mining powers, according to the annual report published last week.
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.
lsquo;We need to look at the broader issue of crime, rsquo; Soca director general Bill Hughes told a House of Lords committee last month.

lsquo;If we do not have knowledge we go at it in rifle shots. rsquo;
Data mining itself is not a new concept. But the patchwork of plans now under discussion represents a shift in approach.

, currently in Parliament, will formalise data-matching practices for fraud detection.
wider range of databases, including tax records, private company databases and almost all public or private information sources except for health records.
Rather than matching data according to specific suspicions, information basis of data anomalies.

(ICO), the body headed by Richard Thomas that enforces UK data protection laws, practice to govern how personal information is mined, and any subsequent use of it, says a spokesman.
not prevent the detection or prevention of crime, rsquo; he said.
Even then there is little that Thomas can do, says David Murikami-Wood, a legislation, or enough resources to investigate instances of this happening.

as Soca, rsquo; he said.
target organised crime, including the illegal drugs trade, people smuggling and National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, the drug trade investigative and intelligence sections of HM Customs and Excise, and the Immigration Service rsquo;s responsibility for organised immigration crime.
z The Home Office-funded agency had a budget of 457m for 2006-2007, of which 416m pays for expenses and 41m is capital investment.

It is led by a board of 11 and has 4,200 staff.