§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Attorney-General whether he will publish in the Official Report, for the longest and most convenient period of time, details of occasions when (a) all litigants and (b) those suing newspapers for libel have been ordered to make payments into court against costs likely to be incurred; and whether he will take steps to end this practice.
The Solicitor-GeneralThere is no information available as to the number of occasions when a party to civil proceedings has been ordered to give security for another party's costs. There is, however, no reason to doubt that the jurisdiction to make such orders, which applies inter alia to foreign-based plaintiffs who may be unable to meet an English-based defendant's costs if the action fails, is valuable and that the practice should continue.