Skip to main content

Television: Licensing

Volume 459: debated on Friday 20 April 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people were charged for television licence evasion in Lancashire in each of the past five years. (127097)

I have been asked to reply.

Local information on charging is not centrally held.

Data on the number of persons proceeded against at magistrates court and found guilty at all courts for offences relating to television licence evasion in the Lancashire police force area in the years 2001 to 2005 can be found in the following table.

Court proceedings data for 2006 will be available in the autumn of 2007.

Number of persons proceeded against at magistrates court and found guilty at all courts for offences relating to TV licence evasion in Lancashire police force area1,2,3

Prosecuted

Found guilty

2001

4,720

4,292

2002

5,058

4,753

2003

3,824

3,444

20043

4,145

3,733

2005

6,270

5,762

1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts, and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 3 The TV licensing provisions of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 were replaced by new provisions in the Communications Act 2003 which came into effect 1 April 2004. Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform.