HC Deb 20 November 1984 vol 68 c108W
Mr. David Atkinson

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about the use of the poor box by magistrates.

Mr. Mellor

It is the custom of some magistrates' courts to keep a poor box, financed by donations from private and charitable sources, from which to make small grants in deserving cases. The decision whether to maintain a poor box and what payments to make from it and to whom rests entirely with the individual court.