RED tape is costing Sussex firms millions of pounds.

Across the UK it will cost businesses more than £10 billion over the Government's first term of office, a leading business group has claimed.

The British Chambers of Commerce said a swathe of regulations had been introduced since the 1997 general election, including the minimum wage, parental leave and time off for family emergencies as well as new rights for workers.

Director general Chris Humphries said: "Excessive red tape is stifling the very enterprises the Government is seeking to promote."

The organisation has launched a "burdens barometer" and a website to monitor red tape and put pressure on the Government to cut it.

The BCC also wants firms employing fewer than 50 workers to be exempt from employment regulations.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said the BCC had worked out the cost of the minimum wage using the "most expensive option consulted upon, not the one finally chosen."

If the BCC's "burdens barometer" was adjusted according to accurate figures the total cost to business would be less than £1.5 billion, he added.

He said the administrative cost of the minimum wage would be"negligible" and not the £2 billion put forward by the BCC.

The spokesman said the Government "made no apology" for the £1.9 billion cost of the working time directive and said the administrative costs of the policy were just

£13 million.

He added: "This Government is committed to 'banishing the bumph'.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.