Care Standards Quango Bureaucracy hitting local charities claims MP

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 20th Aug 2002

Vincent Cable MP has challenged the care Standards Commission over the heavy costs now being asked of small charities as a result of registration requirements.

A charity like Richmond Crossroad, which supports carers and is launching the Caring Café project at Meadows Hall in the autumn, will be hit by a registration fee (£1,100), annual charges for inspection (£700) and additional bureaucracy required to fill in complicated forms with highly intrusive and detailed questions for the managers.

Vincent Cable said: "as in so many aspects of government we have 'control freakery' gone mad. Charges and form filling which would be perfectly manageable for multi million charities like the RSPCA and Oxfam and totally over-the-top-and potentially crippling for small local charities."

"We see exactly the same problem in business regulation. The government really has to address the problem of small charities".