Speaking at a charity management seminar on 9 November, Martin Sime, chief executive of SCVO, said that red tape had grown exponentially over recent years and was harming the sector.

"A picture is emerging of charities drowning in a sea of administration and, of course, rows of paper shufflers who have to be paid before one penny gets to the cause. We think that the [Red Tape – Cut it Out] campaign might, at the very least, cause parts of both local and central government to think before they add more demands.”

He acknowledged that steps have been taken to try and reduce the burden, including the Strategic Funding Review, with which SCVO has been working closely. However, he said that more needed to be done. “It is essential that organisations which oversee charities’ work, such as local authorities, audit their own processes to examine if both time and resources can be saved.”

The Red Tape – Cut It Out campaign in Scotland follows the launch of the Better Regulation Task Force’s report, Better Regulation for Civil Society, which makes several recommendations it believes will help reduce bureaucracy. For more information on this, visit www.brtf.gov.uk or see the next issue of Charity Times, out in December.