Meeting of the Parliament 24 March 2026 [Draft]
I congratulate Finlay Carson’s daughter and all the team, and I am sure that everyone would join me in doing so.
I thank Brian Whittle for bringing this debate to the chamber. Brian has been a brilliant champion of sport in this Parliament and, like other members, I appreciate all the work that he has done.
I pay tribute to my colleague Alex Rowley, who has given his last speech in Parliament. It is great to speak in the same debate. He has worked hard on many issues during his time here, raising matters from constituents and always offering to work across the chamber to ensure the best outcome for Scotland. I wish him well in his retirement. The Labour group will miss him and we will be poorer without his contributions.
During my time in Parliament, it has been a pleasure to meet numerous sporting organisations that do important work to promote the health, wellbeing and social benefits of sport. Recently, I had the pleasure of engaging with Netball Scotland, which does fantastic work to educate people on the reasons why sport, such as netball, matters. Netball is predominantly a sport for women. It has very passionate volunteers and seeks to bring together community and club level sport. The national team, known as the Scottish Thistles, represents Scotland across the world and is truly an inspiration to women and young girls across the country.
Last year, I nominated the Scottish Thistles captain, Emily Nicholl, to speak at time for reflection in Parliament. She highlighted netball’s power
“to shape lives, build resilience and inspire ambition”.—[Official Report, 2 December 2025; c 1.]
The Scottish Thistles are a great group of motivated, disciplined and educated women, and I wish them the best of luck as they compete in the Commonwealth games this summer.
Throughout the parliamentary session, as others have said, the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has done a great deal of work to understand barriers in sport, particularly in relation to participation, access and inequality. We know that access is not always equitable. Poverty and cost are significant barriers to access and participation. When considering sport and activity as a force for good, we need to be serious about addressing these barriers and recognise that, in some cases, those who would benefit the most from sport and activity are often those who are least likely to be able to access it. I hope that, in the next session of Parliament, further work will be carried out to promote potential solutions to break down those barriers.
Finally, I will reflect on the impacts of cuts to local services. The diving pool in the Citadel leisure centre in South Ayrshire is in my South Scotland region. It is the last remaining diving pool in the west of Scotland, with many people attending every week. However, the council’s recent decision to cut the programme means that, if divers want to continue, they will need to travel long distances to the east coast. That goes back to the point that other members made. What ends up being cut, and what are the unseen consequences of that? Sport should be about all the different types of sport, and people should have access to them in their communities whenever possible. The diving club is just one example of the many cuts that local authorities are having to make due to long-term underfunding. Those cuts have an impact on overall health and wellbeing. If we want to recognise the benefits of grass-roots sport and exercise, which goes beyond just health and wellbeing, we must consider how such services can be better protected, as they are often the first thing to be cut.