Nick Hurd minister for civil society, has condemned the government for its lack of attention to and understanding of civil society, suggesting a culture change is necessary.

Hurd made the comments when concluding a roundtable event for small charities hosted by the Directory of Social Change. The event, with a theme of trusteeship, was an opportunity for smaller charities to question Hurd about governance issues.

Ending the event, Hurd said: “Part of my job is the process of trying to pull my time to other suppliers of innovation and talent, and we’re in the foothills of that because frankly I don’t think the government does understand civil society.”

He went on to say that the culture of today means that “there is a really difficult set of circumstances for me to do my job”.

Earlier in the session, Hurd was asked how well the smaller charity sector represents itself to him.

He said he respected what it did with limited resources, but warned it was underrepresented: “It is very hard to represent the full diversity of the sector. I have regular meetings with the chief executives of the largest charities in the country but it is a totally different conversation.”

He added: “It is more necessary than ever for government and the wider public sector to understand more [about smaller charities] as both tend to gravitate towards the private sector in terms of expertise and talents.”

Hurd defends lobbying bill

Elsewhere, at the start of the event, Hurd defended the lobbying bill. He said: “The lobbying bill is not designed to stop charities campaigning. What it is trying to do is introduce a bit more transparency measures.”

He added: “I have spent years standing at various court fixtures saying the freedom of the sector to campaign is important but it is about trying to bring some transparency to what people are doing during the elections.”