Chamber and committees

I will come back to Professor Knapp, but I have a question about evidence relating to what you have just said, Professor Feeley.

We get a lot of clear evidence about people in deprived areas, who have much poorer health and so on. There is an argument, particularly in Scotland, that if you have major problems, you might end up in those poorer areas because your finances have changed dramatically over time. If you are fit at the age of 40 and then you get some chronic illness and do not work again, you are quite likely to end up having to move to a cheaper but less desirable area. I am interested in whether there is evidence about people’s poor health. Some of the issues are obvious, such as drugs and alcohol, but aside from that, are there other factors? I am interested in correlations, not causation—that is the point that I am making. If anybody has any evidence on that particular aspect, I would be interested to hear it.

I will also come to Professor Knapp, who wanted to say something. I was very interested in your example about dementia, when you said that quite a lot of the prevention measures are quick wins, in a way, because they are happening as you are doing it. It is an interesting aspect. I do not know whether there is anything else that you would like to say on that.

Of course, people in that age group have come through Covid and are maybe now suffering from lag effects of that. That is an important point.

Yes, but local government is being reorganised, too—everything is up in the air. My question is an open one. I did not put a number on it. I am just interested in the principle of things being united.

In an ideal world, I am sure that you are correct. Of course, that is not what we are looking at in the next year, but I welcome your point.

Do the other witnesses have a view on flipping the issue on its head? Local authorities used to be in charge of health, but there were national specialist services—I am going back a long time.

I welcome our next panel of witnesses and thank them for taking the time to come here. We are joined by Forbes Dunlop, chief executive officer of sportscotland; Gregor Muir, acting chief executive of the Scottish Sports Association; and John Lunn, chief executive of Scottish Swimming. We are disappointed to see George Hunter, director of libraries, sport and physical activity and communities at Glasgow Life, because we have been trying to get women on this sports panel and he was supposed to be someone else, but we will forgive him for that—I am sure that he has a lot to tell us. We will just have to work harder next time. I am sure that he will talk to us about women and girls in sport as well as other issues.

I thank you all for your submissions. As you know, we are looking towards making pre-budget recommendations while finances are constrained.

We will move straight to questions. Unsurprisingly, the first questions are about funding for sport and physical activity. Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill will start us off.

We are running out of time, but I want to circle back to a point on prevention and ask about social engagement. Some of your submissions referred to these two aspects.

First, antisocial behaviour is of increasing concern to people in many areas, particularly more deprived areas where there might be fewer opportunities for young people. I think that Mr Muir’s submission mentioned that, and I am interested in whether there are specific sporting programmes that are aimed at addressing the issue.

I also want to ask about the focus on keeping girls in sport and physical activity, particularly around puberty and the transition to a new school. My unsupported observation is that, in mixed sports in which not many girls participate, girls can be more likely to drop out. Are there specific programmes aimed at addressing that? Could you say a couple of words about that?

You have made a very relevant point. I can think of various examples to back it up, and one that I always come back to is working outdoors. As we have been saying, the outdoors of Scotland is available to everybody. When I worked in that field, it always seemed to me that a lot of people—those living in cities and towns, for example—who did not have the same experience of getting out to go mountaineering, rambling or whatever when they were young or, at the very least, when they were students never thought of doing those things in later life. That might not be true—it is just anecdotal—but it seemed a clear indicator to me. Whenever I met somebody who was enthusiastic about that sort of activity and I asked them when they started, they would always say that they had had that experience early. I think that the same applies across the board, so what you said was interesting.

With regard to the active schools link, are there people employed specifically to do that work beyond the school? You said that that activity happens outside school hours.

So you just ignored the signs. Is that what you are saying?

I am glad to hear several of the witnesses mention that this does not just concern younger people. I would put in a plug for bowls. There is a struggle with bowls clubs’ facilities, and clubs are facing challenges in many areas, but bowls is a very accessible activity. It is accessible to older people who have given up golf—as in my husband’s case.

We need to look across the piece and make the case for giving people as many opportunities as possible to take part in a variety of activities. As somebody said, they have to want to do it. People keep recommending Pilates to me, for example, but I have no interest at all in paying to go into a hall and do whatever it is. It is about giving people opportunities.

Thank you. Does anyone else want to comment?