English Chess Federation

Charities Act to Define Sport for Charitable Purposes

We are delighted that the Charities Act 2006 (passed this November) has defined sport as "sports or games which promote health by involving physical or mental skill or exertion".

This definition should enable chess associations/clubs to obtain charitable status, albeit subject to satisfying the requirements of the Charity Commission.

We are grateful that the Government - through the Minister, the Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, Ed Miliband - proposed this definition and recognised in Parliamentary debate that it would benefit chess. We also appreciate cross-party endorsement during the Parliamentary process, and particularly the support expressed in debate by Charlotte Atkins MP (Labour), Evan Harris MP (Liberal Democrat) and Andrew Turner MP (Conservative).

We hope that the Minister will shortly implement relevant provisions in the Act, with the consequence that chess associations/clubs may then apply for charitable status.

In the meantime, we are looking to discuss arrangements with the Charity Commission, whereby - once the relevant provisions of the Act are implemented - chess associations/clubs can be considered for charitable status. We will provide a further update in the next issue of ChessMoves and on the ECF website.

Melville Rodrigues (Co-ordinator), David Anderton, Richard Fries, Roy Heppinstall and William Watson - ECF Charities Legislation Working Party

I am delighted to announce that earlier this week HM Government amended The Charities Bill to define Sport for charitable purposes as “sport or games which promote health by involving physical or mental skill or exertion”.

It seems there was no voice against the proposal and we now look forward to following the due process for recognition.

I am ever grateful to my colleagues on the committee for their efforts, Messrs Anderton, Fries, Heppinstall, Rodrigues and Watson. Special thanks to Liberal MP Dr Evan Harris who has devoted much of his time to this project.

Today I have been in touch with my contacts at the DCMS to offer thanks on behalf of the Federation.

Please visit www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm061025/debtext/61025-0004.htm to view the House of Commons debate. The chess related part of the debate can be seen below (thank you to Stewart Reuben).

Gerry Walsh
English Chess Federation President

2.30 pm Dr Evan Harris
May I speak briefly to Government amendmentNo. 3? I have a close association with the British Chess Federation, which has lobbied the Minister hard on the need not to have a provision in the Bill that would exclude the federation a priori from justifying its pursuit, which is enjoyed by many disabled and elderly people, as a sport of the mind. The federation would wish me to put on record its thanks to the Government and the Minister, who will have free entry to any chess club—and they are pretty wild places—and to the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) for raising the matter in Committee. The Government have done a good thing by tabling that amendment, so I hope that they will also do a good thing for the humanists, not all of whom play chess.

Charlotte Atkins (Staffordshire, Moorlands) (Lab): The hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon(Dr. Harris) will not be surprised to hear that I wish to speak about the issue that he just raised. I welcome Government amendment No. 3 because it is clearly intended to include activities such as chess in the scope of the clause on the advancement of amateur sport. I applaud that, because the promotion of chess will bring a huge public benefit for not only people who are disabled or elderly, but young people, especially. When we talk about chess, it is often not recognised that it does not require mental agility and concentration alone. At higher levels, a lot of physical effort is required to engage in a match lasting perhaps several hours.

Cheddleton and Leek chess club, which is one of the most successful chess clubs in the country, is in my constituency, and plays at national level in the four nations chess league. It has produced five British junior champions and one visually impaired international player, so I can tell the Conservative Members who are smiling that it is not a joke club.

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Charitable status would enable the club to attract even more people into the sport, and would mean that it could put on more events such as its successful annual congress, which draws many people, including international masters and grand masters, to Leek. The club could then also provide much more coaching to young people. It always holds a session on Friday nights for the adult and junior clubs, and also goes into schools to promote chess.

The Cheddleton and Leek club grew out of the passion of many young chess players. Back in 1973, chess was on the junior school curriculum, but there was nowhere for the youngsters to play after they got into high school. They thus pleaded with a teacher, Robert Milner, to set up a club so that they could continue to play. It is absolutely remarkable that the same Robert Milner is leading the club today; he should be congratulated on that.

Chess remains on the curriculum at St. Edward’s middle school, because it is recognised that chess hugely improves pupils’ concentration and benefits their learning potential overall. When I was a school governor in London, a team of young black students took on many private schools in south London and did remarkably well. Many of those students played chess in their playgrounds on the benches provided. Chess gave them huge motivation and massively improved their concentration and learning potential.

The Cheddleton and Leek club now boasts a junior section with 70 members, and its overall membership is more than 100. It has nine teams in the junior league. Many of the youngsters take on older players—frequently beating them—and there is a great rapport between the students, who can be as young as eight, and club members in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s. The club does a tremendous job locally and should receive recognition for it. I am extremely grateful for Government amendment No. 3, because it will ensure that the club can get on the road to charitable status, which will allow it to get the support that it deserves and continue its valuable work in the community. I hope that other chess clubs throughout the country will follow its good example.

