TV Licence Fee: Boris Johnson Reneges on Plan To Decriminalise Non-Payment

London: Official data shows nearly a third of women’s convictions come from television licence evasion. Women accounted for 74 per cent of the 114,000 convictions for licence fee evasion in 2019, up 3 per cent since 2015, according to the Ministry of Justice data published last month. Ministers have delayed a decision to end the prosecution and imprisonment of people who do not pay the fee until at least 2022 Boris Johnson is preparing to shelve plans to decriminalise non-payment of the BBC licence fee, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Ministers have delayed a decision to end the prosecution and imprisonment of people who do not pay the licence fee until at least 2022, it is understood, amid concerns it could create an even harsher system in which bailiffs pursue elderly people and poor families for unpaid debts.