Business secretary Vince Cable has said the government is to scrap or simplify more than 160 regulations affecting the UK's retailers.
As part of the Coalition's Red Tape Challenge, it wants to get rid of "unnecessarily burdensome, overly bureaucratic or completely redundant" rules. Thousands of people took part in the consultation process and these comments will be used to help simplify, improve or abolish two-thirds of the retail regulations put forward by the government for reform.
Mr Cable said: "We have to roll back the number of rules and regulations that our businesses have to deal with if we are to create the right conditions for sustainable economic growth.
"We have heard these promises by successive Governments before but these first proposals from the Red Tape Challenge show that we’re serious about doing that and we are making real progress."
Responding to this morning's announcement, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) welcomed the proposed changes but called on the government to go further.
Stephen Robertson, the BRC's director general, said: "The Red Tape Challenge signals the right intent but more support for growth would come from a comprehensive moratorium on new regulation for the life of this Parliament for businesses of all sizes, not just the smallest."
