TV viewers who refuse to pay the BBC licence fee can expect to avoid being prosecuted in future, in a move by Boris Johnson that could lead to the fee being scrapped altogether.

The outgoing culture secretary Nicky Morgan, in one of her last acts before stepping down, has launched a public consultation on whether to end the non-payment of the licence fee being a criminal offence.

The move comes in the week it was announced that the cost of the annual TV licence fee will increase by £3, from £154.50 to £157.50, from 1 April and at a time when the BBC is entering a period of turmoil.

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Its director general, Lord Hall, is quitting, BBC News is facing spending cuts of £80m and the loss of 450 jobs, and the prime minister and senior Tory ministers are on collision course with the corporation.

Just days before the general election in December, Mr Johnson said he was "looking at" abolishing the licence fee and last week the BBC refused to broadcast his Brexit day address because it was filmed in-house by 10 Downing Street.


The government is also at war with the BBC over axing free TV licences for over-75s, which will hit 3.7 million pensioners when they have to start paying for them in June, though 900,000 receiving pension credit will not have to pay.

As well as a consultation on non-payment, Baroness Morgan has announced a new flexible payment scheme - the Simple Payment Plan - to help vulnerable people, including those over the age of 75, struggling to pay the licence fee.

Currently anyone who installs or uses a TV or watches BBC iPlayer without a licence is guilty of a criminal offence. The fine for non-payment can be as high as £1,000 and refusing to pay can lead to a jail term.

But the government claims the broadcasting landscape has changed dramatically and therefore it is right to look again at decriminalising TV licence evasion "in order to ensure a proportionate and fair approach to licence fee penalties and payments, which protects the most vulnerable in our society".

Baroness Morgan said: "As we move into an increasingly digital age, with more and more channels to watch and platforms to choose from, the time has come to think carefully about how we make sure the TV licence fee remains relevant in this changing media landscape.

"Many people consider it wrong that you can be imprisoned for not paying for your TV licence and that its enforcement punishes the vulnerable.

"Today we are launching a public consultation to make sure we have a fair and proportionate approach to licence fee penalties and payments, that protects those most in need in society.

"Alongside this we're also announcing a new payment plan to allow people who struggle to pay the licence fee to spread out their payments.

"This will help prepare the BBC and public service broadcasting for the future and make sure it continues to work for our society, our economy, and the public which funds it."

Image: The BBC provides nine national TV channels and the iPlayer

A BBC spokesperson said in response: "A detailed government-commissioned review found the current system to be the fairest and most effective. It did not recommend change - in part because the current system is effective in ensuring payment with very few people ever going to prison.

"For example, the most recent annual figures show only five people in England and Wales were jailed for not paying court fines. So there is a question about what issue this repeat consultation is trying to solve.

"Of course it is important that any system commands public respect and we hope that any debate about the future is based on the evidence."

Writing in the Daily Mail, Baroness Morgan said the BBC needed to "move with the times" or it could go the same way as collapsed video rental company Blockbuster.

But in her speech announcing the consultation, she said that despite the changing landscape, the BBC "can still create shared moments that bring the country together".

She cited the "incredible public response" to this year's Gavin & Stacey Christmas special as an example.

Reacting to Baroness Morgan's Blockbuster comparison, a BBC spokesperson said: "The BBC tried to set up a Netflix service a decade ago while they were still sending DVDs in the post, but was prevented from doing so by regulators.

"There is a danger that politicians catastrophise the situation.

"The BBC is the most used media organisation in the UK. It reaches the most people. It's used for the most time. You wouldn't think that from some of the things being said today."

In 2018, more than 121,000 people were convicted and sentenced for evasion and issued with an average fine of £176.

There were around 26 million TV licences being used in the UK last year, which generated an income of £3.69bn for the BBC.

Baroness Morgan's announcement has been welcomed by Tory MP Julian Knight, who ousted another Conservative, Damian Collins, in the election for chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee last week.

MPs believe Mr Knight is more amenable to a BBC shake-up than Mr Collins, who also clashed with the government over Brexit-related issues and failed in a bid to summon the PM's chief adviser Dominic Cummings, to appear before the committee.

Image: Labour said the scheme to help vulnerable people with the licence fee 'doesn't make up' for over 75s having to pay

Mr Knight said the announcement marks a "significant shift" for broadcasting, with "major implications for the future of the BBC".

"With negotiations on its funding due to start later this year there's a need for an urgent and open conversation about how people consume media and how they should pay for it," he said.

"As chair I'll be urging the DCMS Committee to take the lead on steering the BBC towards a new and sustainable funding model which ensures the most vulnerable in our society do not lose out."

Shadow culture secretary Tracy Brabin said the move places the BBC "under serious threat" as she said decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee means the BBC will have no "predictable income" and will be "potentially hundreds of millions of pounds short".

She also said it was "shameful" over-75s will be forced to pay the licence fee, saying the new scheme "doesn't make up for that".