Sports and Social Clubs (Hansard, 4 December 2002)

§ Miss McIntosh
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations she has received concerning the level of closures of social and sports clubs; what measures the Government are taking to support social and sports clubs; and if she will make a statement. [85162]

§ Mr. Caborn
The Government are committed to supporting amateur sports clubs, which play important roles as local social centres. Over the last two years, my Department has worked closely with HM Treasury, Sport England, the Central Council of Physical Recreation and sport's governing bodies on the provision of financial support for such clubs. In the course of that work, my Department has received a large number of formal and informal representations on club numbers from the Council, governing bodies and other interested parties.
Following detailed work with the Charity Commission, amateur sports clubs have had the opportunity to apply for registered charitable status under new guidance announced in April. Clubs who successfully apply will benefit from mandatory 80 per cent, business rate relief, tax exemption for trading income, and Payroll Giving, and tax reliefs for gifts by individuals and companies.
Clubs who do not wish to apply for charitable status can apply for a package of tax reliefs available direct from the Inland Revenue. For the majority of amateur sports clubs these two packages offer an excellent way forward, potentially saving them millions of pounds a year in tax.

§ Miss McIntosh
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many sports and social clubs(a) in England and (b) in York and North Yorkshire there were on 1 May (i) 1997 and (ii) 2000; and how many are there now. [85163]
819W

§ Mr. Caborn
The most accurate estimate of the numbers of amateur sports clubs in the UK was obtained by my Department earlier this year following a wide consultation of governing bodies. Based on those discussions, 110,000 departmental guidance leaflets on the benefits of charitable status were sent to individual clubs.
Earlier work by the Central Council of Physical Recreation was based on random sampling and suggested that sports club numbers had fallen slightly over recent years. Neither the Council nor Sport England holds details of the numbers of sports clubs in England, or in York and North Yorkshire, or of numbers of purely social clubs.