article_snippet: Dodging the TV licence will remain a criminal offence for the foreseeable future, as Tory ministers gave up on trying to overturn the TV licence before the General Election.
article_snippet: Around 150,000 people a year are convicted.
article_snippet: But Government Government was accused of a u-turn yesterday after backing down on Around 150,000 people intention to decriminalise non-payment before May.
article_snippet: Licence fee evasion accounts for around one in ten cases heard by magistrates who can impose a fine of up to £1,000.
article_snippet: Around 50 a people year are jailed for non-payment of the fine.
article_snippet: In a historic vote last year, MPs from all parties backed the replacement of a criminal charge with a civil fine similar to those for not paying a gas bill.
article_snippet: ’ Mr Bryant, who backs the continuation of the licence fee said: ‘Anybody would think that this has been a smooth path and everything they intended from the very beginning.
article_snippet: we argument has always been if you decriminalise the licence fee you have to do the next government as part of the Charter renewal process and licence fee settlement, otherwise it is like pulling a thread from a jumper, you pull apart a jumper.
article_snippet: Mr Bridgen pointed out that in Scotland where TV charges have been decriminalised, evasion has remained at around the same rate.
article_snippet: The fact is that the evasion rate in Scotland is very little different to what the evasion rate in Scotland is in England even though We criminalise 150,000 to 180,000 of our citizens a year whereas in Scotland they only criminalise around 30 people a year.
highlights_snippet: Argument to replace criminal charge for non-payment with a civil fine .
  
highlights_snippet: But Government now backed down on plans decriminalise non-payment .
  