state their position on the future of the BBC.

Ms Lopez added: “Ofcom found audience perceptions of the BBC’S impartial delivery of news is lower than perceptions of trustworthiness and accuracy [and] our aim is to... improve the BBC where we can.”

In December, a review into the future of the fee was launched, after it was frozen for two years in 2022.

A BBC spokesman said: “We will continue to engage with the Government review as it evolves over the coming months.”