Homepage

We use cookies to track and analyse visitors to our website

These cookies help make the website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. They are necessary for our website to function and cannot be switched off.
These cookies gather information to understand how visitors interact with the website, such as how many people are using our website of which pages are popular to help us improve user experience. Switching off these cookies will mean that we cannot gather information to improve the user experience.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by a third party provider whose services we have added to our website. Switching off these cookies mean that areas of our website cannot work properly.

Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient.

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site.

For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website.

Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.

Skip navigation
  • About us
    • Our Directors team
    • Our Board and panels
    • Strategic plan 2021-31
    • Annual reports
    • Our funders
    • Who we work with
    • Tenders
    • Contact us
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Learning and development
    • Protecting and Transforming Olympic and Paralympic sport
    • Leadership and governance
    • Coaching
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Aquatics
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Baseball
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Climbing
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Para performance strategic framework
    • Board minutes
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • Transparency and open data
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports and research
    • The Whyte Review
  • Jobs in sport
    • Working at UK Sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Find jobs in sport
    • Advertise sport jobs
  • About us
    • Our Directors team
    • Our Board and panels
    • Strategic plan 2021-31
    • Annual reports
    • Our funders
    • Who we work with
    • Tenders
    • Contact us
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Learning and development
    • Protecting and Transforming Olympic and Paralympic sport
    • Leadership and governance
    • Coaching
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Aquatics
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Baseball
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Climbing
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Para performance strategic framework
    • Board minutes
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • Transparency and open data
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports and research
    • The Whyte Review
  • Jobs in sport
    • Working at UK Sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Find jobs in sport
    • Advertise sport jobs
Popular content on our site
Prepare to “Find Your Greatness” as search for UK's future athletes gets underway The National Lottery operator Allwyn launches ChangeMakers fund for athletes as they make a difference back home Breadth of success targeted as British Olympic and Paralympic performance aspirations confirmed for Paris Investing in sport Strategic plan 2021-31
Resources

A Code for Sports Governance

Understand what's required for those seeking or receiving government or lottery funds.

GB team celebrating

How to use the code

Learn how to apply the Code for Sports Governance in your organisation.

How to use the code
GB team

The principles

Understand the five core principles for good governance.

The principles
GB skater

Tier 3

The highest governance standard, related to the level of public investment being made.

Tier 3
Wheelchair players

Tier 1

The minimum governance standard, ensuring the protection of public funding through good governance processes.

Tier 1

The Code for Sports Governance sets out the levels of transparency, diversity and inclusion, accountability and integrity that are required from those organisations who seek – and are in receipt of – UK Government and National Lottery funding from UK Sport and/or Sport England.

Launched in 2016, the Code has been applied to over 4,000 organisations across its three Tiers of funding and has provided a standard framework of governance for a wide and diverse range of national, regional and local bodies, community groups and charities providing sport and physical activity opportunities. Many of the principles set out in the Code are widely accepted as being elements of good practice in corporate governance, and can be found in most models of governance both within and outwith the sporting sector, e.g. the UK Corporate Governance Code, the governance frameworks of all five domestic Sports Councils, and the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s Voluntary Code of Good Governance.

Development and review of the Code
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.
Flexibility

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. 

Proportionate application of the Code - Tiers

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 - £1m1

1 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.

Looking to work in sport?
Find or advertise sports jobs in the UK
Search now
Our funders
  • Funded by UK Government
  • TNL partners
Who we work with
  • British Olympic Association
  • Paralympics GB
  • Logo of the UK Sports Institute
  • Sport England
  • Sport Northern Ireland
  • Sport Wales
  • Sport Scotland
  • Logo of the British Elite Athletes Association
  • Logo for UK Coaching
  • Logo of Sport Resolutions
Sitelogo
Sitemap
  • Homepage
  • About us
  • Our work
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
  • Resources
  • Jobs in sport
  • Website terms and privacy policy
  • Editorial policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility
  • Freedom of Information
  • Welsh language scheme
  • FAQs
Contact
UK Sport
6th Floor
10 South Colonnade
London
E14 4PU
E: info@uksport.gov.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7211 5100
Follow us
Twitter Youtube Instagram LinkedIn

© Copyright UK Sport 2025