According to the survey by pollsters YouGov, commissioned by consultancy firm KPMG, only 4% of employees are given paid time off to support charities, with a further 6% allowed to take unpaid leave. Sixty per cent of those surveyed who do not volunteer claim this is because of a lack of time. More than a quarter of those surveyed (27%) also said their employer did not offer a payroll giving scheme.

Those who do volunteer are most likely to work with children and young people (27%), followed by the elderly (10%) and disadvantaged people (7%).

Of those surveyed, 87% had no idea that it was National Volunteering Week. The event, which starts today and runs until June 7, is being promoted by charities across the UK.

In England, the new national volunteering body Volunteering England is using the week to launch a facelift of the Volunteer Bureaux network. The bureaux are to be renamed Volunteer Centres, in the hope of creating a single identifiable brand for volunteering, which will link into the nationwide body. The first to be renamed will be Westminster, which from today will be known as Volunteer Centre - Westminster.