The Criminal Justice Bill, which aims to reduce crime, bring more offenders to justice and make punishments work more effectively, was unveiled by the home secretary David Blunkett last week.

The bill includes proposals to increase sentences for violent and sex offenders, ensure persistent offenders receive more severe sentences and provide clearer and more rigorous community punishments.

Drugs testing and treatment provision would also be extended so that offenders can tackle their addiction and cut drug-related crime.

Blunkett said:"For the first time we will put the purposes of sentencing into law: to protect the public, punish the offender, reduce and deter crime and reform and rehabilitate the offender."

But Paul Cavadino, chief executive of rehabilitation agency Nacro, warned that the proposals for more severe sentences for persistent offenders were misguided. "By further overcrowding our already overstretched jails, the proposals will make it harder for prisons to rehabilitate offenders and reduce reoffending."

The Youth Justice Board welcomed the bill's proposal to extend parenting orders to parents of first-time offenders who plead guilty and are given a referral order by a court.

Although the plans to extend intensive fostering, proposed in the white paper Justice for All as an alternative to custody, were not mentioned in the bill, the Home Office confirmed its plans to legislate on intensive fostering at a later stage.