Why we're here:
This blog is to highlight the unjust persecution of legitimate non-TV users at the hands of TV Licensing. These people do not require a licence and are entitled to live without the unnecessary stress and inconvenience caused by TV Licensing's correspondence and employees.

If you use equipment to receive live broadcast TV programmes, or to watch or download BBC on-demand programmes via the iPlayer, then the law requires you to have a TV licence and we encourage you to buy one.

If you've just arrived here from a search engine, then you might find our Quick Guide helpful.

Disclosure

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Saturday 21 January 2017

Organisation of the BBC Licence Fee Unit


The BBC Licence Fee Unit is responsible for the administration, collection and enforcement of the TV licence fee.

The BBC took over the role of Television Licensing Authority from the Home Office as a result of the Broadcasting Act 1990. It contracts a number of private companies to fulfil this statutory role. These companies operate under the trading name of TV Licensing, but the BBC retains full legal responsibility - the threatening letters, aggressive cold-callers and dishonest press releases are all ultimately the BBC's handiwork.

The Licence Fee Unit, otherwise known as the TV Licensing Management Team, is based at the BBC's White City buildings in west London.

It is led by the Head of Revenue Management, Pipa Doubtfire, who has occupied the role for as long as we can remember. The Head of Revenue Management is directly accountable to the BBC's Deputy Director General, Anne Bulford, who oversees the Corporation's Finance & Business division.

Mr Hillas, a respected TV licence campaigner that uses the WhatDoTheyKnow.com website for placing Freedom of Information requests, asked the BBC to provide an organisational chart for the Licence Fee Unit.

The chart is reproduced at the top of this post. At first glance it appears there are a lot of staff with the word "manager" in their job title. It would be interesting to learn the salaries drawn by members of the BBC Licence Fee Unit - it must add up to millions of pounds.

Members of the BBC Communications department also work on TV licence fee matters, but they are not indicated on the chart above.

We are grateful to Mr Hillas for this additional insight into the BBC's revenue generation machine.

If you've found this article useful please consider liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or downloading our free ebook.

6 comments:

Maryon Jeane said...

People on here might find this interesting: http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2833184-To-have-told-the-to-licence-man-to-piss-off?msgid=66393748

Bureaucrat said...

It's concerning that there don't appear to be any lawyers in this unit, considering that it has overall responsibility for over 150,000 prosecutions a year.

Admin said...

There are lawyers. Panesar, the FOI Advisor, he is a lawyer.

Bureaucrat said...

Are you sure Admin? There is no record of him with the Law Society, Bar Council or Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.

In any event, there do not appear to be any lawyers employed by the BBC who are responsible for ensuring that the licence fee is administered and enforced in a legal manner. The only lawyers with that role appear to be three lawyers that are employed by Capita. Given that the BBC are supposed to oversee the process I find this quite disappointing.

Admin said...

I'm not so sure now you've said that. I got the impression somewhere that he is a lawyer - I've read something that's given me that idea - but I can't put my finger on where.

Bureaucrat said...

It could be a misleading job title like "legal adviser" that implies that the holder is a lawyer even when they might not be.