The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, is to propose legislation this month against chequebook journalism and payments to witnesses in criminal trials, following claims that schoolchildren involved in the case of teacher Amy Gehring were offered thousands of pounds by national newspapers to tell their stories.

"Payment to witnesses, or potential witnesses, by the media run a real risk of encouraging witnesses to exaggerate their evidence to make it more newsworthy, or to withhold evidence from the court and make it available as an exclusive to a newspaper," he said.