At-a-glance: Crime plans

The government has published its five-year plan for tackling crime and other Home Office work. Here are the main points.

Crime targets

• To cut offending by 15% by 2008 - the target agreed with the Treasury as part of last week's spending review

• Overall, the Home Office needs to reduce the 5.9 million offences recorded in England and Wales in 2002-2003 by 885,000.

Community policing

• Number of civilian community support officers to rise from 5,000 to 20,000 by 2008, alongside 138,000 full police officers

• Extra officers to be funded through new neighbourhood policing fund, totalling £50m in the current financial year

• Public to be able to call on police to use laws against nuisance behaviour - first, people can demand information, then call a meeting with the agencies and finally trigger action

• Public to be able to trigger inspections of local police forces through gathering petitions

• New nationwide number for non-emergency police calls to be created.

• New police improvement agency to rationalise existing bodies - consultation paper to be produced.

Tackling offenders

• Increase number of pilots from 10 to 50 for the "Together" scheme, where police, local councils and other agencies combine against anti-social behaviour such as nuisance neighbours, town centre disorder, fly-tipping and graffiti

• The 50 worst offenders in each of the 50 areas will be named and targeted

• Satellite tracking to be used to enforce exclusion areas, stopping sex offenders from going near schools, or keeping tabs on serial burglars.

• Tagging also to be used for prolific lower level offenders as "prison without bars" option for courts

• Use of electronic tagging to double so 18,000 people are tagged at any one time

• By 2008, 1,000 drug-using criminals to be referred to community treatment each week.

Crime victims

• New £36m unit to offer support to witnesses and the victims of crime

Anti-social behaviour

• Fixed penalty notices to be extended to cover under-age drinking, lower level damage and theft, and misuse of fireworks

• Expansion of youth inclusion programmes

Discrimination

• Updated strategy on tackling racism to be produced

Terrorism and organised crime

• Electronic surveillance at borders and ports to be improved in drive against terrorism and illegal immigration.

• Every traveller entering or leaving the UK to have a photograph taken, which could be instantly compared with national and international suspect data bases
• New Serious Organised Crime Agency with 5,000 experts