Tom Levitt: Was it? Oh, right. [ Laughter. ] Nevertheless, the Cheltenham principle of advocating a provision that is “harmless, albeit not entirely necessary” was advanced so many times. This provision would not be regarded as “not entirely necessary” by those who will benefit from it.

On chess, I echo the remarks of my hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire, Moorlands (Charlotte Atkins). I ask her to pass on my best wishes on the success of the campaign to Robert Milner, whom she mentioned as the father of chess in north Staffordshire. I remember him well from my days growing up in Leek, and I also taught alongside him for a short period on teaching practice.

Martin Horwood

Moving on to the lighter topic of sport, I am happy to support amendment No. 3. I am sure that chess players everywhere will be celebrating, in a cerebral sort of way. It is a positive contribution to the Bill.

Amendment No. 122, tabled by the hon. Member for Woking (Mr. Malins), suggests that we use the Olympic games, the Paralympics and the Commonwealth games as a guide to what constitutes a sport. Given that I am a member of a party led by a former Olympian, it would be churlish of me to oppose the amendment, which provides a neater formulation than the one in the original Bill. Some hon. Members are worried that certain worthwhile sports may be excluded. However, as the amendment adds to the Government’s current formulation in the Bill, we need not worry about the exclusion of any sports apart from those that might have difficulty qualifying under the Government’s formulation of requiring “physical or mental exertion”. The hon. Gentleman clearly has shooting in mind, and I am happy to support that in principle provided that nothing gets killed in the process.

Mr. Malins: It is target shooting.

Martin Horwood: Absolutely. A few others might have had difficulty in getting through under the formulation, “physical or mental exertion”. Synchronised swimming, which is an Olympic sport, certainly involves physical exertion. Curling and, I understand from the Commonwealth games website, 10-pin bowling would unambiguously be brought into the Bill by the hon. Gentleman’s amendment, which is spreading the net rather wide. I say to the right hon. Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer) that I am sure that croquet is already included under “mental exertion”. I speak with some authority because the Cheltenham croquet club has played host in recent years to the world croquet championships, which I attended. I was disappointed not to see the Deputy Prime Minister there—I gather that he is a fan of the sport. Great mental exertion was in evidence on that occasion, not least because two games are sometimes played simultaneously on the same lawn. That is mind boggling.

Mr Turner

There is a two-hurdle process in acquiring charitable status. The first question is whether an applicant is covered by the definition in clause 2. After establishing that, the second question is whether the activity fulfils the public benefit test in clause 3. There is no point in worrying about clause 3 unless one can be sure of clearing the hurdle in clause 2.

In Committee, we tabled an amendment that would have deleted the restrictive definition in clause 2(3)(d). The Under-Secretary kindly agreed to consider it. He has devised something that appears both to broaden and restrict the eligibility of different sports. Conservative Members welcome the extension of the clause to cover mental as well as physical skill and exertion, as do the hon. Member for Staffordshire, Moorlands (Charlotte Atkins) and others because chess will be included. We also welcome the inclusion of games as well as sport, although I should like to know whether a new definition of games is emerging in the bowels of the Charity Commission.

Edward Miliband: Don’t ask.

Mr. Turner: I was about to cite tiddlywinks, Monopoly and the national Scrabble championships.

Mr. Malins: Sudoku.

Mr. Turner: Indeed. However, I am especially worried about the new qualification that sports and games should “promote health”—I emphasise those two words—

“by involving physical or mental skill or exertion”.

I fear that the amendment would introduce an additional bar. That is certainly true when compared with the amendment that I tabled in Committee. Government amendment No. 3 would introduce a “promote health” bar.

It would be difficult for some sports to demonstrate that mental exertion promotes health, yet that requirement will be placed on applicants. I am not sure why they should have to demonstrate that—is not sport a good enough activity in itself for it to be charitable? How does one demonstrate that mental activity promotes health? If health, education and the advancement of religion are good in themselves, why should not that be true of sport? I do not suppose that the Chancellor would spend so much money on sport merely because it provides entertainment. I am sure that he does so because he believes that it is a good thing and not simply because it promotes health.

Stephen Williams (Bristol, West) (LD): The hon. Gentleman appears to doubt whether mental exertion
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can contribute to good health. Does not he accept that it can contribute to good mental health and helping those with depression, which is currently a big health worry in the work force?

Mr. Turner: I accept that mental exertion can contribute to health. However, how do, for example, darts players, show that their mental exertion contributes to health?

Martin Horwood: When I worked for the Alzheimer’s Society, our director of research, who worked for the Institute of Neurology, more or less believed that any stimulation of the neurones was good for the physical health of the brain. I do not know whether that would cover darts players, but the general principle is good enough.

