Chamber and committees

The third item on our agenda is the fourth evidence session in our inquiry into female participation in sport and physical activity. This session will focus on elite sport.

I am delighted to welcome to the committee Eilidh Doyle, retired track and field athlete and member of the board of directors of Scottish Athletics;? Gemma Fay, retired international footballer; and Connie Ramsay, retired Commonwealth judo champion. Joining us remotely, and also very welcome, are Priyanaz Chatterji, international cricketer, and Lee Craigie, retired professional mountain bike racer and director of the Adventure Syndicate.

We move straight to questions. I will start by asking about an issue that is fundamental to a lot of what we will be discussing: money and the finances that are involved in support for elite sport. My question is for every witness. Is there sufficient funding in your sport for professional and aspiring female athletes to train and compete, and, if not, what can be done about that?

Thank you very much for those contributions. That was an interesting insight into the challenges and opportunities in funding.

A number of you touched on your journeys into professional and elite sport. I will explore that a wee bit. What challenges do young women and girls experience in trying to access those pathways and being sustained on them? What further action could be taken to support them?

Gemma Fay, do you want to comment? You spoke a bit about your pathway.

Thank you. I will bring in my colleague Paul Sweeney, who has some questions on this theme.

We will move on to discuss media representation and attitudes in society.

At our next meeting, on 25 April, we will continue to take formal evidence as part of our inquiry into female participation in sport and physical activity, with a session focusing on media coverage, as previously trailed, and representation of women and girls in sport. That concludes the public part of our meeting.

Priyanaz Chatterji, you can go next, if you can hear us.

Mr Macpherson has pre-empted me. I was just about to come to some concrete solutions. I take the opportunity to say to Ben Macpherson that I thought he performed well in his role as minister for social security and that it is a sad fact that there is no longer a dedicated ministerial post in Government to deal with social security issues as Mr Macpherson did previously.

It is clear that people want a laser focus on tackling poverty, fixing the economy and injecting a sense of hope, optimism and trust back into politics. In power, Labour could deliver once again. We would reduce people’s household bills by investing in clean power systems and insulating more than 1.3 million homes. We would introduce a proper windfall tax, helping to reduce household bills and tackling problem debt. We would provide households with a £100 rebate on their water bills and would deliver a green jobs revolution in Scotland, creating 50,000 jobs across the country and a wealth of new opportunities for young people. Those are the ideas that the Labour party will bring forward when we have the opportunity to put them to the people.

In various statements over the past few weeks, and during the leadership hustings, the First Minister has described independence as the golden thread that would run through the heart of his Government. That is the heart of the matter. It is no surprise that the Scottish National Party supports independence, but it is clear, now more than ever, that, no matter the size of the crisis that the country faces, the SNP will always place independence above all else and make it the answer for everything.

I know that the cabinet secretary will, as she did in her opening speech, blame Westminster and point to independence as the solution. It is true that the UK Tory Government has made the situation worse, but it is also true that the Scottish Government has failed to seize the mantle of making Scotland a better, more equal and more prosperous place to live. The Government must not sit on its hands but must use the powers of this place to address the concerning growth of deep poverty in Scotland. Continuity will not cut it. We need serious action to make the change that people want to see.

I move amendment S6M-08589.3, to leave out from “welcomes” to the end and insert:

“; notes plans for an anti-poverty summit to guide future action on tackling poverty; further notes that, after 16 years of an SNP administration, child poverty levels, after housing costs, have remained at 24%, and severe child poverty, after housing costs, has been rising since 2014; acknowledges that 94% of families surveyed by Includem for its report, It Is Not A Choice, have experienced worsening finances, and 73% are struggling to meet the cost of two or more basic essentials; expresses concern at the downgrading of social security in the Scottish Government’s priorities, with the removal of a minister for social security; urges the Scottish Government to take decisive action to reduce poverty across Scotland in the face of these stark figures; highlights the implementation gap on the measures set out by Best Start, Bright Futures relating to employability support, and welcomes the Scottish Labour Party’s plan to tackle the cost of living crisis by introducing a proper windfall tax that would help to pay to keep bills down, to pay for affordable public transport and housing support, to tackle problem debt, scrap school meal arrears, and provide help for households, including a £100 water bill rebate and top-ups to the welfare fund.”

