Red tape refers to overly complex or unnecessary official requirements that slow down simple tasks. Getting planning permission involves red tape. Registering a business across multiple agencies involves red tape. The phrase implies that rules exist not to serve a useful purpose but to satisfy bureaucratic process — the procedure has become the point, rather than the outcome.
The origin is entirely literal. From the 16th century, official documents in Spain and later across Spanish-administered European territories were bound with red ribbon or tape to distinguish them from ordinary papers. The practice spread across European administrations: legal documents, royal correspondence, and government files were tied with red ribbon as a mark of official status. Henry VIII's petitions to Pope Clement VII regarding his divorce were famously bound with red and pink ribbons.
The phrase came to describe bureaucratic excess through the biting satirical essays of Thomas Carlyle in the 1850s, who used 'red tape' repeatedly in his attacks on government inefficiency and obstructive officialdom. Charles Dickens also drew on the image. By the late 19th century 'red tape' was universally understood as a term for bureaucratic obstruction.
Red dye was expensive and associated with authority — both religious and secular. Red vestments, red judicial robes, and red official seals all carried the same logic. Using red ribbon to bind a document marked it as significant and official.
In common use, yes. Some argue that official procedures described as red tape are necessary safeguards — safety checks, legal protections, financial controls. The phrase invariably implies that the speaker finds the requirement excessive or obstructive.