MI5 WILL deploy agents around Britain in a radical reorganisation of the intelligence service aimed at combating the threat of home-grown Islamist terrorists linked to the al-Qaeda network.

Teams of intelligence officers, surveillance experts, analysts and computer specialists will be permanently based in cities in the West Midlands, the North West and other areas where it is feared that extremists are radicalising Muslim youth.

The expansion is likely to be accompanied by the introduction of controversial new powers for police and prosecutors dealing with terrorist suspects. Ken Macdonald, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, told The Times that he was seeking the right to hold suspects without charge for longer periods, to question them under compulsion and to enter into plea-bargain deals or to grant immunity from prosecution in return for information.

Mr Macdonald, previously a defence barrister who has represented terrorist suspects, said that there was “a pretty strong case” for giving prosecutors tougher powers.

The move by MI5, the Security Service, to establish a new network of bases outside London reflects fears that the main terrorist danger comes not from abroad but from within the UK.

Omar Sharif, one of two British suicide bombers who attacked a bar in Israel last year, was born and brought up in Derby where he associated with extremist groups. Three of the Britons released from the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were young men from Tipton, West Midlands, arrested in Afghanistan.

The only men to have been convicted in the UK of al- Qaeda-linked activity are two Algerians living in Leicester who were accused of raising money through credit card fraud and organising travel for recruits to Afghan training camps. However, hundreds of young Britons are believed to have attended such camps and police and the security services are keen to gather more information about their whereabouts and activities.

The main purpose of the dispersal plan, which is being considered by Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director-general of MI5, is to improve co-operation with regional Special Branch police around the country.

“The scale of the terrorist threat is such that MI5 and the police need to be able to work together even more closely, which means that the Security Service must be dispersed in a different way, to be able to respond rapidly to any particular activity,” a Whitehall official said.

Government sources said that MI5 would set up a pilot scheme for expanding into the regions within a couple of months.

The search will also be on for secure premises to house the MI5 teams. Advances in information technology mean that they will have a guaranteed secure system for passing all intelligence about suspected terrorists back to Thames House, the MI5 headquarters in London, where it will be assessed by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, set up after the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001.

The expansion of the domestic intelligence network has been made possible after a significant increase in MI5’s budget in the past 12 months. A further increase is expected to be announced by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, in his statement on government spending today.

MI5 has already begun a recruitment campaign to increase its size by 50 per cent to 3,000 staff and operatives by 2008. That expansion means that the Security Service will outgrow Thames House in London.

At present the budget for MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, the government communications headquarters based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, is just under £1.3 billion, which includes capital spending amounting to £184 million. MI5’s share of the overall intelligence budget is not published but it is estimated to be around £200 million.

There are Special Branch units in each of the police forces in the UK, ranging in size from just a few officers to several hundred in London. However, MI5 will only be based in areas where there is the highest risk of terrorist activities.

The expansion will leave the Security Service with a similar set up to a number of intelligence agencies overseas. Canada, Australia and New Zealand all have major regional domestic intelligence centres as well as headquarters in their capitals.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Time-worn Freddie gives up Test matches
• Brighton company 'involved in cyber attack'
• The art of survival: it’s all in the mind