Trustees must do more to give the public confidence in charities, and must make sure charitable donations do not fund "very large" salaries, the minister for civil society said last week.

Speaking to Civil Society News, Rob Wilson said trustees were responsible for speaking out if salaries were criticised.

“I think that it is the job of trustees to make sure people are paid the appropriate amount for what they do," he said. "They are answerable to the public and the people that give to their charities if they don’t do that”.

Wilson said it was important that the public “have confidence” that money given to charity isn’t going to “very large salaries that they probably regard as too high”.

He added: “But again it is a public confidence issue, I think if there is openness and transparency, then those things tend not to be as much of a concern then if they were hidden away.”

“I don’t really think salaries are a matter for government,” he said.

Wilson also responded to a question on the Lobbying Act, and whether he saw it as having much of an impact on the sector during the recent election period. He said that he had “heard a lot of over the top warnings about it but I never saw any real evidence that it had a ‘chilling effect’”.

He said that it is important to let Lord Hodgson complete his review on the Lobbying Act, adding: ”I completely trust his judgement on that, he has got a strong track record of coming to the right conclusions for the sector and giving good advice. I’m happy to wait and see what he advises.”