Much to welcome - but for powers to be usable, they need resources to back them. Unenforceable powers don't tackle deep-rooted social problems.

John Wadham, director of Liberty:

"No-one questions the fact that anti-social behaviour needs to be addressed. The White Paper offers some promising approaches to difficult problems. But it mixes this with once again throwing the statute book at real social problems, when resources, not more new laws, are almost always the bigger issue.

"Mr Blunkett himself said today that many people being given this batch of new powers still don't know what they could be doing with the last batch. The truth is that existing powers, with improved resources, could tackle these problems. Stacking up more overlapping powers just adds to inefficiency and confusion.

"To enforce criminal penalties, you need more policemen visible on the street - that alone will also deter much of the type of behaviour being targeted. But our police are already stretched too far and absent from the beat too often. Mr Blunkett says he is giving police and officials the powers they need to tackle problems: he misses the point. They already have the powers: they - and the courts where so many cases are delayed for so long - do not have the resources.

"The Paper also wants to fast-track certain low-level cases through the courts - but court waiting times are caused by too many cases, too little court time. Again, it's resources - otherwise fast-tracking one set of cases simply means others waiting still longer.

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"Beggars, often with other problems like substance abuse or mental illness, need constructive support to bring them back into society - not criminalisation to drive them further out. Begging was first criminalised just after the Napoleonic wars. The Vagrancy Act 1824 has not eradicated poverty, homelessness or begging and perhaps history can teach us a lesson here.

"On-the-spot fines lump together potentially serious criminal offences that should be a matter for the police with more trivial offences.

"We do, however, welcome a number of the measures in the White Paper, including those proposing more use of restorative justice; intensive fostering as an alternative to custody for some young people and more support for struggling parents".