The details are provided in a report, Delivering Simplification Plans, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR). It shows that the Government is on target to achieve savings of £3.5 billion in admin costs by 2010.

Practical measures include the removal of the need for companies to hold an AGM, a faster process for planning consents, halving of the number of health and safety forms employers have to complete, and cutting of redundant licenses in a range of sectors.

Also on the list of simplified regulations and reduced administrative burdens are shifting the payment of tax credits from employers to HM Revenue & Customs, making small business rate relief automatic and exempting small businesses from unnecessary company law rules.

John Hutton, the Secretary of State for the DBERR, said, “[The] plans demonstrate we are making significant headway on what is a difficult and challenging agenda. By tackling redundant regulation we are making a difference to the way people run their businesses and in their everyday lives.”

Mr Hutton added: “But we are not complacent. Government must continue to back up its proposals with credible action across all sectors. We are also outlining ways to tackle our new target to cut public sector bureaucracy by 30% by 2010 in the public sector.”

The business community gave the announcement a guarded welcome. John Wright, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said, “Small businesses produce over 50% of UK GDP and employ over half of the private sector workforce. But they are consistently held back by unnecessary regulation and form-filling.

“There seems to be a real effort now to get to terms with the vexed issue of over-regulation and we applaud all those who have been involved with it and will hopefully drive this programme forward in the future.”

However, Mr Wright added, “There is still more to do. The one size fits all approach to business regulation must be done away with for good. Small businesses don’t have the support and expertise to deal with regulation in the same way that big companies do.”