This petition was submitted during the 2015 to 2017 Parliament
Rejected petition Decriminalise not having a TV license
Rejected on
Thousands of poor people are being imprisoned or given criminal records every year for a minor debt to the BBC.
Usually, cases of a debt are dealt with by a civil action which is more proportionate.
The BBC employs tactics to frighten people who do not have a TV into buying a license.
"In England and Wales there are 180,000 prosecutions a year for failing to pay the licence fee, and dozens of people are jailed each year."
See:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/599049/TV-Licence-jailed-England-BBC-fee-Scotland-fines
I do not own a TV and yet I receive regular upsetting letters - about once every 2 months. They say things like ' What to expect in court'. Clearly designed to cause distress.
Decriminalising will reduce the distress caused to millions.
Why was this petition rejected?
There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124937
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.