The Television Licences (Disclosure of Information) Act 2000 (Prescription of Information) Order 2022

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order prescribes the descriptions of information that the Secretary of State (in practice, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) and, in Northern Ireland, the Department for Communities, can supply to the British Broadcasting Corporation (“BBC”). The Department for Communities was previously called the Department for Social Development, but was renamed by section 1(7) Departments Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (c. 5).

The Order is made under the Television Licences (Disclosure of Information) Act 2000 (c. 15), section 1 of which permits the Secretary of State and the Department for Communities to supply the BBC with “social security information”. Section 1(3) and (4) of the Act (read with section 5) provide that “social security information”, in relation to the Secretary of State and that Department respectively, means information of a description prescribed by order, being information held and obtained as a result, or for the purpose, of the exercise of his or (as the case may be) the Department’s functions in relation to social security or (in the case of the Secretary of State only) war pensions.

By virtue of section 2 of the Act, information so supplied may be used only in connection with television licences for which no fee is payable, or reduced-fee licences. Since no licences have been prescribed as reduced-fee licences, the information will in practice be used in connection with free licences. By virtue of a determination made (and subsequently amended) by the BBC(1) under section 365A of the Communications Act 2003 (c. 21)(2), a person who is aged 75 years or over is entitled to a free television licence covering their sole or main residence if that person, or their spouse or partner at the same address, is entitled to state pension credit.

Article 2 revokes the Television Licences (Disclosure of Information) Act 2000 (Prescription of Information) Order 2000 previously made under the Act.

Article 3 restates the information prescribed under the previous Order, namely the name, date of birth, address and national insurance number of a person aged 74 years or over, and in a case where such a person has died, that fact and the date when he died. That article adds further information that can be disclosed under the Act, namely information as to whether a person aged 74 years or over is entitled to state pension credit and (if so) the date when it became payable.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on the private sector or the voluntary sector.

(1)

The BBC’s determinations can be found at https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/reports/consultation/age-related-tv-licence-policy.

(2)

Section 365A was inserted into Part 4 of the Communications Act 2003 by section 89 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 (c. 30).