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<p>The requirement to hold, and pay for, a television license is set out in the Communications
Act 2003 and the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004. Under the
Communications Act 2003, the BBC is responsible for the collection and enforcement
of the TV licensing system.</p><p>The BBC prosecutes most TV license evasion cases
using the Single Justice Procedure (SJP). The SJP is a more proportionate way of dealing
with straightforward, uncontested, summary-only non-imprisonable offences which almost
exclusively result in a financial penalty.</p><p>The data we hold shows the number
of defendants prosecuted by the Television Licensing Authority and dealt with via
SJP for TV license evasion cases each year since 2015. This can be found in the table
below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="10"><p><strong>Television Licence Evasion</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p>2015</p></td><td><p>2016</p></td><td><p>2017</p></td><td><p>2018</p></td><td><p>2019</p></td><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>2021</p></td><td><p>2022</p></td><td><p>2023</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Defendants
dealt with</strong></p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>67,473</p></td><td><p>136,793</p></td><td><p>126,571</p></td><td><p>121,020</p></td><td><p>53,227</p></td><td><p>48,495</p></td><td><p>43,504</p></td><td><p>33,460</p></td></tr></tbody></table>
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