Sir John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Will my right hon. Friend decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee to take the pressure off magistrates courts? Should this not be a household bill like any other?
Nadine Dorries (The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport): That is something we are keeping under review. In today’s age, should we really continue with a licence fee paid by individuals with the potential threat of bailiffs or criminal prosecution? That is an important question and it will be part of the discussion.
January 18, 2022
In a similar vein. Should London Transport or British Rail get their own private police force? Should police be sent out to collect fares?
it’s what happens in London
January 18, 2022
Demand for trains drops through through the floor so fares should clearly fall – but they are going up by 4% and reducing services hugely so a much poorer service too.
Very clearly not a real, fair or competitive market.
January 18, 2022
That would be like saying you should be charged by British Transport to drive your own car – and their private police would rock up and arrest you if you refused.
January 18, 2022
The police have no power over fares – only to assist ticket collectors if they get hassle.
January 18, 2022
This is very low-hanging political fruit. Of course it should be de-criminalised. It would be a very popular measure, would save a lot of money and resource at magistrates’ courts, and perhaps best of all might lead leftists to shrieks of outrage, showing the public how much they depend on their left-wing version of fox news (as pointed out by Charles Moore). if we’re lucky we might even see one or two posts like that here today!
January 18, 2022
But what’s the betting Boris will bottle this as it won’t have Maddame nut jobs approval.
We’re still waiting for some tangible action on Northern Ireland but I won’t hold my breath.
January 18, 2022
Indeed, of course it should not be a criminal offence it should not even be a valid bill unless you ordered the service and agreed to pay the fee.
Why on earth are this government delaying on this still delaying on this?
January 18, 2022
“Why Won’t They Release the Data on Child Deaths Following Covid Vaccination?” Asks the dailysceptic organisation. This after Justice Jonathon Swift bizarrely ruled that the ONS/government can continue to censor them. Did he examine the figures before he ruled on this? Clearly he should have done this to do his job properly and protect the public interest.
So what possible public interest in there in censoring these figures. If very low nothing to hide, if very high lives can be saved by stopping vaccinating children. Without the figures how can people make sensible judgements about vaccinating children or not or which vaccines are safest?
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) admits it holds the figures. One can only assume they are rather high as if they were low they would have released them and used them to justify more child vaccinations. Totally immoral in my book.
January 18, 2022
Yes, it should be a civil not a criminal matter.
However, that will make it far more expensive to administer.
That doesn’t bother me – I don’t mind paying tax.
January 18, 2022
BBC TV should be world wide subscription of £60 a year for streaming and live, with catalogue of old programme’s and new ones and news for their areas, 250 million viewers, that’s 15 billion pounds a year.
The BBC is worth alot of money and give the people 5 billion a year if handled right and alot more employment as well, with more taxes coming in and better programme’s.
The gov make sure it thrown away for nothing, the people gov is only capable of print money and giving it away, gov couldn’t earn the people five pounds a year if they tried.
January 18, 2022
Excellent question. Appalling answer. Basically, she is saying NO, the licence fee will NOT be decriminalised. Saying this “will be part of the discussion”, when we know the “discussion” will take years, means NO ACTION for the foreseeable future. Another government betrayal!
January 19, 2022
Works for me !
Meanwhile its PAYING audience is slowly dying off and the BBC and the government are getting less revenue.
Ha ha !
January 18, 2022
Is it already a civil matter in Wales?
Is it still a criminal matter in Scotland?
These are the worst two areas for none payment.
What are the usual punishments for not paying?
How many are in prison each year and for how long?
If they go to court do we pay legal aid?
Are barristers required?
How long do cases take?
January 18, 2022
2 years into the parliamentary term and only just beginning to discuss the Beeb, come on Sir J, really overdue.
There was an opportunity with DG appointment to get some real change underway, instead your Gov’t kicked the can down the road…. their remainiac/EU luvvie bias is a national disgrace.
How much more should we endure…. tallying up at election time, doesn’t look pretty.
