Drug trafficking gangs will be targeted

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) will spearhead efforts against criminal networks which make an estimated �40bn a year.

The new bill, unveiled on Wednesday, also encourages courts to give lighter sentences to "super grasses" who testify against accomplices.

The plans also include a new offence of incitement to religious hatred.

Demo ban

There would be a new law to stop trespassing on specified royal and government property - a response to the "comedy terrorist" who managed to get into Prince William's birthday party at Windsor Castle last year.

And police would get a new ban on long-term protests outside Parliament: anti-war campaigner Brian Haw has been camped in Parliament Square since 2001.

But the main focus is on confronting organised criminal gangs.

Bill Hughes is the current boss of the National Crime Squad

Bill Hughes - the current boss of the National Crime Squad - will lead the new crime fighting agency, with ex-MI5 boss Stephen Lander as its chairman.

It brings together the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, and parts of the customs and immigration authorities.

It will have about 5,000 staff, who will be civilians with powers to arrest and carry out their own investigations. They could be trained by the security services to track down key organised criminals.

Under other plans in the bill, police would be able to continue monitoring the finances of criminals after their convictions and "compel" people to answer questions or produce documents.

'Securing convictions'

Ministers also want to formalise in law the practice of turning "Queen's Evidence", where a witness gives evidence in court against accomplices in return for a lighter sentence.

I think again this is a sort of smoke and mirrors Ex-drugs tsar Keith Hellawell At-a-glance: Serious Crimes Bill Crime fighting in the 21st Century Profile: Soca chief Bill Hughes

The government believes the move could produce more convictions but critics say previous uses of "supergrasses" have been discredited by criminals giving false information against innocent people.

The Home Office says the bill would also free up police officers for frontline duties.

Civilian community support officers would get new powers to search detained people for dangerous items, direct traffic, deter begging and access records on motoring offences.

Other proposed new police powers include:

• Extending powers of arrest to include all offences

• Using court warrants to search multiple addresses

• Taking fingerprints and footwear impressions at the roadside rather than in police stations.

Some of the proposals have worried solicitors and civil rights groups.

Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said: "The police would have a power to arrest however minor the suspected offence.

"That is not an appropriate balance between the liberty of the citizen and the needs of the police."

'Smoke and mirrors'

Former chief constable and government drugs tsar Keith Hellawell questioned whether there was any new money behind the new agency.

"I think again this is a sort of smoke and mirrors," he told BBC News. "It appears as if there is something new here, there is nothing here, there is an amalgamation."

That was a theme echoed by Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis although he added the agency plans were a good idea and overdue.

But he warned the agency would not solve the problem of insecure national borders - a key element for organised criminals.

Ministers say the new agency can help by breaking down the barriers between existing agencies and ensuring specialists work together against sophisticated criminals, they argue.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said: "Organised crime affects each and every one of us.

"It reaches down through every community, destroying lives through drugs, people smuggling and prostitution."

The bill also includes new laws against animal rights "extremists" who threaten violence against staff at animal testing laboratories.

Concern

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten also backed the agency plans but voiced concern about other measures.

"Giving community support officers greater powers, allowing private companies to issue anti-social behaviour orders and banning peaceful protests outside Parliament are all stepping close to the line of what is reasonable," he said.

The planned new law against incitement to religious hatred is set to spark controversy - the idea was dropped in 2001 amid opposition in the House of Lords.