§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether the Treasury, whilst it repays the expenses of witnesses on charges of felony and certain misdemeanours before examining magistrates, where a committal for trial has taken place, refuses to repay the expenses of such witnesses which, in accordance with the Statute 29 & 30 Vict. c. 52, may have been allowed where the charge has been dismissed?
§ THE SECRETARY (Mr. JACKSON) (Leeds, N.)The prosecutions of which the costs are repaid to the local funds from the Vote of Parliament are limited to those tried at Assizes and Quarter Sessions, and to adjudications by magistrates under the Summary Jurisdiction Act. This limitation excludes dismissed cases; and although the Statute quoted gives a discretion to the magistrates to charge upon local funds the expenses of witnesses in certain dismissed cases, it does not impose any charge upon public funds.