The former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, gave warning that the new ministry of justice could become a “backwater” if its budget were not ring-fenced.

Lord Woolf, who this week criticised the lack of consultation over the plans, last night expressed concern that funds could be diverted from the courts. Financial stringency was already “damaging the administration of justice”; the Government failed to “attach sufficient importance to the needs of the justice system”, he said in a lecture at the law firm Clifford Chance, adding in reference to the Lord Chancellor that the financial problems reflected “a failure of Lord Falconer’s formidable advocacy on behalf of the courts”.

He also urged that the office of Attorney-General should not be altered. It was “part of the glue that held the constitution together”. At a time of other constitutional changes it would be as well not to interfere with the historic office.

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