​Vital staff time is being diverted from core duties thanks to new legal requirements.

Charities are suffering as key staff become entangled in red tape as they try to comply with new legal obligations.

Workers and volunteers in the sector say time spent on administration means resources are diverted away from core activities.

In particular, they blame new trustees reporting requirements introduced this year under the accounting SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice) stipulation.

Sarah Case, head of the charity and not-for-profit sector at MHA, a national association of independent accountants, said: “As we progress through 2015, not-for-profit organisations are telling us that they view some of the trustee reporting requirements and additional SORP disclosures as cumbersome and non-value adding, even though the overarching objectives of the new measures are understood and transparency is welcomed by the sector.

Vital management and trustee volunteer resources are being diverted into administrative duties

“The effect is that vital management and trustee volunteer resources are being diverted into administrative duties both to understand and comply with the new obligations.”

Changes to the Trustees Annual Report mean that charities have to provide an explanation of their social investment policies and how any programme related investments has contributed to the achievement of its objectives.

They must also explain the financial effect of significant events and provide a description of the principal risks facing the charity and its subsidiary undertakings, as identified by the charity trustees.

A summary of their plans and strategies for managing those risks is also required.

Finally, charities must disclose their arrangements for setting the pay and remuneration of the charity’s key management personnel and any benchmarks or criteria used in setting their pay.

A number of these extra requirements will push “smaller, possibly less sophisticated charities out of their comfort zones, said Case.