Hansard

I begin by reiterating congratulations to all those who helped to make the Commonwealth games such a successful and, indeed, memorable event. Whether it was our outstanding athletes, the numerous officials and administrators, the volunteers, the UK and Scottish Governments, Glasgow City Council, the police or the armed forces, they all deserve glowing praise for the excellent work that they did.

Over the 11 days we witnessed competition of the very highest order, so we were perhaps not surprised to hear Mike Hooper, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, tell us that they were

“the stand-out Games in the history of the movement.”

That is a very considerable compliment. In that vein, we have absolutely no problem in supporting the motion and, indeed, the Labour amendment. We also welcome the minister’s announcement regarding Largs.

I do not think that anybody could doubt the extent of the challenge that we face when it comes to the delivery of a meaningful and lasting legacy. I say that because I do not think that it is easy to define the parameters of the debate. The word “legacy” itself is not terribly easy to define, particularly in its qualitative sense, and therefore I do not think that it is particularly easy to measure. That has perhaps been why people have moved away from the issue for some games in the past.

A legacy must, by necessity, include some aspects of quantitative measure—for example, increasing the number of people who participate in sport and taking on board the Scottish Government’s initiative to try to ensure that more women take up sport; and we can obviously also measure reductions in obesity totals and how much additional money is raised. However, the legacy has to be much more than that, and I think that that is the tougher call. I am not sure that it is the politicians’ job to say what that should be, but what I think is our job and what we have to do in line with other stakeholders such as sportscotland, Glasgow 2014, local authorities and so on is to deliver the right circumstances that will help communities to develop the more qualitative aspects of the legacy. Stewart Harris said it is about “building capacity” and he is right.

Thus, it is not enough to provide top-class facilities for sport. At a recent meeting of the cross-party group on sport we heard that 50 per cent of senior schools in Scotland now have excellent sports facilities—we have all seen many of them—but that at times quite a lot of them are still underused. What is important—the cabinet secretary referred to this in the context of Largs—is to change public perception, culture and attitudes to ensure that there is sporting participation and development.

The games revealed some inspirational examples that can facilitate a shift in perspective. There was the extraordinary achievement of England’s Steve Way, who said on television that in 2007 he weighed 16 and a half stone and smoked 20 cigarettes a day. However, at Glasgow 2014 he finished tenth in the marathon, breaking the British over-40s record, which had stood since 1979. Way’s transformation shows the ability of sport to change lives if sufficient determination is there.

In addition, who can forget the delightful Erraid Davies, the 13-year-old Shetland swimmer who won bronze in the 100m para-breaststroke, which showed how much can be done with even modest means? I am sure that our colleague Tavish Scott, who is here, will say a little bit more about Erraid Davies. However, she trains in Brae in a pool that is about a third of the length of the 50m pool in which she won her medal. She has proved just what can be done without necessarily having world-class facilities in which to train. When she was interviewed, she spoke of her inspiration at primary school. If I may, I will focus on the Conservative amendment, which makes a statement about the crucial role that primary schools will have if we are to deliver the legacy in full.

As I understand it, there has been significant progress in recent months on meeting the physical education target in schools, and sportscotland has worked hard with Education Scotland to support the PE continuous professional development programme, which will ensure that much more is done to tackle the shortfall in the number of primary teachers who are fully qualified in PE and in sport. At a recent session of the Health and Sport Committee, sportscotland made it very clear that the issue is much more about the quality of delivery rather than the amount.

I suggest to the cabinet secretary that we need to do a little more to ensure that local authorities know exactly what is going on in their schools, because a recent freedom of information response suggested that a worrying number of them do not know what the situation is in their schools, how many teachers are fully trained and so on. It would be helpful if the cabinet secretary could provide some information on when she expects to be able to update that data and how we can move forward on that.

The games also proved Scotland’s depth of sporting interest and ability—something that was always very dear to the heart of the late Margo MacDonald as she chaired the cross-party group on sport. We may be a football-mad nation from time to time, but the games have proved what else we can do, in the so-called minority sports. We won three golds and a bronze in lawn bowls and a remarkable 13 medals in judo, and I noticed yesterday that squash and netball both shot up in the rankings of spectator sports. There is an issue there about the broadcasting of sport. I give credit to the BBC, which has managed to develop a lot of minority sports to a level that we have not seen before. The lessons about broadcasting are something that we can develop in the future.

I am running out of time. The legacy has to run deep. It involves some difficult concepts, but they are the most important ones if we are to provide what will be a meaningful and lasting legacy.

I move amendment S4M-10736.1, to insert at end:

“, and believes that, in line with recent advice from Scotland’s sporting bodies, the key policies that will deliver a permanent and meaningful legacy are those that focus on the improvement in the qualitative sporting experience for primary school-age children when they first develop their interest in, and enthusiasm for, sporting activity”.