Court poor box ‘compensation’ payouts to be revealed

Court poor box payments to organisations are to be published in the coming weeks on the courts service website in “the interests of greater accountability and transparency”.

This is the first of what is expected to be a number of sweeping changes to the system whereby offenders contribute to charity in lieu of conviction, or in lessening of conviction, at the discretion of individual judges.

It has however yet to be decided if the identity of individuals who have received monies is to be revealed. Individual names are now redacted amid fears of breaching data protection legislation.