Eight new laws come into force each day on average, according to research from a leading legal publisher.

It finds that the Government introduced 14 per cent more new laws during 2007 than in 2006 — a total of 3,071 compared with 2,702 the year before.

That works out at eight new laws every day, compared with seven in 2006, according to publisher Sweet & Maxwell, which drew the figures from its online legal information services.

The research shows that the Government has lost little of its appetite for new legislation, despite a change of leadership in the middle of last year when Gordon Brown took over as Prime Minister from Tony Blair, who is a former barrister. More than a thousand of the new laws that were introduced last year affect commercial law — leaving some businesses struggling to cope with increased rules and regulation.

New criminal laws accounted for 14 per cent off all legislation introduced in 2007 and more are predicted as opinion polls show a perception among members of the public that violent crime is getting worse.

Under Margaret Thatcher, an average of 1,724 new laws were introduced in every year of her premiership.

Mr Blair introduced an average of 2,663 a year.

Most of the new laws that were introduced in 2007 were brought in as statutory instruments, which often receive less scrutiny than statutes.

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