The BBC exists to inform, educate, and entertain all audiences. The licence fee ensures it’s an independent, universal broadcaster, committed to serving everyone (not the interests of advertisers or shareholders) and to investing in British creativity.

Because everyone pays, everyone has access to the best programmes. 91% of the adult population use the BBC every week.

The BBC funded by a universal licence fee – costing just over 40p per household a day - brings people together to share big moments and experiences and allows us to offer a range of programmes that appeals to everyone.

The licence fee continues to be the public’s preferred way to fund the BBC. In December 2019, more of the public picked the licence fee as the best way to fund the BBC than either advertising or subscription.

Each hour of BBC TV watched by a household costs it 8 pence. For an equivalent subscription service the cost is around 17 pence; for an equivalent pay TV service it starts at 35 pence. Every £1 spent on the BBC produces £2 value through jobs, economic opportunities, expenditure.

Why the licence fee? The licence fee continues to ensure the BBC is an independent, universal broadcaster, committed to serving everyone and to investing in British creativity. It is the agreed method of funding the BBC until at least 2027.

A subscription-funded BBC would look entirely different to today’s BBC. It would have to make programmes aimed just at subscribers, not for the whole of the UK, and people would pay more – pricing out some people.

It would cost more to operate a subscription service, reducing the money available for content. There’s no way of making BBC TV channels subscription while they are still broadcast free to air through digital terrestrial technology, and no alternative at all to free-to-air radio.

Funding the BBC through advertising would draw money away from commercial broadcasters. It’s bad news for other broadcasters who would face new competition for dwindling advertising. And it’s bad news for audiences who value adfree BBC programmes, particularly children’s.

The vast majority of people pay the licence fee voluntarily, but as a universal service we need an enforcement system which is fair to those who pay as well as those who don’t. A detailed Government review has already found the current system is the fairest and most effective.

Any system has to have sanctions when people don’t pay - otherwise it is unfair to the vast majority who do pay. There’s no way to cut off access to BBC TV channels or radio stations like you can turn off other services e.g. utilities.

You *can't* be jailed for not paying the licence fee, only fined. It is only later if people wilfully refuse or neglect to obey court orders and as a last resort that the courts can decide to imprison. This only happened to 5 people in England and Wales in 2018.

No one wants people to end up in prison. People could still go to prison under a civil system – hundreds of people have been sent to jail for Council Tax evasion in the last decade. The Government review stated non-payment cases accounted for 0.3% of court time.

Why are some over 75s going to start having to pay? The Government-funded scheme for licence fee concessions comes to an end in June 2020. The responsibility for deciding what the future of any over-75s concession should be was given to the BBC.

The BBC held its biggest ever consultation, and the Board decided that the fairest decision was to continue to fund free licences for over 75s on Pension Credit.

The decision prevents widespread service closures which would have been required had the existing scheme been copied, which would have cost £750m a year rising to £1 billion by the end of the decade.

£750 million a year is equivalent to around a fifth of the BBC’s spending on services or the equivalent of budgets for BBC Two, BBC Four, the BBC News Channel, the BBC Scotland channel, Radio 5live and 5live Sports Extra, and a number of local radio stations.

The new scheme will cost the BBC around £250 million a year by 2021/22 depending on take-up. This money would otherwise be available for programmes. The Ministry of Justice says that in the decade before the concession was introduced in 2000, no over 75s were prosecuted.

The vast majority of the BBC’s money goes straight into programmes and getting them to audiences. Because the licence fee was frozen and costs have risen quickly, the amount of money the BBC has to spend has fallen. It means it’s making savings of £800m between 2016 and 2022.

The licence fee funds a universal service; and it needs an enforcement system which is fair to those who pay as well as those who don’t. The Government-commissioned review by David Perry QC in 2015 concluded that the current system is the fairest and most effective.

No one wants anyone to end up in prison, and everything possible is done to avoid that. However, any system involves penalties and these penalties need to be meaningful, given there is no way to cut off access to BBC TV channels or radio stations.

Any civil system would have a higher cost of collection, is likely to lead to higher evasion rates and could require higher penalties than the current average of £176. It is likely to cost the BBC hundreds of millions of pounds. Licence fee payers will be the losers.

Myths around licence fee enforcement:

Claim: The BBC is sending people to prison for not paying the licence fee.
Response: This is not the case. The penalty for non-payment of the licence fee is a fine.

Claim: The BBC makes a profit out of court fines for non-payment of the licence fee
Response: That’s wrong - the fines go to the Government, not the BBC.

Claim: Decriminalisation means an end to enforcement
Response: A civil system could end up in more and larger fines, and more enforcement action for those who can’t or won’t pay.

Claim: Women are unfairly targeted/ imprisoned
Response: The government’s own independent review of TV Licence fee enforcement found ‘no evidence to suggest that activity is unfairly and intentionally targeted at women.’

Claim: Offenders get a criminal record for non-payment of a TV Licence.
Response: A conviction for licence fee evasion is not recordable, so it doesn’t appear on a basic criminal record check and would not appear on the central police database.

Claim: You should just block access to services for those who don’t pay.
Response: It isn’t possible to block access to BBC TV channels and radio stations.

Hope you find all that helpful and informative. Sorry it was so long!