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Please do not write below the line

I have been vexed for some time by the request at the bottom of each letter that I am not to write below the line. I emailed TVL/BBC on 5 November 2006 to find out why: I've had a letter from TV Licencing and I'm interested in the statement at the bottom of the page.

Evidently, my question was too taxing for Ms Wright, as the next response came from Ruairi Mcclean, on 3 January 2007: The reason you would receive such letters is because we would have no record of a TV licence at your address. On 30 January 2007, I received this reply from Cas Scott: A Licensing officer may call at your property not to collect the letters but to check that you are not watching a TV. The OCR machine reads the information below the line and updates the corresponding records on our computer system many times faster than if manually processed.

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