The criminal records row escalated yesterday when David Cameron accused ministers of being more interested in protecting themselves than the public.
Also at Westminster, Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, launched a scathing attack on the judiciary, saying it often seemed "utterly unaware" of the security implications of its decisions, particularly in cases involving the Human Rights Act.
Giving evidence to a Lords committee, he warned judges were jeopardising the fight against terrorism.
Mr Clarke pointed out how one Court of Appeal ruling blocking the deportation of Afghans who took over a passenger plane amounted to a "tacit invitation to terrorist hijackers". He added it was also "disgraceful" that law lords refused to discuss issues of legal principle with ministers to help them make legislation which would survive scrutiny by the courts.
Earlier at a stormy Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron branded the crime files row a "scandal" and "fiasco", asked Tony Blair why Joan Ryan, a Home Office minister, was still in her job when she knew about the problem and demanded publication of letters between police and ministers.
The Prime Minister said the backlog of cases was not drawn to Ms Ryan's attention, an internal inquiry was ongoing, and, following inspection by police and ministers, there were "no significant public protection issues that have arisen in respect of the criminal records checks so far".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article