According to Buzzfeed's Alex Wickham:
Paul T Horgan of The Conservative Woman added:Dominic Cummings and senior No10 aides have drawn up plans over the last few weeks re BBC licence fee. They are looking either abolishing it entirely or decriminalising non payment. Source says they want to relieve burden on justice system of chasing people who don’t pay. Tories pointing to the famous statistic that around 1 in 10 cases at magistrates courts are re the TV licence:— in 2013 nearly 200,000 were prosecuted.— 7 in 10 of those prosecuted were women.— 30 people a year jailed.— Tories say time/money better spent on more serious crimes.
All the prosecutions are private prosecutions conducted by Capita, paid for by the BBC. About 30 people a year are jailed for non-payment of the fines for not having a licence. The BBC refuses to disclose how much these private prosecutions actually cost.
