Businesses and members of the public will be able to signal unnecessary red tape rules via a new website launched on Thursday.

Retail will be the first sector tackled, with hospitality, road transport, fisheries and manufacturing industries to follow at intervals until late June.

“It is hard to believe that we need government regulations on issues such as ice cream van musical jingles,” Prime Minister David Cameron said.

“That’s why I want us to be the first government in modern history to leave office having reduced the overall burden of regulation, rather than increasing it,” he added.

Cameron has previously promised to tackle bureaucrats he calls the “enemies of enterprise.”

The government is seeking to boost growth in a faltering economy at a time of deep cuts in public spending.

Once online debate has closed, ministers will have three months to explain why a regulation was still required or it will be scrapped.

Kevin Hawkins, a former head of the British Retail Consortium lobby group, will act as a “sector champion” to help lead debate on regulations concerning retailing.