Jack Straw moved to defuse the deadlock between ministers and judges last night with a pledge to fight for their funding and defend their independence.

In his first address to an audience of judges, the new Justice Secretary also made clear that ministers should not “criticise individual judgments” nor show lack of respect for the judiciary or judges.

The remarks by Mr Straw, who also holds the post of Lord Chancellor, were made in front of the Lord Chief Justice and several hundred judges attending their annual dinner hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

At the same dinner, the Lord Chief Justice, the country's most senior sitting judge, said that in future, he would make an annual report to Parliament on the running of the courts.

Justice combo wins thumbs up

The profession appears pleased that Gordon Brown has chosen old hands to take over

The administration of justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers said, was “inevitably and quite properly” of public and Parliamentary interest.

“I have therefore come to the conclusion that the right course is to produce a report on the administration of justice which I will lay before Parliament annually.

“My hope is that this will serve to strenghten understanding between Parliament and the judiciary.”

The senior judges are locked in a dispute with ministers over the creation of the new Ministry of Justice.

They are concerned that the funding for the courts will be plundered to meet the needs of prisons, which are now in the same department.

A second concern is that they will come under pressure to tailor sentences according to prison spaces rather than what is appropriate.

Mr Straw did not commit himself to ring-fencing their budget and he reminded the judges that all departments had to operate “within the financial limitations imposed by the Treasury”.

Nor, he added, would a different structure necessarily be a guarantee of resources.

He said: “The assumption that the courts are more vulnerable now than they would be if they were part of a smaller, discreet department is not one I share.”

But he added: “I am committed to taking the time to better appreciate the siutation and arrive at a mutually agreed undertaking. I hope that the judiciary will understand that I need time to consider the situation.”

Mr Straw underlined the importance of the relationship he must forge with the judiciary, particularly as he is the first Lord Chancellor to sit in the House of Commons.

“How I act, and to what standard, will set a framework for future holders of the office,” he said.

Declaring his commitment to judicial independence he added that this would be “as nothing if the courts were not able without impediment to criticise and where needed, correct, acts of commission or omission by the executive”.

In a sideswipe at criticims by John Reid, the former Home Secretary, he said that ministers should not “gratuitously criticise individual judgments, nor show a lack of respect for the institution of the judiciary or its members”.

He added: “After all, it is we in Parliament who ultimately make the law, and therefore have to accept its consequences.”

Mr Straw also made clear that he would remove himself entirely from a role in judicial appointments, as already signalled by Gordon Brown in his proposed constitutional reforms.

He said: “I will not second guess the recommendations of the Judicial Appointments Commission. “

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers told the judges that he was concerned about delays in the new system of judicial appointments and that steps could be taken to speed those up.

But he rejected the suggestion in Gordon Brown’s green paper that Parliament should have a role, similar to the American system. That idea “is not one for which I feel any instinctive sympathy,” he said.

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