Justice secretary Dominic Raab has said a legal amnesty for people who fail to pay the TV licence fee which funds the BBC was an “attractive idea”.
The cabinet minister told a Conservative Party fringe event that it could take between six to 12 months to get the huge backlog of court cases down to pre-pandemic levels.
Asked if there could be “clemency” for non-payment of the licence fee – still a criminal offence – to help ease the backlog of court cases, Mr Raab said: “It’s an attractive idea.”
The justice secretary added: “I’ll discuss it with [culture secretary] Nadine Dorries.”
The government said earlier this year it would not move ahead with plans to decriminalise non-payment of the £159-a-year licence fee – but said the idea would “remain under active consideration”.
A consultation on decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee found that evasion is currently handled “very efficiently in the Magistrates Court”.
But the government said that it remained “concerned” that criminal sanctions for licence fee evasion creates “considerable stress and anxiety”.
Mr Raab’s comments on the fee follows an attack by newly-appointed culture secretary Nadine Dorries on the “elitist” attitudes and “lack of impartiality” at the BBC.
The minister claimed on Monday that she did not want a war with the broadcaster – but suggested it would have to agree to “changes” before the government agrees to the next licence fee settlement from April 2022.
Asked whether the licence fee would still be compulsory in 10 or 20 years, she said: “Will the BBC still be here in 10 years? I don’t know … It is a very competitive environment at the moment.”
However, Boris Johnson dismissed Ms Dorries comments on the broadcaster’s future on Tuesday – telling Radio 4’s Today programme: “[The BBC] is a great national institution, I’ve no doubt that it will be around for a long time to come.”
It comes as a group of charity leaders have written to Ms Dorries over government plans after her predecessor Oliver Dowden vowed to tackle the “woke” agenda in the sector.
Mr Dowden had said he wanted to see charities “totally focused on their important work” and that “the recruitment of a new Chair of the Charity Commission provides an opportunity for this refocus and resetting of the balance”.
In an open letter, a group of more than 20 charity leaders told Ms Dorries: “We believe Mr Dowden’s comments showed his ambition to direct and control the work of the Charity Commission to achieve political ends.”
