The UK business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has announced plans to cut the volume of paperwork companies must complete, simplifying corporate reporting rules and exempting some small and medium-sized enterprises from certain form-filling requirements altogether. The move matters because ministers argue that excessive bureaucracy diverts time and money away from day-to-day trading, particularly for smaller firms such as cafes, hotels and furniture makers, and the government is framing the reform as part of a wider push to reduce business costs and support growth.

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade estimates the changes could save UK businesses £450m, and noted that some companies' annual reports and accounts now stretch to around 98,000 words, longer than JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, with FTSE 100 firms averaging even more at 152,000 words. Reynolds said businesses had been "weighed down by pen-pushing paperwork" that does nothing to help them grow, and pledged a "commonsense system fit for a 21st-century economy". A public consultation on the proposals is set to begin on 7 September.