paperwork vs red tape

paperwork

noun
  • written documents 

  • routine work involving written documents 

  • Court documents or pre-sentencing investigation reports detailing the prisoner's criminal history (usually in the context of discerning whether an inmate has been charged for sex-related offenses or is likely to be an informant). 

  • excessive paperwork, busy work, red tape. 

red tape

noun
  • The binding tape once used for holding important documents together. 

  • Time-consuming regulations or bureaucratic procedures. 

How often have the words paperwork and red tape occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )