New MP Mark Pettingill seems ideally suited to his new role as Shadow Attorney General.

But while he has years of experience in court both defending and prosecuting, he won't be carried away with his confidence and end up criticising Government for the sake of it.

Instead he hopes to adopt a collaborative approach with opposite number Sen. Kim Wilson whom he describes as an excellent lawyer with a good reputation.

"We sit in different Houses but I am sure she will be able to hear me from where I am."

He said former colleague Larry Mussenden had been a very good Attorney General but things had stalled since he was ousted by Premier Ewart Brown and replaced by Phil Perinchief who in turn lost his job after the election.

Mr. Pettingill said the PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence) Act had been shelved after time and money had been poured in studying the reforms aimed at making it fair for both Police and suspects.

The law would have stipulated the rules on how long suspects can be held without charge as well as setting out conditions for Police bail, gathering evidence and identification parades.

Many lawyers had volunteered a lot of time and effort in advising on the legislation only for it to flounder, said Mr. Pettingill.

"We heard nothing further. I find it astonishing it hasn't been implemented."

Mr. Pettingill said justice has been a big thing all his adult life. "Hopefully I have some ideas the Government might be prepared to look at for the betterment of Bermuda."

However the election saw the PLP characterise the UBP's three strike policy, which would have given longer jail terms to repeat offenders guilty of serious offences, as a far right wing attempt to 'lock us all up' for life.

Mr. Pettingill said: "The three strikes programme we suggested on was rounded on by the PLP as being draconian but they implemented three-year mandatory sentences for bladed weapons which conceptually I didn't have any difficulty with for curbing crimes of violence.

"Some of these penalties have to be addressed hand in hand with programmes in the prison ¿ a proper reading programme is very, very important.

"If you up someone's self worth with education and they feel they can contribute, they don't have to commit crimes."

More help was needed for released prisoners transitioning back into society.

"Currently there is no sexual offenders programme in our prison. We have a fairly large proportion of problems with sexual offenders. Therefore legislation is let down by the lack of programmes in place."

Helping craft good legislation is something Mr. Pettingill is looking forward to.

He previously spent three years in the Senate but grew frustrated with the lack of ability to change laws, with the Upper Chamber instead being used more as a grooming ground for up and coming politicians rather than as an arena for statesman.

Bermuda's large and outdated criminal code, dating back to 1909, is one such set of laws needing replacing and paring down, said the 43-year-old father of two.

And he believes more investment was needed for the criminal justice system, despite the cost.

"Cost-prohibitive in Bermuda is a bit of an oxymoron. Money is often misspent but two areas it needs to be spent in are education and crime which go very much hand in hand."

In Australia, jurors had laptops which spewed out what was said in real time, allowing copies to be printed off for review.

He said Bermuda's court recording system was fairly crude because of lack of funding. It needed a person to manually transcribe whereas the Australian system allowed for automised reproductions of what was said.

"Getting a transcript of the recording for an appeal can take months.

"We are building a new court house, that doesn't necessarily create a good system if you are going to equip it with the same things," he said.