Criminal justice system 'creaking at the seams'

Britain’s criminal justice system is ‘creaking at the seams’ as a result of legislative changes effected by the labour government.

Such is the opinion of the shadow attorney general, Dominic Grieve, who made his comments to Sky News this week.

He was responding to a claim by justice secretary, Lord Falconer, that there was more money in the criminal justice system at present than there has ever been before.

Mr Grieve commented: "I think we need to look very closely at what the drivers are of raising costs in the criminal justice system.

"The government, for instance, has a growing budget in respect of legal aid."

He stated that rather than lawyers soaking up legal aid funding, the driver of heightened costs was an increase in pieces of criminal justice legislation resulting in more representations in court.

Mr Grieve has been vocal in his support of grammar schools in recent days, writing in his local paper that such institutions should be built "on demand".