TV licence evasion non-court disposal statistics for people aged over 75: FOI release

Information requested

The number of TV licence a) prosecutions, b) convictions and c) non-court disposals of people aged over 75, ideally broken down by area of Scotland.

You have also queried why some of the local authorities do not feature in the already published TV Licencing statistics for prosecutions, convictions, or non-court disposals.

Response

In the UK the non-payment of the licence fee is a criminal offence. The television licence fee and whether or not evasion of it is a criminal offence is a matter reserved to the UK Government. The prosecutorial function is, however, devolved and in Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has placed a greater emphasis on alternatives to prosecution.

The answer to your question is in the table below:

Number of people over 75 year old, receiving a non-court disposal under the Communications Act 2003 Section 363 (where main crime), by Local Authority, 2010-11 to 2019-20.

		2010- 11	2011- 12	2012- 13	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17	2017- 18	2018- 19	2019- 20
COMMUNICATIONS ACT 2003 SECTION 363(2)&(4)	East Ayrshire	-	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
	East Lothian	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Fife	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
	Glasgow City	-	1	-	-	1	1	-	-	1	-
	North Ayrshire	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Renfrewshire	-	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
	South Ayrshire	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
	South Lanarkshire	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
	LA Unknown	1	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
Total		1	8	3	1	3	3	-	-	2	-

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

There were no court proceedings of people over 75 years old, between 2010-11 and 2019-20, under the Communications Act 2003 Section 363 (where main crime).

Please note - Procurator Fiscal receive reports from the police and from non-police reporting agencies such as TV Licensing. The Procurator Fiscal decide whether or not to prosecute, having considered if there is sufficient evidence to gain a conviction, and whether prosecution is in the public interest.

Local Authority refers to location of the court, not the residence of accused. Some Local Authorities would not have a court located within their area. Local Authorities with zero cases were omitted from the table.

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