Goal Fees Abolition Act 1815
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
(55 Geo. 3) C A P. L.
[12th May 1815]
'WHEREAS it is expedient, for the better Government of Gaols and Bridewells inEngland , that all Fees and Gratuities payable at the same, for the Entrance, Commitment or Discharge of any Prisoner, should be abolished;' Be it therefore enacted by The King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authorityof the same, That, from and after the First Day ofOctober next, all Fees and Gratuities paid or payable by any Prisoner, on the Entrance, Commitment or Discharge, to or from Prison, shall absolutely cease, and the same are hereby abolished and determined. [See to The King's Bench, &c.∥ 14.]
'II. And Whereas in some Places such Fees and Gratuities as aforesaid are payable to the Gaoler or his Servants, and are to him or them as a Salary;' Be it enacted, That it may be lawful for the Justices of the Peace for any County, City or Town, assembled in General or Quarter Sessions, to make such Allowances to the aforesaid Gaoler or Servants, as may to them seem fit, in the Way of Salary or Compensation, for the Fees or Gratuities, payable by Prisoners, now abolished by this Act.
III Allowances paid out of County Rates, &c.
III. And be it enacted, That the said Justices of the Peace for any County, City or Town, may direct the said Allowances to be paid out of any County Rate, City Rate or Town Rate, now by Law authorized to be made and levied.
'IV. And Whereas it is customary for Clerks of the Assize, Clerks of the Peace, Clerks of the Court or their Deputies, or other Officers in the Courts of Assize or Session, to demand and take from Persons indicted, divers Sumsin the Way of Fees;' Be it enacted, That every Prisoner who now is or hereafter shall be charged with or indicted for any Felony, or as an Accessary thereto, or with or for any Misdemeanor, before any Court holding Criminal Jurisdiction within that Part of the United Kingdom ofGreat Britain and Ireland called England , against whom no Bill of Indictment shall be found by the Grand Jury, or who, on his, her or their Trial shall be acquitted, or who shall be discharged by Proclamation for want of Prosecution, shall be immediately set at large, without Payment of any Fee or Sum of Money, for or in respect of his, her or their Discharge, to any Person of Persons whomsoever; except only in such Cases wherein the Prisoner shall have been charged, and shall then stand charged with any Process authorizing the Detention of such Prisoner: Provided always, that if it shall happen that any Prisoner who shall so stand charged with any Process authorizing his Detention as aforesaid, shall have been discharged in supposed Obedience to this Act, by reason that the Sheriff or other Officer entitled to have detained him was at the time of such his Discharge ignorant that there was any such Charge against him, it shall in such case be lawful for such Sheriff or other Officer, on receiving Information of such Charge, presently to retake the Prisoner so discharged as aforesaid, and thereupon forthwith to detain him in Custody upon such Charge, in such manner as the said Sheriff or other Officer might have done if such Prisoner had not been set at large; and that upon his being so retaken the said Prisoner shall be deemed for the Purpose of that Suit to have been in Custody continually from the time when he so first stood charged as aforesaid.
V Fees usually paid to Clerks of Court, Assize, &c. abolished.
V. And be it enacted by the Authority...
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