The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) is expected to lose around 400 staff when the Home Office announces its policing budget later this week.

Many of job losses are likely to be in IT research, according to press reports.

Ian Brown, a cyber-espionage expert at the University of Oxford, told The Times that UK businesses are "more vulnerable than they need to be" following the merger of Soca with the National High Tech Crime Unit last year.

"It is apparent now to many people that the merger was a mistake," he said.

Soca now has overall responsibility for online criminal investigations in the UK. While it has had some success, there are increasing concerns that it has taken on too much responsibility.

An online petition on the 10 Downing Street website has called for the setting up of a single police unit to deal with online crime. It has already been signed by over 100 leaders in the IT field.