The scales of justice are to be "rebalanced" in favour of victims and communities.

Seven key bills will form the foundation of a radical overhaul of what Tony Blair regards as an "outmoded" criminal justice system.

Forum Response: The Children's Society

Sharon Moore, youth justice policy and practice manager at the Children's Society, said: "The Children's Society recognises the distress that can be caused by nuisance behaviour and vandalism and agrees that measures need to be put in place to address this.

"However, The Children's Society is concerned that the anti social behaviour bill focuses on the punishment of children, without addressing the wider issues, and is bound to failure. The charity opposes any sanction based on this approach.

"The forthcoming Criminal Justice and Sentencing bill will look at dealing with the majority of children through the youth court rather than the adult court. While The Children's Society welcomes this move, the charity believes that it should be a much wider review of the youth justice system looking at how children's behaviour is addressed. The charity's experience of working with children and their families tells us that punishing and depriving families of much needed benefit often place these families under even greater strain."The government needs to look again at how services are provided to children and families who require support before problems escalate and children are drawn into the criminal justice system. This needs to be a co-ordinated, multi-agency approach that does not stigmatise families when they most need help."

Forum Response: British Retail Consortium

Bill Moyes, director general of the British Retail Consortium, said: "We welcome the government's focus on tackling youth crime. Stealing from shops is often the gateway into adult crime. Retail crime cost the sector £2.4 billion last year, with more than 50 per cent of those arrested stealing to fund a drug habit.

"We welcome the stronger enforcement of anti-social behaviour orders. Where we have crime reduction partnerships they have been used by the police with significant impact. The government should extend these partnerships and extend funding of crime reduction measures to more SME retailers."

Forum Response: Age Concern

Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern in England, said: "Crime causes many vulnerable older people to become socially isolated; too afraid to leave their homes through fear.

"Older people are much less likely to report a crime through fear of reprisals. This new bill must strengthen the protection given to victims and witnesses to make older people feel more confident about reporting incidents of crime."

Forum Response: Federation of Small Businesses

A spokesman for the FSB told ePolitix.com: "The Federation of Small Businesses today welcomed the priority given in the Queen's Speech to combating crime and preventing criminals from re-offending. Violent crime against business owners and vandalism of premises are reaching record levels according to the FSB's 170,000 members."

Forum Response: British Property Federation

A spokesman for the BPF told ePolitix.com: "Social landlords are in a far better position than private landlords to tackle the problem of anti-social tenants, with the expertise, resources and range of properties at their disposal. Any greater powers for social landlords to evict tenants would concern us because of the consequential knock-on effect on the private rented sector.

"A solution that simply shifted anti-social tenants from the social to private rented sector would be no solution at all. What is required is a holistic consideration of this issue across all tenures and we will be scrutinising the Bill to ensure that is the government's approach."

Forum Response: Shelter

Ben Jackson, director of external affairs, said: "We do not believe that taking away housing benefit is an effective way of tackling anti-social behaviour. It will make families homeless, many of whom councils will need to re-house, and create a host of other problems.

"We hope the government will drop these proposals for good. Last year we worked with over 3,000 households dealing with anti-social behaviour. We know tenants and communities need solutions that will tackle the underlying causes of the problem, rather than simply moving it on to a new set of neighbours."

Forum Response: Usdaw

John Hannett, deputy general secretary at Usdaw, said: "Shoplifting is not a victimless crime. It is often committed by young frequent offenders, many of whom are also involved in the anti-social behaviour problems that plague communities across Britain.

"We will be seeking a greater emphasis from the government on tackling retail crime; improvements in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme for those shopworkers unfortunate enough to be a victim of violence, and more appropriate sentencing aimed a stopping retail criminals re-offending."

Forum Response: CARE

A spokesman for CARE told ePolitix.com: "CARE welcomes the government's decision to introduce further reform to the criminal justice system, but hopes that it will do so with the needs of the vulnerable in mind. In the light of CARE's Remand Fostering initiative we will be particularly interested to know the full breadth of the government's proposals for young offenders.

"CARE maintains an interest in the substance of the Sexual Offences Bill. We will study its content carefully on publication. We hope that the legislation will afford sufficient protection to all in society from public acts of gross indecency as well as other sexual offences."

Forum Response: Barnardo's

Pam Hibbert, principal policy officer at Barnardo's, told ePolitix.com: "Yet again legislation for children in the youth justice system is being tagged on to a bill that is predominantly about adults. Indeed our whole youth justice system is based on an adult model, with new measures added piecemeal on to adult systems."

"Barnardo's would like to see a comprehensive review of all legislation relating to children in the criminal justice system rather than yet more additions.

"At the very least, the government should shelve the idea of new sentencing options for young offenders at this stage. There has been a plethora of changes within the youth justice system since the establishment of the Youth Justice Board, including a range of new sentences.

"There needs to be a period of 'settling in' to establish and properly monitor the effectiveness of these changes before instituting further ones.

"If there are to be new sentences, we hope that custodial sentences will only be used as a last resort and for the protection of the public. We would like to see any new sentencing proposals accompanied by targets to drastically cut the number of custodial sentences for children."

Forum Response: Business Services Association

Norman Rose, director general of the Business Services Association, told ePolitix.com: "From a business perspective, this was a disappointing Queen's Speech.

"While we recognise the importance of the proposed legislation to address issues of crime and violence, the lack of any significant measures to further the modernisation agenda must raise questions as to the government's ongoing commitment to this challenge."

Forum Response: ACCA

A spokesman for ACCA told ePolitix.com: "ACCA awaits confirmation on the detail but hopes the proposals to shake-up the courts system, including simplifying the rules of evidence ACCA awaits confirmation on the detail, but hopes that measures proposed will address the current problem faced particularly by small business owners, who, when plaintiffs, can often be called away from their businessesfor excessive amounts of time to give evidence in court.

"For a one-man/woman business, this effectively means the closure of that business for the duration of the evidence-giving.

"There is also mention of improving payments of damages awarded in personal injury cases. ACCA questions whether reform will also be extended to compensation payments to businesses."

Forum Response: Association of Retired and Persons Over 50

A spokesman told ePolitix.com: "ARP/050 welcomes the introduction of an Anti-social Behaviour bill. Older people are among those who suffer most from irresponsible behaviour in public places and particularly from the atmosphere of intimidation which dominates many deprived areas after dark, forcing mant older people to stay in their homes.

"However, the disappointing outcome of the introduction of Anti-social Behaviour Orders gives cause for concern and there is a feeling that legislation to further extend licensing hours will do nothing but exacerbate the problem."