The independent report into the police investigation of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence will call for a radical debate that could pave the way for accused persons being tried twice for the same crime, it was reported yesterday.

Any suggestion that the principle of "double jeopardy" should be removed was condemned by legal experts in Scotland, including the Lord Advocate, Lord Hardie.

According to reports, the Macpherson inquiry, chaired by Sir William Macpherson of Cluny, will recommend a national debate on double jeopardy which could lead to a fundamental change in the law.

It was also claimed yesterday that Scotland Yard is preparing fresh criminal charges against the five white youths originally charged with murdering Mr Lawrence.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, a squad of Scotland Yard detectives examining the Lawrence case has received legal advice that could lead to the five gang members being charged with conspiracy to murder, affray and assault.

Murder proceedings at the Old Bailey in London were halted against three men, Gary Dobson, Luke Knight and Neil Acourt, in 1996 and they were acquitted. Proceedings had been dropped against Jamie Acourt and David Norris.

It had been assumed that none of them could face new charges because proceedings have been stopped.

Now the Metropolitan Police racial and violent crime taskforce, headed by the Assistant Deputy Commissioner, John Grieve, which looked afresh at the case, has received advice that new charges of conspiracy to murder, affray and assault could be brought against the five.

Mr Lawrence, 19, was stabbed to death by a gang of white youths at a bus stop in Eltham, south London, in 1993. The failure to bring his killers to justice has placed enormous strains on relationships between the Metropolitan police and the black community in London.

A Scotland Yard spokesman refused to comment yesterday on the suggestion that new charges may be pending.

He said: "The new investigation by the racial and violent crime task force is challenging the assumptions which have previously been made surrounding the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

"A meeting of all the intelligence analysts who have worked on the case was held at New Scotland Yard last week which has identified a number of ways forward."

The Sunday Mirror said that the Macpherson report, which will be handed to Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, on Friday, will recommend a debate on whether the principle of double jeopardy should be removed from English law.

There was near unanimous opposition to the abolition of double jeopardy from Scottish legal experts yesterday.

Professor Robert Black, of the law faculty at Edinburgh University, said the debate would rage in Scotland if the issue was raised in England. He said any change would be "oppressive" to the accused.

"That would really be a very, very major change in the law and I've never even thought anyone would consider suggesting this," he said.

"If you have a serious charge against you and if the whole might of the state with its resources can't establish guilt to the satisfaction of the jury, then it's had it chance."

The Lord Advocate, Lord Hardie, told The Scotsman: "I would not be in favour of a change in the double jeopardy principle because normally its for the Crown to satisfy itself that the case has been properly investigated and the accused faces trial. If he or she has gone through the ordeal of trial and been acquitted, it is difficult to see why, even in exceptional circumstances, they should face another trial."

Lord Ross, a retired lord justice clerk, was also against any change. "If you are tried and acquitted, that should be that." However, Tom Rowatt, the deputy general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said his personal opinion was that there might be a case for an accused standing trial again in "certain circumstances".

"Personally speaking, [the abolition of double jeopardy] would seem sensible because if you have been tried and can't be tried again, that might be considered unjust in certain circumstances. But we haven't debated the issue."

Michael Clancy, the director of legal policy with Law Society of Scotland, said: "We will consider the report and respond to it when we have an opportunity to consider the details."

A spokesman for the Faculty of Advocates said: "If this becomes the subject of a national debate, the faculty would want to participate but as it has not considered the question, it cannot offer a view yet."

Professor Alan Miller, the director of the Scottish Human Rights Centre, said the Macpherson inquiry should concentrate on why the police failed to catch Mr Lawrence's killers rather than undermine the rights of the accused.