Patricia Hewitt, the Trade Secretary, will give details this morning of the legislation, which is designed to halt a terror campaign by extremists against Britain’s £3 billion-a-year life sciences industry. The law would make it illegal to threaten or intimidate the suppliers or financial backers of animal testing businesses, which has proved a highly effective tactic for anti- vivisection groups.

Plans for an £18 million science centre at Oxford were thrown into disarray last year when the main contractor pulled out after receiving threatening letters from animal activists. The disruption came after Huntingdon Life Sciences left for the US three years ago and Cambridge University abandoned plans for a neuroscience centre last January.

The new legislation will also allow the ringleaders of anti-vivisection campaigns to be jailed if they incite others to isolate animal testing businesses by disrupting their supply chains.

A source said: “The animal rights activists’ focus has been on targeting those who provide services to research centres. The (new law) will clamp down on people who are stopping legal economic activity from happening.

“We want to give businesses the security and confidence to deal with animal research centres, while at the same time not limiting people’s civil liberties.”

The new laws are contained in an amendment to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill which is going through Parliament. The proposed new legislation focuses solely on animal rights protesters, and does not apply to demonstrators responsible for disruption or economic loss in the name of other causes.

Tim Lawson-Cruttendon, a solicitor-advocate and animal rights expert, said: “Parliament needs to study the position more carefully before bringing in legislation which appears to be focused solely on one group of activists.”

Although the Bill leaves open the option of widening the offence at a later stage to apply to other protesters, certain groups, including journalists and trade union activists, are excluded from the offence. A spokesman for the DTI insisted that the legislation was not designed to stop legitimate boycotts, protests or campaigns.

A parliamentary inquiry said last week that creating an offence of harassment could breach human rights laws. Lawyers for the DTI have been drafting the new legislation for three months.

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