Is shooting a sport?

The Charity Commission has rejected an application from Cambridgeshire Target Shooting Association for charitable registration, since it was not convinced that the association was established for exclusively charitable purposes. The association attempted to register with four separate charitable purposes, but the commission focused only upon one: 'To promote community participation in healthy recreation'.

Is shooting capable of improving health?

In its guidance, RR11 - charitable status and sport, the commission considers the requirements of 'community participation in healthy recreation'. In particular, the guidance states that the sport in question must be capable of improving physical health and fitness. The commission elaborates on this by stating that the sports it will consider are "those which, if practised with reasonable frequency, will tend to make the participant healthier, that is, fitter and less susceptible to disease."

The guidance, which was published in 2003, does state expressly that the commission does not consider that rifle and pistol shooting are capable of improving physical health and fitness, although the commission is willing to be convinced by new evidence.

The association therefore set out to prove to the commission that the sport of shooting did promote health, producing two research papers entitled, 'Benefits of Shooting' and 'Mental Training in Shooting'.

Those research papers noted that 'to perform well at higher levels in the sport, you need to attain a good level of physical fitness', that 'it is essential to foster a slow heartbeat in all events' and that 'it is a sport where some events require upper body and arm strength'.

The commission concluded from the papers that, while it was no doubt beneficial to participants to be physically healthy to compete, it was not the participation in the sport itself that was making the participants physically healthy. Therefore the commission's view is that shooting is not a sport capable of improving physical health and fitness, and a shooting club could not be said to be promoting community participation in health recreation.

Is shooting a sport?

As an alternative to trying to register with purposes expressed as, 'To promote community participation in healthy recreation', the association could have adopted objects which were "to advance amateur sport". However the association would have still been presented with the same issue.

'Sport' is defined in the Charities Act 2011 as a sport or game which 'promotes health by involving physical or mental skill or exertion'. While the commission was satisfied that shooting did involve both physical and mental skill and exertion, it was (as discussed) not convinced that it actually promoted health. The conclusion was that a club which promoted shooting would not be considered as 'advancing amateur sport'.

Therefore, while shooting is recognised as a sport by Sport England and has its own national governing body, it is not currently considered a 'sport' for the purposes of the Charities Act.

What now for shooting clubs?

There is a large number of shooting clubs registered as charities. Interestingly many of these are registered with a charitable purpose which centres on training in 'defence of the realm'.

However the commission now considers that registrations under this purpose will not be able to continue where the clubs are mainly concerned with civilian competition and recreation shooting. Clubs wishing to use this purpose will therefore need to show a direct link between their activities and the defence of the realm.

The commission does accept that encouraging participation in sporting activity may be a means to other charitable ends. In this case, the commission accepted the association's evidence that it was advancing education in rifle and pistol shooting, and providing relief to those with disability through inclusive participation in the sport.

As a result there are other ways in which shooting clubs can structure their activities and purposes to be recognised as charitable. Nevertheless it seems unlikely they will be able to register on the basis of 'community participation in healthy recreation' or the 'advancement of amateur sport', without a body of evidence that shooting itself actually provides a health benefit.

The wider application

The decision is of relevance to a number of other clubs and associations which may have difficulty in proving that they promote or advance health. In its guidance, the commission expressly states that it does not consider that angling, ballooning, billiards, pool and snooker, crossbow, flying, gliding, motor sports or parachuting promote health.

Clubs of these sports interested in registration will therefore need to consider very carefully how they meet the commission's criteria.

Darren Hooker is a solicitor at Stone King