I don’t see the drive, the commitment nor any significant changes or willingness to address the key issues we all know are still there. A decent fist on vaccines, I’ll give you that, but the rest is at best a curate’s egg.
January 19, 2022
Yes. Amazing how they got the laws changed and the vaccines rolled out. But when it comes to the BBC, everything is in slow-mo.
Not that I am bothered. It’s dying anyway.
January 18, 2022
An 80 seat majority who can’t organise a piss up in a brewery, well, apart from in Downing St.
This nonsense crime should have been struck off in the first days of Johnson’s rule- better still in May’s or even in Cameron’s. You want evidence of a ‘nasty party’? – don’t look very far.
January 18, 2022
If people do not Pay a Sky subscription, or any other supplier, then they get cut off. Simples
Free Sat is free of any subscription, once you have purchased the Box and installed a satellite dish (same dish and cable as SKY)
BBC has a problem because at the moment access is simply via a simple Ariel to a TV.
January 19, 2022
It can still be encrypted. The technology is not new.
January 19, 2022
How do the current boxes and tv’s de-crypt the signal?
January 19, 2022
The same way they have been doing it for over 40 years !
January 20, 2022
I thought you might know wat you are talking about and provide some explanation. Clearly you don’t.
January 25, 2022
I do not know for TV signal but it is likely to be based on something equivalent to AES128 or 256 as such approaches are used (with further bells and whistles like Chaotic Neural Networks) in other domains, eg. for privacy encryption of emails.
See wikipedia ‘Advanced Encryption Standard’.
‘Research on neural network chaotic encryption algorithm in wireless network security communication’, 2019, C. Liang et al., Eurasip J. Wireless Comms. & Netw., 151, 2917.
Good luck!
January 19, 2022
The BBC doesn’t have the problem, we do and would have to pay for it. The current Freeview boxes and TV’s cannot take subscription and we would need new ones to view BBC content – not a problem for some who say they don’t see it anyway, although they seem to have intimate knowledge of what the BBC puts out. Radio via air cannot be put on subscription and until all air broadcast systems are removed and put through the internet or satellite it cannot be done. Then there is advertsising. I hate paying Sky a subscription and having to sit through a quarter of all programmes of adverts and no doubt the commercial stations would suffer if the BBC did that. Of course, then there is cost, subscription would be much higher than the licence fee which would cut off a lot of older and infirm people who only have tv and radio for entertainment. It’s a much bigger topic than just saying ‘put the BBC on subscription’.
January 21, 2022
January 18, 2022
I can’t understand whether your Right Honourable friend’s answer was “yes” or “no”.
January 18, 2022
Surely the BBC cannot complain about decriminalising the fee to help with covid recovery.
January 18, 2022
Keeping under review will mean nothing will be done. If she wanted to change things she would say so. But FUDGE AND DEFER is the policy. If she wants to do it clearly she is being prevented either by her department or the PM, who we know is afraid of everything.
January 19, 2022
Leaving things as they are works for me. Their audience, and therefore revenue, is falling. And the more they pay their so called, Stars the better. Let the BBC eat its own tail.
January 19, 2022
+1
January 18, 2022
Abolition not decriminalisation
It seems John believes the Woke, cultural MARXIST BBC should still enjoy a secured and guaranteed income by imposing a tax on anyone and everyone who dares to buy and then watch a television?
And this is the problem we now face. A Tory party and Tory MPs who posture to seek vital and necessary change but only if it doesn’t damage their party and its interests. Hardly what I would call a principled and radical approach to opposing the woke, feminist cancer that is tearing this nation to pieces and leading to certain types being targeted with discriminatory laws
The Tory party’s become the very thing we all feared it would, captured and capture equals policies that damage the nation’s people but leave the two main parties scoffing at the trough, as per
January 18, 2022
“People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous.”
– Edmund Burke
BTW that is the same bod MPs like to quote to justify ignoring the wishes of the electorate …
January 18, 2022
Radio 2 The Jeremy Vine show today. A stand in presenter.
