Sports supporter Justin Tomlinson MP in action in a Parliamentary charity
football match
Justin Tomlinson MP today met with the Sport and Recreation Alliance to discuss issues surrounding sport in the community and amateur sports clubs.
The Sport and Recreation Alliance is an organisation made up of the governing bodies of sport and recreation across the UK. It exists to promote the work of these sporting and recreation groups as well as highlighting the problems they encounter.
The meeting focused on support for sport in communities provided by amateur sports clubs, including the Alliance’s ‘Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) Scheme’. The scheme was established in 2002 to recognise local sports organisations in the tax system, establishing for them a ‘parity with charity’. Since then, the Alliance has helped over 6000 amateur sports clubs gain this tax status, saving them an estimated total of £100 million.
Also in discussion at the meeting was allowing Gift Aid to be claimed on junior membership fees, giving registered CASCs an extra 25p for every pound received, helping them to deliver sports and recreational activities to young people in the community, boosting youth participation as the Olympics approach.
Justin Tomlinson MP said “The work of local amateur sports clubs is fantastic. These are exactly the organisations I’d like to see being given the funding by local councils to deliver activities for young people, getting them off the streets and running around being active. These clubs play a vital and treasured role in local communities and the Sports and Recreation Alliance has done an excellent job in helping these clubs grow by securing that recognition in the tax system. “