I take this opportunity to welcome the cabinet secretary to her post. I wish her well in her new role and look forward to working constructively with her on our shared goal of making Scotland a better, fairer and more equitable society. I also take this opportunity to pay tribute to my predecessor in this role, Pam Duncan-Glancy, who approached the role with tenacity and a forensic eye for detail. I know that she will be a formidable opponent in her new role as she holds the Government to account for its record on education. I wonder whether the cabinet secretary is breathing a sigh of relief because of that.

I move on to the substance of today’s debate on tackling the cost of living and reducing child poverty. There a lot of words in the prospectus that the First Minister unveiled a while ago, but there is little in the way of substance, new announcements or new methods of tackling poverty. Indeed, I detected little in the way of new committed money and spending. All I saw highlighted in the Government motion was the anti-poverty summit that the First Minister and the cabinet secretary have already spoken about this afternoon.

In principle, Scottish Labour of course supports the convening of that summit. I know that colleagues in the Labour Party will always work constructively when it comes to tackling the pernicious issue of poverty. However, if that summit becomes another talking shop on poverty, it will clearly fail to meet this important moment. An anti-poverty summit will not, in itself, provide tangible and meaningful support to help households that are experiencing deep poverty. It will not help them to buy more food or heat their homes in the winter, and nor will it help a parent to clothe their child.

The lack of ambition in the prospectus is symptomatic of a First Minister who appears to be distracted by fighting fires in his own party rather than addressing some of the most important issues that are facing the country. It is worrying that, after 16 years in power, an anti-poverty summit seems to be the limit of the Government’s plan and vision to address this deepening crisis.

I contrast that with other Governments and the progress that they made. After a decade of a UK Labour Government in 2007, the poorest 20 per cent of families were almost £3,500 better off compared to how they were in 1997. When it was in power, Labour delivered. The most recent Labour Government lifted 2.4 million people out of poverty, including almost 1 million children, and child poverty fell faster here than it did in any other European country.

In this moment, Scotland is desperate for change. People do not want to see division and distraction. People are smart; we cannot just pull the wool over their eyes. They recognise when a party of Government is more focused on internal concerns than on delivering for the people.

People in Scotland are also at their wits’ end with both of their Governments. They see the economic illiteracy of the Tories, which has inflicted immeasurable damage on our communities. They look at those dangerous and reckless economics and know that we need real change.

The need for change has never been starker. New research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has shown that not only has the number of people who are living in deep poverty dramatically increased, the depth of the poverty that they are experiencing has become more severe. The cost of living crisis has exacerbated the situation, but poverty levels in Scotland are deep-rooted and they require deep solutions.

Extreme child poverty after housing costs has been rising since 2014. I read today in the excellent briefing from Includem that three in four people are now struggling to meet the costs of two or more essentials.

Scotland is desperate for solutions. It is desperate for competent and credible solutions that will address the major issues that are facing the country.

Hundreds of Scots are struggling more than ever, and they need this Government to focus on their priorities. Child poverty has remained at 24 per cent for the entire time that the SNP has been in government, and levels of severe child poverty have been rising.

The First Minister has been a member of the Scottish Government for more than a decade and he has, in various guises, failed to use the powers of this Parliament effectively to address the rising levels of very deep poverty.

The First Minister has defined himself as a continuity candidate—ain’t that the truth. Is this prospectus not just more of the same? Where are the new financial measures? How much of this is new money? How much of his £1.3 billion for the child payment is new money? Is it not clear that Scotland needs more than just a summit on poverty—it needs action? Does he not realise that continuity will not cut it?

Given that Healthcare Improvement Scotland has said that there are substantial challenges to the safety and wellbeing of patients and staff in Inverclyde, is it sustainable in the long term to run a repair backlog of more than £100 million?