§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will issue guidance to magistrates on the use of their powers to require means inquiries or to waive charges in cases of hardship in cases relating to non-payment of poll tax; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John M. TaylorWhere an application has been made to commit a community charge defaulter to prison, magistrates are required to hold an inquiry into the debtor's means, and have the power to remit amounts due where a committal warrant is neither made nor its issue postponed. Guidance on the operation of the community charge regulations was issued to magistrates courts by the Home Office in 1990. It would not be right for me to seek to interfere in the way in which magistrates exercise their discretion in individual cases.