The Lord Chief Justice has called for a "change in rhetoric" on crime and punishment as part of a drive to cut Britain's soaring prison population.

Lord Woolf has given his support to a study which claims an increase in tougher sentencing, and not in crime, is to blame for the rising number of inmates.

The report, commissioned by the Prison Reform Trust and conducted by South Bank University, found that the chances of being jailed for driving while disqualified had tripled since 1991.

And the number of offenders imprisoned for more than four years had increased by 62 per cent.

The result is a 71 per cent increase in the number of adult inmates.

"This important report shows that there is an answer to the continually increasing prison population," said Lord Woolf.

"The answer is a change in rhetoric from all those with a leading role in the criminal justice system."

Woolf has previously raised concern over sentencing for first-time offenders which brought criticism from the media and claims that he was "soft on crime".

It was revealed last week that Britain's prison population has risen to a new high of 73,627, a European high at 139 per 100,000 people.

"Ten years ago, people thought that the courts were far too soft on crime," said report author Professor Mike Hough.

"Judges and magistrates have responded by getting progressively tougher. But the public simply haven't realised this, because they haven't been told clearly enough.

"It is perverse for sentencing policy to be driven by misrepresentation and misunderstanding in this way."

After interviews with 133 judges and magistrates from across England and Wales, researchers found that the majority, particularly of the latter, believed the changing patterns in offending was significant, despite a lack of statistical evidence to support such a view.

"This report shows that it will take a decisive and sustained change of political will to halt the relentless increase in our prison population and the shocking levels of re-offending and the strain on the public purse which accompany it," said Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust.

"If we are serious about preventing the next victim, it is time to bring a sense of proportion and fairness back into sentencing, which has become grossly inflated by a misplaced emphasis on toughness rather than effectiveness."

Home Office minister Paul Goggins said there was much to welcome in the report.

"This is a vital and difficult subject and research such as this is needed to deepen our understanding of sentencing issues," he said.

"There are clearly some things in this report to be welcomed.

"Sentencers feel they are able to resist media pressures for punitive sentencing...recognise the progress made by the Probation Service...and feel that they have appropriate and satisfactory community options, where the facts of a case merit a community sentence."

Goggins also defended the government's position on tough sentences, arguing that where they are being used they are appropriate.

"One of the concerns of the report is what is described as an increasingly punitive climate of political and media debate," he said.

"We believe that there are some categories of offender for whom tough prison sentences are the only option.

"We must protect the public from dangerous offenders, and from serious and persistent offenders.

"However, we believe that in many cases prison is not the most effective way to reduce re-offending."