Moneymaker

I'm grateful to the Telegraph for tracking down Ministry of Justice figures which show the Government makes a profit on prosecuting people who don't pay the tv licence fee. The Telegraph sums the figure at £50m a year - a figure that is likely to increase as we move to more automation of court administration, and the 'single justice' system.

The MoJ paper reveals that the average cost of a licence-fee court case is £28, way outweighed by the fines collected, at an average of £170.  And that the vast majority of the 13% of 'not guilty' verdicts are reached because the offender has belatedly coughed up the fee.  And that the cases take up just 0.3% of magistrates' time.

In the last full year reported, 32 went to prison - usually with licence-fee non-payment as just part of the reason - for around three weeks each. Cost to prison service per head - £20k, compared with a general average of £22k.