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Carter Review (Legal Aid)

That is a question to which I shall return this answer. First, I do not believe that a poorer level of service is being provided. Secondly, this Government, of whom the hon. Gentleman is a Member, have created several thousand new criminal offences. They introduced the Human Rights Act 1998 and presided over the largest avalanche of legislation in the criminal justice system that we have ever seen. There are 379 sections in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 alone. There are hundreds and hundreds of provisions. I say to the hon. Gentleman that it is not surprising that the legal aid budget has risen in the criminal courts, given that thousands of new offences have been created. Furthermore, a whole layer has been added by legislation such as the 1998 Act—with which, I should say, I have no personal grouse. If the Government introduce such a measure, they must be prepared to pay for it. People will take advantage of their rights and bring cases for judicial review that they would never previously have been able to bring. The whole purpose of the 1998 Act was to repatriate rights. That meant that, rather than going to the European Court of Human Rights, people could go to the courts in this country—and they have, in their droves.