§ MR. H. S. WRIGHT (Nottingham, S.)On behalf of the hon. Member for West Marylebone, I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the practice whereby the chief and other clerks of the London and Sheerness Police Courts receive and retain for their own use, in addition to their salaries, certain fees for supplying copies of depositions to prosecutors and others; and whether he can state if this practice is authorised by any statutory authority?
§ MR. ASQUITHI am aware of the practice referred to, which has existed for many years with the cognisance of the Treasury and Exchequer and Audit Department. I am not aware of any express statutory authority under which the fees in question are payable to the clerks; but it is a matter of great importance in the interests of justice that copies of depositions should be prepared rapidly and accurately for the use of prosecutors and others; and as the making of these copies is outside the official duties of the Police Court clerks, the Metropolitan Police Magistrates have, with my own and my predecessor's approval, sanctioned the existing scale of fees. I may add that I have had recently under my consideration the whole question of the remuneration of the Police Court clerks, and proposals are now being weighed under which the fees in question would be transferred to the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District.
§ MR. STUART-WORTLEY (Sheffield, Hallam)Is it not a fact that the salaries of these valuable public servants are limited by Statute to what many people think a very moderate sum?
§ MR. ASQUITHThey were so limited; I do not know what they stand at at the present moment.