Mr. Turner: The principle is good and I am pleased about the inclusion of chess, but I am worried that some less fashionable sports—my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker) made some disparaging remarks about darts players—

Mr. Walker: They are very thin.

Mr. Turner: My hon. Friend says that they are very thin. I am worried that it would be difficult for some less fashionable sports to show that they contribute to mental health. I am not sure that the proponents of those sports should have to demonstrate that they contribute to mental health, because sport is a good thing in itself and should not need the qualification of contributing to health.

Mr. Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): I am shocked that the Government’s proposed new measure relates not only to mental sport but to physical sport. When someone drives a car around a track there is physical exertion, but there is no indication that that improves their health, so it would appear to be excluded by the proposed new provision.

Mr. Turner: I do not think that it would be excluded, because it would be brought in by the “mental” element of the measure. I am sure that driving a car around a track involves mental exertion, so it would probably be brought in by the new provision if those undertaking that activity could demonstrate that it contributed to the promotion of good health. [Interruption.] Well, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster says that she is not sure whether it is of public benefit. With respect to the right hon. Lady, that is the second hurdle, and for the moment I am still trying to get over the first hurdle.

My concern is simply that the Charity Commission appears to be applying a definition that has emerged from a desire to include sport. It has been asked, “How can we get sport charitable status?” It has thought about that and said, “Well, it does promote good health, so we shall slide it in under that.” However, the Bill was introduced without a definition involving the promotion of health. [Interruption.] The right hon. Lady will find out in a moment. As I said, the Bill came forward with a definition that did not include the promotion of good health, and now the promotion of good heath is to be included again.

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Having said all that, let me add that I accept the Minister’s good intent in introducing the amendment. I am grateful and pleased that he has done so, and I believe that, given reasonable efforts on the part of those who shoot at stationary targets—most people shoot at targets of one kind or another—they will be able to demonstrate that that is good for their mental health, if not for their physical health, and they will thereby qualify. However, I would be grateful if the Minister would make it very clear that it is not his intention to make what I have described as the first hurdle—clause 2—artificially high so that it stands in the way of the eligibility for charitable status of normal and widely recognised and practised sports, such as darts, billiards or target-shooting, so long as they cross the second hurdle of the public benefit test, to which the right hon. Lady referred.

Edward Milliband

Before I speak to the amendments tabled in the name of the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris), I shall talk about the sport issue. The hon. Member for Isle of Wight tabled an amendment in Committee to probe the Bill’s definition of sport. As the hon. Gentleman has expressed concern, I wish to reassure him that the intention of amendment No. 3 is certainly not to narrow the definition of sport—indeed, it is to widen it, hence the reference to “mental...exertion”. I want to make that clear at the outset.

Let me explain what the aim is of the new definition of sport. First, it makes it clear that what we are talking about, in the context of charitable sport, is sports or games that improve public health—I shall explain shortly why that is necessary. The Bill’s existing definition, with its requirement of physical skill and exertion, implies
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that, but it does not say so. The new definition takes a direct approach by referring specifically to health. That puts into statute the essence of the current law, and it will allow sports that the commission has not so far accepted to make their case. I shall say more shortly about the processes that will be gone through in that respect.

The new definition also extends to sports or games that involve mental, as well as physical, aspects. There is no justification for continuing to prefer the physical to the mental, given that those two aspects appear to be of similar significance. That responds to a point made by the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon, and which was eloquently spoken to in this debate by my hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire, Moorlands (Charlotte Atkins). I should say that I was never a chess player as a child as it was too complicated for me. I was more of a backgammon player, but I am unsure whether backgammon will be able to make its case.

Some Members will ask why there has to be a link to health at all—why not just make all sport charitable? That is the approach that the community amateur sports club legislation takes. For charitable status to apply—regardless of whether it is in respect of schools or sports—there must be a public benefit. Health is the obvious link, and that is why it is flagged up in our amendment. However, I want to make it clear that it will be open to activities that do not qualify under the heading of sports that promote health to put forward their case that they deliver public benefit under one of the other headings that is available in respect of being a charitable purpose. For instance, some sports clubs already qualify because they promote citizenship or community development.

On amendment No. 122, in the name of the hon. Member for Woking (Mr. Malins), we considered over the summer whether we should follow his approach of a list for sports. It is worth explaining to the House the two reasons why we did not go for that option, attractive though it might be in certain respects. The first of them is a matter of principle: community amateur sports club relief is designed for all recognised sports, and included in that are the National Rifle Association, the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association and others. The difference in respect of charitable relief is that there should be public benefit.

Mr. Walker: Will the Minister give way?

Edward Miliband: I shall do so in a moment.

The second reason is important and complex, and it is a reason of practice. The clause that we are debating merely establishes a heading of “charitable purpose”. As with all charitable purposes—whether for animal welfare, education or anything else—a test must then be applied to show that there is public benefit by the commission and, ultimately, the court.

