rime is likely to rise for the first time in 12 years and the prison population to leap to 100,000, says a leaked Downing Street report.

A document drawn up by Tony Blair's strategy unit warns that a slowdown in economic growth is threatening to reverse recent falls in crime. It predicts that the jail population could rise by 25 per cent, topping 100,000 within the next five years, and outstripping the planned rate of growth in prison places.

It says the Government should consider drastic crime-curbing remedies used abroad, such as rationing the amount of alcohol people can buy, a ban on alcohol advertising, ID chip implants, the use of bounty hunters and "chemical castration" for sex offenders. The 60-page report, Policy Review: Crime, Justice and Cohesion, written last month, also makes controversial observations about social cohesion. In a blow to Labour's record, it speaks of a growing wealth gap, saying: "The very poorest have got poorer since 1997."