A pro BBC diatribe by her on the ‘discussion’ about what should happen with the licence fee followed up by the guest expert… the communications director of The Guardian !
There followed a few texts by listeners with further BBC bias and then one listener had written “Perhaps rich people should be charged more and those on benefits get their’s for free.”
“Now THERE’s an idea !” said the presenter.
Everything about why the BBC licence fee needs to be decriminalised was evident here.
BBC Eastenders has no qualms about inciting hate against white men by showing them blowing up a mosque, btw.
January 18, 2022
The fact that you can get a criminal record for not paying to watch TV is wrong especially when we now find you can block public roads on a personal whim with no legal result.
January 19, 2022
Or commit criminal damage against private property because you think said property represents a Hate Crime.
January 19, 2022
+1
January 18, 2022
“In today’s age, should we really continue with a licence fee paid by individuals with the potential threat of bailiffs or criminal prosecution?”
Well we do that for every other bill or tax that goes unpaid, so is the govt also going to stop allowing the utility companies and subscri0ption TV services etc from using bailiffs or the criminal courts to secure their revenue, is the govt finally going to scrap VED and place an extra charge on fuel, or road pricing?
January 18, 2022
Johnson is now trying to protest innocence by claiming ‘nobody warned him about the drinks meeting being illegal.’
He needs a minder to warn him about what he and his science gurus, and Ministers have been banging on about for months? The man is a no nonsense moron, and wickedly making the ‘staff’ walk the plank for him.
How on earth can the Tory party allow this deisgrace to carry on.
Dump him. Posh boy trash.
January 18, 2022
How can these MPs allow themselves to be manipulated by Cummings and the media? Where are their democratic principles? Surely it is incumbent on every parliamentary democrat and constitutional monarchist to resist this Big Media coup, whatever bones they may have to pick with the PM?
January 19, 2022
BJ is a dead man walking.He is capable of performing miracles.Got Brexit done after winning the last election. But what he is now facing is impossible to recover from.
Time for a new PM and Cabinet.So much to do.The list is endless
BJ can then earn monies to pay for all his outgoings.
Happy Days
January 19, 2022
Good morning – again
On the 2nd November 1990 a company called Sky, later to become BSkyB, was created. It was a satellite broadcasting company which transmitted encrypted signals to a outside receiver dish which was then relayed to decryption device connected to you TV. Just think about that ? 1990. Over 30 Years ago !
The reason we are only now having these discussions is because the market has changed, the BBC has failed to adapt, and its audience is dying out. ie It is slowly losing revenue.
I do not know what the government will decide but, I bet it will not be subscription via encrypted signals. It will be a tax on the internet and / or a further charge on your council tax bill.
January 19, 2022
So this is kept in moderation whilst all the others, which are similar, are allowed. Could this be because I have hit the nail on the head and that the government is indeed considering putting it on my Council and / or Internet ?
Silly thing holding this one up !
😉
January 21, 2022
Finally !
What is it with you ?
January 19, 2022
A non-answer. All Dorries is doing is suggesting that Conservative/conservative voters MIGHT get a bit of red meat with reform of the BBC, in a few years’ time ….. if they vote CON in 2024.
January 19, 2022
Untreated sewage is being dumped illegally in rivers across the country on a regular basis, analysis shown to the BBC suggests. It found seven water companies in England and Wales discharged untreated sewage into rivers and the sea more than 3,000 times between 2017 and 2021.
The water industry admitted action was needed to address the problem.
The fresh data comes a week after MPs warned of a “chemical cocktail” of pollutants tainting England’s rivers. The Environmental Audit Committee said raw sewage and microplastics were putting health and nature at risk.
Peter Hammond, a retired professor of computational biology and also a campaigner with Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, said the statistics showed that the water industry was flouting poor regulation by the Environment Agency.
“In some cases, multiple sewage works are spilling into the same river causing damage for long periods of time, sometimes spilling as long as four months, six months almost without a break,” he said.