Mr. Bone: Will the Minister give way?

Edward Miliband: In a moment.

The problem with the amendment of the hon. Member for Woking is that even if we were to adopt it—this is why I decided not to go for the list approach—all the sports on the list would still have to
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show a public benefit such as health before they could qualify as charities. That is the whole basis of charity law. The problem then is that we would be sending a misleading message to those sports that somehow they were all in, when in fact they would still have to go through a process of proving public benefit.

Mr. Walker rose—

Mr. Bone rose—

Edward Miliband: I have a cornucopia of choices before me. I think that the first Member to ask me to give way was the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker).

Mr. Walker: I thank the Minister for giving way. As he might know, I am vice-chair of the all-party group on angling. As such, I am aware that there are thousands of angling clubs across the country that do an excellent job in their communities. Will they be eligible for charitable status, bearing in mind that their members exert themselves mentally and physically—it improves their health—and also that the Government are spending large sums of money through the Environment Agency to encourage people from all sorts of ethnic and social backgrounds to participate in fishing?

Edward Miliband: I am afraid that I am going to disappoint the hon. Gentleman. One of the virtues of the Charity Commission being the regulator is that it makes individual decisions about particular sports. Angling will be able to put its case, like any other sport.

3.30 pm

Mr. Bone: The argument is perhaps confusing clauses 3 and 2. The promotion of health is a public benefit and should relate only to clause 3. I do not see why it should be included in clause 2, which simply recognises groups that might—I emphasise might—provide a public benefit. The reference to health ought not to be included.

Edward Miliband: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point that, although I do not agree with it, is hard to refute. The reference to the promotion of health is really a flag to make it clear that health is an entry point for sports to prove that they can promote the public benefit. If we removed all references to a definition of sport, as was proposed in Committee, or adopted the approach of the hon. Member for Woking, in effect we would be in the same position because the established law—such as it is—focuses on health. However, we would give the impression to lots of sports that they were suddenly going to be covered by the legislation, when that would not be so. I agree that this is a complex point, and I hope that the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) will accept my assurances.

Mr. Andrew Turner: The Minister referred tangentially to what I might describe as the stimulating exchange that I had on the telephone with a member of the Charity Commission’s staff only yesterday. I understand that health is the current entry point for sports to
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clause 2; what I do not understand is why, once we have legislated, health will still have to be the entry point to clause 2.

Edward Miliband: In order to pass the public benefit test there needs to be an entry point of some kind, and the accepted entry point is health. If Parliament wanted to legislate to say that all sports are automatically for the public benefit, it could do so. In my view, it should not take that decision because there should be a proof of public benefit of some kind. There is a whole range of public benefits that it is open to different sports to prove that they possess. There is helping young people and the disabled—I shall deal later with the specific case that the hon. Member for Woking raised—which, at least in part, are charitable purposes, and the promotion of health, with which this part of the Bill deals. Our principal position is that there should be a public benefit, unlike community amateur sports club relief, which applies to all sports. I am afraid that the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Woking would not achieve the purposes that some Members seek to achieve.

Mr. Bone: Under clause 2(2)(d), “the advancement of health” is one of the purposes to be recognised, so why are we repeating it in a provision that relates purely to sport?

Edward Miliband: As I tried to explain earlier, we are repeating it partly for the sake of clarity. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman looks quizzical, but I spent more hours than I care to report to the House working out whether there was a different way forward. If we did not adopt the Government’s preferred amendment, there would be no difference in practice, but a misleading impression would be given to sporting organisations throughout the country.

Mr. Andrew Turner rose—

Edward Miliband: I want to make some progress.

In short, the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Woking would not have a material effect; having said that, I hope that I can offer him some consolation. First, if the Bill passes as it stands, a definition of sport for charitable purposes will have been put in legislation for the first time. The Charity Commission has agreed to undertake a new consultation on that basis, so that all sports can make their case under the charitable heading. Secondly, it will be open to any sport to make its case under any other heading. I received a letter from the National Rifle Association—as I understand it, it is already a charity—stating that it plays a particular role in helping young people, which is another charitable purpose. So it can make that case.

The hon. Member for Woking spoke eloquently about the role that target shooting can play in providing a safe sport for disabled people and others. I am happy to make it clear that that is obviously very different from field sport shooting, and I am sure that the Charity Commission will be aware of that distinction. Thirdly, I have talked to the commission and if the hon. Gentleman has other concerns, it will be very happy to meet him to discuss them.

Mr. Walker: I hate to carp on—[Hon. Members: “Oh”.] Will the Minister confirm that he is aware of
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the huge contribution that angling has made to involving people with disabilities and young people in the sport?

Edward Miliband: If I was not aware of it before, I am now, and I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his advocacy of the work that angling does.