HC Deb 28 October 1970 vol 805 c136W
59. Mr. Iremonger

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to require companies which have laid criminal charges against customers suspected of stealing from their shops to pay the legal costs of customers when acquitted and publicly to apologise through newspaper advertisements for their mistake.

Mr. Sharples

No. The Costs in Criminal Cases Act, 1952, already empowers a court, on dismissal of an information, to make such order as to costs to be paid by the prosecutor to the defendant as it thinks just and reasonable.