The BBC licence fee debate is about more than decriminalising non-payers
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Version 0 of 1. In recent months the BBC licence fee has been described variously as a poll tax, a privilege and an anachronism. It is likely to be called many more names in the runup to the expected renewal of its charter in 2017. And the skirmishing has already begun. MPs will today debate an amendment to the deregulation bill that would decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee. Until a couple of weeks ago this proposal, from Andrew Bridgen, Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, seemed like a rather peripheral tilt at a very solid windmill. The more MPs contemplated the idea, however, the more they liked it – and the more loudly the BBC made it known that it did not. The most persuasive argument for decriminalisation is the court time taken up with the prosecution of those who do not pay. One in 10 cases coming before magistrates' courts concerns people charged with watching television without a licence. This is an absurd waste of court time that cannot but delay hearings of other, arguably more important, cases. Making non-payment a civil offence would leave only the most egregious cases coming before the courts – and not for non-payment, but for contempt. Now you could say that it sets a very bad precedent for the law – any law – to be changed just because disobedience has reached a certain rate. And the BBC and licence-fee supporters among MPs might well contest my definition of the "more important" cases that are being squeezed out of the courts. Refusing to pay the BBC licence fee, they would say, should be punished as a crime, not just because – unlike with non-payment of the gas or electric – you cannot be cut off, but because it increases the burden on other, conscientious, payers and amounts to theft. Taking a rather dim view of the UK's television viewers, they also argue that decriminalisation could tempt many more people not to pay and leave a serious hole in the BBC's budget. In a way, though, the whole discussion about decriminalisation is a proxy for the undoubted need to reconsider how the BBC is financed. At a time when many people willingly pay far more than the £145.50 per year licence fee for subscription channels and much BBC – and other – television is available, free, via your computer, the licence fee system looks archaic. The priority, then, has to be to make paying for the BBC, or public service broadcasting in general, harder to avoid. One hoary old solution would be to make it take advertising, though this would undoubtedly change its character. An interim remedy might be to follow the French example and attach the licence fee to the equivalent of council tax. Then, though, you are back with the court problem. With exemptions to council tax being reduced, more people are being prosecuted for non-payment, so the problem may just be shuffled into a different category. In the end, it is hard to see any long-term solution other than replacing the licence fee with a subscription, and using technology to block the signal to persistent non-payers. But, as a former BBC director general, Lord Grade, said so sagely on the Today programme this morning, the last thing anyone needs is yet another set-top box. |