Chamber and committees

I will pick up on what was said earlier about the opportunities that we have to get kids into sport when the Olympics or other big sporting events are on. The Commonwealth games are coming to Glasgow, yet the evidence that we took previously is that there will be absolutely no legacy from those games. What should we be doing to really capture the Commonwealth games in Glasgow—they will be a resounding success—and get kids more involved in sport? Ultimately, some of the world’s top athletes will be coming to compete and to inspire us all.

It is always easy to raise the price of things. That is the stick, but the carrot never follows. The only action that we have taken on alcohol is minimum unit pricing—that is it; that is the magic bullet—and I strongly disagree with the findings that you have spoken about. It is a completely different topic.

I want to touch on glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists. What is the current evidence, and do you think that we need a serious conversation about rolling out their use much more broadly to tackle obesity? Going back decades, people have always said, “Oh, just give me a pill and help me lose weight”, so that is what we have got. Nothing is free in healthcare; everything has a risk, a side effect and a cost, but is this approach worth while, and should we hold on to get the pills that are potentially coming to try to reduce weight?

:I refer to a letter that was written in November 2025 on behalf of 39 organisations. The chair of Scottish Gymnastics wrote it. It spoke of how the 2021 programme for government promised to double funding for sport to £100 million and of a 25 per cent real-terms reduction before the money that is currently allocated will be in place. That means that the funding will not be doubled. The letter speaks about how things have become very difficult. It says that 37 per cent of adults and 38 per cent of children do not do the recommended amount of physical activity. It also says that there is a 25 per cent increase in the cost of sending sportspeople across the world to compete. Most worrying is that it says that a significant number of athletes who compete on the world stage now have to self-fund. It is absolutely disgraceful that people who are representing Scotland are self-funding to do that. We should be paying them and thanking them for what they do.

Will you comment on that letter? We have seen real-term cuts to budgets over the past four or five years, so that £40 million still does not bring us up to where we should be.

:Thank you. I have to declare my interest as a practising national health service GP—which is rather surprising, given the topic.

There has been a lot of discussion, especially involving Kim Atkinson, about GPs trying to create time to talk about activity and linking people to local sports clubs. Kim, my first question is: how much time do you think GPs have to do that?

:[Inaudible.]

:I was in general practice on Monday, seeing patients. We do not have a minute to do anything except address what the patient has come in with, which often involves multiple, very complex and difficult issues.

As part of the initial GP contract, there was a scheme that was supposed to create community link workers across all practices. It would have allowed GPs to say, “I think you would benefit from something outside traditional medicine and traditional drugs. Maybe see the community link worker.” That person’s entire job would be to ensure that the patient got out into the community and knew what local services were available, whether in relation to sport or whatever. However, the funding for that has not come through. We have had a massive fight to keep GP community link workers in some of the most deprived areas and deep-end practices, although, surely, that is the type of thing that we should be supporting. It is impossible for a GP to do that work and know all the things that are going on in the community for all the different topics that we see. Surely we should be fighting for community link workers.

Hello. I am sorry, convener—it did not come through on my system that you had called me to speak. Is it my turn to ask questions?

:I fully agree that it is an opportunity, and it was part of the GP contract that should have been delivered.

Let us talk about the promotion of sport for physical activity. I was a member of my local council gym. My annual membership ran out, and I went to renew it. It works out at £32 a month to join that gym. I decided not to renew, and I am spending £16 a month at PureGym. I do not understand how we have got to the point where it is so expensive to be part of your local community gym. You said that if there is nowhere to go, we are snookered. For lots of people, £32 a month for going to do activities—which is very important—is a huge amount of money. I do not understand how the cost can be so high for us to maintain a healthy relationship with sport and physical activity.

:I suppose that the most important thing to say before my final question is that there are other gyms available, not just the one that I happened to mention.

We have spoken about women and girls playing sport, and we have seen in the report that they do not continue to participate, despite everyone starting off together in school. We have spoken about dedicated women who are coaches and volunteers, and the need to promote that, but I wonder whether there is a place for our local community council gyms in promoting, for example, mothers participating in physical activity. One of the strands in our report was that, if a young girl sees her mother participating in physical activity and sport, she is far more likely to do so herself.

Is there a place for our local community assets—gyms, swimming pools and other places—in trying to get mothers, in particular, into sports and physical activity?

:Amendment 87 is consequential to amendment 92. I do not intend to move amendment 92, so I will not move amendment 87.

Amendment 87 not moved.

Amendment 50 moved—[Jeremy Balfour].