Lord Woolf is worried by anti-terror laws

And he said successive home secretaries had generated too much legislation.

"Judges such as myself ... have been complaining for years that the Home Office has been promoting too much legislation.

"Unfortunately, this government has inherited the desire of the previous government to regularly legislate in this area."

Insisting he was not levelling his criticism at Home Secretary David Blunkett, he insisted a bit more deliberation before introducing new legislation would be desirable.

Indefinite detention

Mr Blunkett was forced to make concessions in order to get the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act through the House of Lords.

It includes the provision to allow the indefinite detention of some terror suspects without trial.

Lord Woolf suggested it was the responsibility of judges to give an opinion on whether laws infringed rights.

Extra policing followed the attacks

"If someone suggests that parliament has not enabled the government to do what it is seeking to do they can bring it before the courts and the courts will rule on that.

"If there is not justification for infringing these [human] rights then it is the judiciary's job to say so."

The Human Rights Act had been a success, something underlined rather than undermined by the fact that parts of it had to be reversed to allow the new anti-terror laws, Lord Woolf said.