A Code for Sports Governance

In July 2020, against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter and over three years of implementing, assessing and supporting the governance of organisations in line with its provisions, UK Sport and Sport England announced a review of the Code. This was aimed at identifying areas where the Code would benefit from further development, with a substantive focus on those elements that support diversity and inclusion. The review also provided the opportunity to compare the requirements in the Code against best practice in governance, recognising that thinking may have moved on and further improvements may be found in sport and other sectors.

The review took a comprehensive look at every aspect of the Code – not only each individual Principle, Requirement and related commentary but also how the Code is presented, used and applied. For this, it has drawn heavily on expertise and insight from teams across UK Sport and Sport England, independent experts and a wide range of partners and stakeholders. We want to offer our sincerest thanks to all those who have shared their views with us and contributed so meaningfully to this review.

The review was clear from the outset that any changes to the Code should be evidence-based. Two important pieces of work have supported this: the first was an externally sourced audit of Board diversity of more than 130 funded partners; the second was an independently-led consultation conducted through an online survey and focus groups, receiving more than 200 responses.

Unlike most other governance codes, this Code is a mandatory set of requirements for those organisations seeking public funding from UK Sport and/or Sport England, and was born of the Government’s 2015 strategy Sporting Future. We do however fully recognise that the Code must be flexible. The range of investments made by UK Sport and Sport England – both in terms of amount and the types of organisations into which we invest – is huge. We want to ensure that organisations are encouraged to apply for funding and therefore have sought to ensure this Code is applicable across a wide and diverse range of organisations without wishing to burden these with unnecessary bureaucracy.

This Code achieves flexibility by adopting a tiered approach to requirements. UK Sport and Sport England will work closely with all partners seeking or receiving funding to ensure compliance with the Code and supporting their ongoing governance improvements.

A separate booklet, containing guidance and support tools specific to Tier 1 has been created. For Tier 3, all commentary can be found in this document. UK Sport and Sport England continue to work collaboratively to provide support tools, guidance and resources to partners implementing good governance and will be enhancing these in light of the revised Code. 

As the type and size of investments made differs, UK Sport and Sport England adopt a proportionate approach to the application of the Code using three Tiers. Each Tier has a different level of mandatory governance requirements.

UK Sport and Sport England (at their sole discretion) place an organisation into the Tier they consider most appropriate, taking account of the circumstances of the investment and the organisation, and the following broad definitions of the Tiers.

Tier 3

Tier 3 represents the top level of mandatory governance requirements in this Code. The requirements in this Tier seek to ensure high governance standards because of the significant public investment being made. UK Sport and Sport England will look for a formal commitment from organisations to meet requirements within set timescales.

UK Sport and Sport England will generally categorise an investment as Tier 3 if:

• The funding is intended to be granted over a period of years;
• The funding is granted for a continuing activity rather than a one-off project; and
• The total amount of funding is greater than £1m¹

Consideration will also be given to the size of the organisation.

Organisations receiving funding for significant, medium to long term activity should generally expect to be in Tier 3.

Tier 1
Tier 1 represents the minimum level of mandatory governance requirements in this Code. The requirements in this Tier seek to ensure the protection of public funding through good governance processes while not creating a disproportionate administrative burden.

UK Sport and Sport England will generally categorise an investment as Tier 1 if:

• It is granted on a one-off basis (for example, for a specific project which has a finite life); and
• The total amount of funding is typically between £10,000 and £250,000

Tier 2

This Code covers a vast range of investments and, as such, the difference between the mandatory governance requirements at Tiers 1 and 3 is significant. Investments are placed into Tier 2 where UK Sport and/or Sport England require organisations to go further than the requirements in Tier 1, but not as far as full compliance with Tier 3. This might be because of their resources, or because the investment is significant but made on a one-off (rather than longer term) basis. It could also be because the investment signals the start of a new strategic relationship between Sport England/UK Sport and an organisation, but where the parameters of the relationship are still being established.

Organisations receiving an investment categorised as Tier 2 are expected to meet all of the mandatory requirements in Tier 1 and some additional mandatory requirements from Tier 3. The exact Tier 3 requirements to be met, and the timeline for compliance, will depend on the nature of the investment and the circumstances of the organisation.

Investments falling into Tier 2 are likely to be in the region of £250k - £1m<sup>1

1</sup> This figure represents the total amount of funding over the period of the investment, with funding from both Sport England and UK Sport to the same organisation (if any) aggregated.