TV Licence Fee Enforcement Review
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cost implication for the court. However, despite the large number of cases, they are dealt with
efficiently and take up only 0.3% of court time.
Of the defendants found guilty, around 99.5% are fined.
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals
Service (HMCTS) incurs the cost of enforcing the fine, but also collects the fine revenue. Not all fines
are successfully enforced, so although HMCTS will incur enforcement costs for all cases, it receives
fine revenue from only a portion of cases, some of which is paid into the Consolidated Fund.
The BBC is able to apply for a refund of its enforcement costs, which are added to the amount the
defendant has to pay (though as these are not always recovered, the BBC does not recover its full
costs). In the BBC consultation response it is noted that the BBC was awarded £13.1m in costs
2012/13, but only received £9.5m: a recovery rate of 73%.
It also suggests that the average cost
order made during that period was around £87.
As well as costs and the fine, the financial penalty will generally include a victim surcharge (a
minimum of £20) and the recently introduced criminal courts charge
of around £150 (for those who
plead guilty; proceeding to trial will incur a higher cost
). This cost will be repaid to the court and
(unlike the fine element of the penalty) is not subject to means-testing.
In the consultation document we estimated the average cost of a case to the court system. A key part
of this model was the cost of sitting in a Magistrates’ Court per day, from which we could estimate the
average cost of a case. This model assumed that the time taken to hear a licence fee case in court
would be equivalent to that of the average Magistrates’ Court case. The BBC stated in its consultation
response that this was an over-estimate as the average licence fee evasion case is much faster to
process than the average of all cases, particularly as many licence fee cases are dealt with in bulk
and are uncontested. We have taken this view into account and have produced an amended ‘cost to
the court’ figure. This is based on the consultation response from the Ministry of Justice, which
provides a more robust figure of £28 per case.
The defendant is not required to pay any backdated, outstanding licence fee as part of the punitive
measure, thus the BBC does not recoup lost licence fee revenue.
Costs to the Government
● Court costs: The Ministry of Justice has calculated the average cost of hearing TV licence
fee evasion cases at approximately £28 per case. This is likely to be an over-estimate (as it
includes assessment of some more complex cases) and the cost is likely to fall as a result of
planned efficiencies.
To find the cost to the Magistrates' Courts of enforcing fines we used
the total cost of enforcement in a year and the number of cases being enforced to find a per-
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/131128w0001.htm#wa_st_43 .
The Consolidated Fund is a fund into which all public revenue is paid and which provides the supply for all
public services. The basis of the financial mechanism by which the Consolidated Fund is operated is governed
by the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 and it is administered by the Treasury.
BBC consultation response.
£13.1m/150,000=£87.
Criminal Courts and Justice Act 2015. The charge will be levied against all offenders convicted of a criminal
offence on or after 13 April 2015.
Ministry of Justice consultation response
The Ministry of Justice informed us that amendments to the system of summary justice by the Criminal
Justice and Courts Act 2015 are likely to lower the costs of cases including those involving TV licence fee
evasion. The Ministry of Justice also notes that future automation of many of the (currently manual)
administrative processes carried out by the courts will lower the cost of fine enforcement and increase the
amount collected by way of fines.