The Government's 'Red Tape Challenge' – the initiative aimed at simplifying regulation, reducing bureaucracy and remove unnecessary red tape for businesses has turned its sights towards the legal services sector, a sector many see as bound up with arcane regulation and downright obfuscation.

Launching the latest stage in the initiative, Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly announced plans to scrutinise, simplify or scrap more than 150 regulations that affect legal services. Consumers and businesses have been invited to comment on which regulations should be scrapped, improved or kept. Regulations will be scrapped unless there is a solid justification for why they should stay.

Mr Djanogly said: "By reducing red tape as part of this initiative across Government, we are helping businesses to compete, create jobs and unleash a private sector-led recovery. The Ministry of Justice is bringing together industry, professional bodies, regulators, policy makers, lawyers and analysts to work out solutions and a different approach to how regulation has been managed in the past."

Inviting responses by 5 July, the Cabinet Offices 'Red Tape Challenge' website said: "Legal Services play a key role in our lives, helping us to navigate a legal system which frames the rules that govern our society, and regulate our relationships. It provides a system to help us resolve conflicts, protect our property and uphold our rights."

The initiative builds on the MoJ's Justice for Business: Supporting Business and Promoting Growth paper. The reforms include streamlined court processes, improved regulation of legal services and reduced burdens on business through cheaper and easier dispute resolution.

The MoJ has also appointed three 'sector champions', who will provide expert knowledge in their field. They are Nick Fluck (Deputy Vice President of the Law Society), Elisabeth Davies (Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel) and Zachary Bredemear (a barrister who sits on the Legal Services Committee of the Bar Council).

Nick Fluck commented: "We welcome this initiative, and although regulation is necessary I hope legal professionals will get involved and help reduce the number of badly thought-out, overly complex or obsolete regulations on government books. A range of views will help identify obstacles and highlight the confusion red tape poses to their work, and help eliminate avoidable burdens."