International volunteering charity VSO increased its income by 12 per cent over the past year, according to its latest set of accounts.

The growth of £8.3m - from £68.7m in the year ending 31 March 2014 to £77m in the year ending 31 March 2015 - was partly due to the charity’s International Citizen Service programme.

In 2012/13, the Department for International Development awarded a three year contract to VSO to manage the programme. Last year, this contract represented a 44 per cent increase at £24.4m of income.

The total income coming from government bodies, including the Norwegian embassy, the Scottish government and Irish Aid last year was £60.2m – up from £52.7m the year before.

Individual giving represented a strong area of growth last year – at £6.1m, up from £4.4m the year before.

An additional £1.1m was raised through volunteering fundraising activities - £3.5m up from £2.4m the previous year.

Employee costs dropped over the year from £18.6m to £17.5m – due in part to a period of ten months without a permanent chief executive.

Former chief executive Marg Mayne left the charity in July 2014 and the post was looked after on an interim basis by Jim Emerson. Current chief executive Dr Philip Goodwin was appointed in December 2014 and took up his role in March 2015.

The number of people earning £60,000 or more rose from 11 to 13, but the salary of the highest earner fell from £140,000-£150,000 in 2014 to the £100,000-£110,000 bracket in 2015.

A joint statement from Goodwin and chair Mari Simonen at the start of the annual report, said the charity will reinvest its 2014/15 surplus “into restructuring and re-organisation to simplify our decision making, remove any duplication of effort, increase our cost effectiveness and allow us to continue to grow our organisation around  our development outcomes.”

“As we look ahead we will  be focusing on this people- to-people approach, building partnerships and organising VSO to maximise our impact in the fight against poverty,” they said.