MPs back changes to TV licence fee law
A committee of MPs has voted to give the Government the power to decriminalise the non-payment of TV licence fee.
They voted in favour of an amendment to the Deregulation Bill that will require an examination of reform options and give ministers the power to make it a civil offence.
The BBC said that the move could cost them as much as £200m a year.
Following the committee's decision to approve a review, BBC director of corporate and public affairs Andrew Scadding said: "The licence fee is by no means a perfect system, but for 40p a day it does provide a television, radio and online service that is the envy of much of the world."
"Under the current system, licence fee evasion has been steady at 5% for the last five years. We have one of the lowest evasion rates in Europe.
"If just 5% more of homes refused to pay, it would result in a loss of revenue equivalent to about £200 million.
"This is the same as the budgets for CBBC, CBeebies, and BBC Four... We are not crying wolf when we say that a loss of income through an increase in evasion would means a loss of more services."