The government reconfigured the Office of the Third Sector to the Office for Civil Society to reflect “the important job of building the Big Society”, civil society minister Nick Hurd said last night in his first public speech in his new job.

Hurd told a reception in London organised by interim management agency Russam GMS that he was called the minister for civil society because his office was about “more than just the really important work of supporting the sector - it is also about the very important job of building the Big Society”.

He then added that the term ‘third sector’ is now banned from use across government because “the boss really doesn’t like it”.

He said that earlier in the day he was sat around the Cabinet table at Number 10 Downing Street “for the first and almost certainly the last time” with a group of “social activists who are living and breathing the Big Society”. 

He said David Cameron and Nick Clegg were in attendance to “make it clear that it is absolutely core to their personal agendas” and added: “For me the voluntary sector is absolutely central to this agenda because of your ability to support and mobilise people.”

One of the objectives of the government’s Big Society plan was to improve the experience of those charities that want to deliver more public services.  “I am continually told there is too much bureaucracy and not enough trust,” Hurd said. “I realise these challenges are not easy – a lot of it is about changing cultures within the state.  But I hope [the Big Society agenda] sends a strong message about our will and seriousness of intent.”

Hurd did not take questions from the floor, saying he had to rush off to attend a dinner at the House of Lords to discuss workplace giving, “because we don’t do enough of it in this country”.