In the UK you can go to prison for not having a TV licence and then watch television in prison without a TV licence.
You can’t be sent to prison for failing to pay your TV licence, though if you fail to pay the fine this can ultimately lead to a custodial sentence. TVs in cells or communal areas within prison grounds do not need to be licensed but prisoners usually have to pay to rent in-cell TVs.
Several posts on Facebook claim: “Only in the UK could you go to prison for not having a TV licence and then watch television in prison without a TV Licence”.
This is not quite true. You won’t be jailed for simply not paying your TV licence, though you can be fined. If you refuse to pay a fine, you can be jailed for that as a separate offence. Prisoners do not have to pay TV licences for TVs in cells, though they do have to pay to rent the TV.
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As we’ve written previously, you can’t be sent to prison for failing to pay your TV licence, only fined.
But deliberately refusing to pay a court-imposed fine in connection with a conviction for not paying the licence fee is a separate offence, and can result in a prison sentence.
According to TV Licensing: “We only prosecute as a last resort when all our other options have been exhausted”.
According to a reply from the BBC to a 2015 Freedom of Information request, “televisions used by prisoners in cells and/or any other communal areas within the prison grounds do not need to be licensed”.
However, a licence is required in staff areas such as bars and common rooms.
As part of a privileges scheme rewarding prisoners for good behaviour, some prisoners have in-cell televisions. They have to pay for this—£1 per week if they’re in a single cell and 50p a week if they share.
According to the Ministry of Justice, this usually provides nine free-to-view channels, but prison governors are permitted to make additional free channels available.
A prisoner who breaks the rules may have a TV in their cell removed.
False claims about what you can be imprisoned for risk misinforming people about their rights, and causing unnecessary alarm. We’ve previously written about misinformation regarding TV licensing, including inaccurate claims that if you don't ‘consent’ you don't have to pay, and that all migrants arriving across the Channel get a free TV licence.
Image courtesy of Glenn Carstens-Peters
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because although you can’t be jailed for not paying the TV licence you can be imprisoned for not paying subsequent fines relating to it.
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