Peter Wanless, chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund, has said it will move to online applications for its funding.

Wanless made the announcement at the 6th National Digital Conference, where he said the funder would be going “digital by default” and moving to a push for online applicants for funding:

“Paper form applications have duplication and errors which are eliminated online,” he said. “Online is more efficient and good value for the sector.”

Wanless also said online technology would help link all BIG funding for a charity into a single account: “An organisation would only have to submit some information once,” he said.

“You can also share an application round an organisation easily, and also track its progress.”

He also said in general that the charity sector had to make better use of IT for efficiency savings.