SEA LIFE TRUST LIMITED

Registered charity 1175859 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The SEA LIFE TRUST develops, delivers and supports projects and campaigns and operates marine wildlife sanctuaries to help make a measurable difference to the protection of marine and freshwater wildlife and habitats across the world. Our main focus areas are: campaigning for freshwater & marine protection, reducing plastic pollution & overfishing in our seas and marine rescue & rehabilitation.

Objects

THE CHARITY'S OBJECTS ARE:TO PROMOTE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC THE CONSERVATION, PROTECTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, PARTICULARLY THE MARINE AND FRESHWATER ENVIRONMENT AND THE WELL BEING AND CONSERVATION OF WILD SPECIES LIVING IN THAT ENVIRONMENT AND IN PARTICULAR VULNERABLE AND ENDANGERED SPECIES AND PROMOTING AND CONDUCTING RESEARCH INTO SUCH SPECIES AND PROMOTING AND CONDUCTING BREEDING, CONSERVATION, REHABILITATION AND RELEASE INTO THE WILD OF SUCH SPECIES; AND TO ENCOURAGE AND PROVIDE EDUCATION AND THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE MARINE AND FRESHWATER ENVIRONMENT.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Environment/conservation/heritage · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Southwark, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted reserves stood at £4,394,271, which the Trustees consider appropriate against their policy target of covering staff salaries and donation commitments. Total income decreased significantly to £4,236,873 from the prior year, primarily due to the absence of large one-off donations received in 2024, though the charity remains supported by Merlin Entertainments through donated services and loan facilities.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Forvis Mazars LLP. Discloses 6 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 0 (FY2024) → 2 (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 31/12/2024 (received 19/12/2025, 49 days after the 31/10/2025 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 10833916
• Trading subsidiary: SLT SANCTUARY TRADING LIMITED Companies House 11160544 · Financial health read from its filings

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — SEA LIFE Trust (matched by registered charity number).

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• NEWMAN, Anthony — director, appointed 25/06/2026on trustee list
• BEIGHTON, Richard — director, appointed 17/06/2025on trustee list
• HICKS, Robert — director, appointed 05/12/2024on trustee list
• AMSTER, Asha — director, appointed 16/09/2024on trustee list
• TURNER, Andy — director, appointed 16/09/2024on trustee list
• ROBINSON, Carrie — director, appointed 25/06/2024on trustee list
• BURLEIGH, James Gurth — director, appointed 15/01/2018on trustee list
• JOWETT, Matthew Paul — director, appointed 15/01/2018on trustee list

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~10.4 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 25.2% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (02/01/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andy Turner
• Anthony Newman
• Asha Amster
• Carrie Robinson
• JAMES BURLEIGH
• Matthew Jowett
• Richard Beighton
• Robert Hicks

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Australia · Austria · Belgium · Bulgaria · China · Cyprus · Czech Republic · Denmark · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with MARINE CONSERVATION SOCIETY.

• MARINE CONSERVATION SOCIETY income £5.3m
• SOMERSET WILDLIFE TRUST income £5.3m
• SEA TRUST WALES income £177k
• ESSEX WILDLIFE TRUST LIMITED income £10.0m
• THE RIVERS TRUST income £10.5m
• SEEWAY TRUST income £114k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.