He calculated that together the seven companies – Southern Water, South West Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water, Yorkshire Water and Welsh Water – discharged untreated sewage from 59 treatment works that treat 4.5 million people’s wastewater.
January 19, 2022
It would be good if consumers could avoid paying the licence fee without fear of prosecution. I expect the likely large numbers refusing to pay would send a much needed message to the government and BBC. It is also stupid to burden the courts with such trivial matters…
January 19, 2022
They can and many like me do !
Just do not watch ANY LIVE BROADCAST TV or use iPlayer !!! Other streaming services, including CH4 and ITV are FREE and not subject to the law. Also. You have Netflix and YT with some excellent content.
You want sport. Go to your local pub. Support them and watch the game.
The BBC and the government have not, and will not receive a penny from me.
January 19, 2022
How much more time do they need to act on this?
Nothing has changed since the subject was raised in Parliament some years back – Just why are they holding back?
Could it be because of internal politics and vested interests?
January 19, 2022
No. It is going to go on your Council Tax and / or your internet bill.
January 19, 2022
“That is an important question and it will be part of the discussion.”
What is there to discuss? Watching BBC TV (live or on the iPlayer) without a licence should not be a criminal offence. Being forced to pay for the BBC, even if you never watch it, in order to watch live TV produced by other organisations is indefensible. The fact that you can listen to Radios 3 and 4 without having a licence reminds me of the Yes Minister episode on who should fund the opera, those who go to it or the lumpenproletariat. Finally, if, like me, you refuse on principle to pay BBC tax (and forgo watching live TV of any kind) because you think that the BBC has become a national cancer, then you will be harried by its TV-Licensing “Enforcement Officers” who, in their correspondence strongly suggest that anyone who does not have a TV licence is committing a criminal offence. The BBC has great power without accountability. It *must* be made directly accountable to those who *choose* to pay for it. If the BBC is “worth it”, subscribers will pay for it voluntarily. If not, not. Clearly those who run the BBC think it is not worth it. The TV licence is unjustifiable and pernicious.
January 21, 2022
Go on to YT and look up the Black Belt Barrister. He is a barrister that comments on legal matters and has cover the License Fee in detail.
If you do not have a TV then you do not need a TV License and are not breaking any laws.
Reply This site does not offer legal advice
January 19, 2022
Decriminalising non-payment of the BBC licence fee should become a non-issue by the scrapping of the licence. Why should someone who doesn’t use a service be forced to pay for it? The current system is akin to being forced to take out a subscription to The Guardian because you want to buy The Telegraph.
The BBC has several options instead of the licence fee: It could advertise, become subscription only, or a combination (i.e. subscription allows ad-free viewing). If it is as popular as it tells us it is then it doesn’t need to compel people to support it.
January 21, 2022
But you do use the service if you watch live TV or iPlayer. That is the law. If you do not have TV you do not need a license. It is the same as with a car. No car, no need to take driving tests to get a license.
January 20, 2022
“Under review” means no change in Conservative party speak.
I remember the first manifesto after IR35 was introduced by Blair’s mob – it said categoriccally that IR35 would be repealed.
Next GE… it would be “reviewed”.
Next time, same – and tehy won power. They held a review, staffed by Treasury civil servants and “experts” from industry. The “experts”, such as contract reviewers, people who insure against IR35 losses -all had a vested interest in IR35 continuing. Even the Professional Contractors Group (now IPSE) who were formed to fight IR35 and morhped into an organisation which realised that its continued membership numbers depended on IR35 existing had that vested interest.
Result? It stayed.
Then changes in responsibility got rolled out into the public sector to make it much harder to avoid being caught. Tories again.
Now Sunak rolls it out into the private sector – during a pandemic. And lorry drivers and other contract-based workers, who are largely collateral damage… all head off to do something else for a living, since…
Who benefits? Consultancies who kill off their one-man band competition.
What’s the Sunak family business? Consultancy. His father in law is co-founder of the 2nd largest Indian consultancy. This doesn’t need to be declared on the register of interests.
I’ll leave the reader to form a judgement for themselves.