The Government is pledging to do all it can to cut red tape in the agricultural sector and boost growth in UK farming.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said businesses are being "held back by complicated, unclear or outdated regulation".

He acknowledged safeguards are key to British firms' reputation for food quality and animal welfare but said there are too many unneeded rules preventing them from getting on with the job and carrying out their farm management in an efficient way.

"We are cutting out the time businesses are investing in unnecessary red tape, freeing them to focus their resources on growth," he said.

Farming unions and agricultural accountants have welcomed the Government's plans to review agriculture legislation.

Paul Laird, partner at High Wycombe-based The Fish Partnership, told Farming UK: “Although safeguards are necessary, the complicated and high volume of paperwork the average farmer is having to plough through is really putting paid to the green shoots of recovery being led by the agricultural sector."

The agricultural legislation is being reviewed as part of the Government's wider effort to reduce bureaucracy – known as the Red Tape Challenge – which it launched in April 2011.

And with the implementation of the Farming Regulation Taskforce recommendations, the Government says it is already taking steps to ease the regulatory burden on the farming industry.

The new regulations mean that farmers who consistently demonstrate high standards will be subjected to fewer inspections and other incentives are being put in place for achieving a high level of performance.

With its new Red Tape Challenge review the Government is aiming to complement these efforts by reassessing the actual regulations and not just how they are delivered.

News of the initiative comes after David Cameron said earlier this month that he had a "very useful" conversation with the National Farmers' Union (NFU) in Devon about the issue of red tape.

Farmers Weekly reported that the Prime Minister said of the meeting: "There are some particular points they've made about some of the costs being imposed through regulation on farming. I'm going to take those away and look at them."