THE Government is appointing one of the country’s most senior police officers to spearhead the national crackdown on animal rights extremists.

Anton Setchell, an acting assistant chief constable, will co-ordinate the efforts of police forces across England and Wales to convict the ringleaders orchestrating attacks on scientists and businessmen.

The Government hopes that the appointment, which is to be announced tomorrow, will be seen in the City as a signal that ministers are determined to deal with a growing terrorist menace.

The initiative comes as the City is considering setting up its own intelligence network to identify key figures behind the violence. As well as offering a £25 million bounty for information leading to the conviction of extremists, leading companies want their own security team to compile dossiers on suspects.

The managing director of one pharmaceutical company said: “We are not setting ourselves up as an alternative police force or vigilantes. The evidence we compile will be handed to the proper authorities to hopefully secure criminal convictions.

“If not, we will use the evidence to pursue civil actions against those named and obtain more injunctions to protect companies and their vulnerable staff.”

Home Office sources told The Times that Mr Setchell will be named tomorrow as ministers unveil measures to tackle a hard core of around 20 known extremists. These include instant bans to keep extremists from neighbourhoods where scientists and research staff live. Police will also be able to remove protesters from outside private homes.

The Home Office is pledging to jail those who intimidate biotech workers. The police and local authorities are also to investigate unlicensed collectors soliciting money for animal rights groups.

The country’s 43 police authorities, under Mr Setchell’s direction, will be told to work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to bring a hitlist of terrorists to court as quickly as possible.

Mr Setchell is in charge of territorial policing in the Thames Valley, has led operations against anti-hunt saboteurs and organised policing for the new scientific laboratory at Oxford University, which has become the main target for demonstrators.

One Whitehall source told The Times: “The extremists have got away with it for too long and the law must be used to deal with them. We need police forces to pool intelligence and to have a consistent plan on how to deal with this dangerous minority.”

Some of Britain’s best-known private security contractors are preparing to join the fight. At least two leading risk-consulting firms are offering to work with the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), which is examining a package of measures aimed at halting the campaigns.

A London-based director of one risk-consulting firm said that he was preparing to offer “covert” support to the City’s counter-attack. “There are several ways that investigation and security firms could be involved,” he added.

Ian Gibson, the chairman of the Commons Science Select Committee, told how he refuses to appear in television debates condemning animal rights extremists for fear of reprisals. He and his wife check under his car for bombs.

“We live in fear. I don’t think people deserve to live like that just because they have strong beliefs one way or the other,” he said.

Undercover investigators hope to show how some leading personalities behind the country’s best-known animal rights groups are closely linked with the campaign of violence against scientists and their families.

Animal rights groups boast that they are enjoying unprecedented success in forcing business and universities to abandon reseach using animals. Ministers have been told that Britain’s research and development industry has lost £1 billion in potential investment in the past two years.

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