Chamber and committees

Extra?

Okay.

You have been asked about the backlog. The Auditor General’s report was about the backlog. According to the Auditor General’s report, the backlog for the most serious cases—murders, rapes and sex offences—will not be cleared until March 2026. That may have changed since the Auditor General wrote his report.

There could be cases for which the process takes more than a year.

Okay. I do not know who will answer this question, but there was talk of a three-year delivery plan. The Scottish Government was due to produce that three-year delivery plan last August, so it is over a year late. What has happened to that?

Obviously, it needs to be a good delivery plan, but you cannot just keep delaying it for ever.

He did not say that he played football; he just said that he had “worn ... football boots.” I am not entirely sure that I would like to see Mr Kerr marauding across a football pitch.

I noticed that Mr Kerr did not refer to Falkirk Football Club, which is in our shared region. That was a shame, because ahead of the debate I was recalling a time when I played at the former Brockville Park for a team from The Sun newspaper. I think that it was during that game—we played a few there—that former Partick Thistle manager Gerry Collins rather brutally body checked me off the pitch. I was also successfully man marking one of my football heroes, Danny McGrain, until our manager made the tactical blunder of taking me off, then it all started to go wrong. [Interruption.] Mr Kerr is laughing, but I am telling the truth, Presiding Officer.

I mention that match because football gives people great memories. Whether they play, just watch or do both, it is a game that brings people together. It can be good for their mental and physical health—or maybe not, depending on which team they support.

This was originally meant to have been an entirely different debate, following the commissioners’ deeply flawed consultation on supporters’ buses. That was a mad idea from the start, so I am pleased that it has been dropped. I hope that we will not see it again. I am not aware that there is an issue to solve in respect of fans on buses in Scotland, so let us not create one.

I want to talk about the good that football does in the community. In 2018, Scotland became one of the first countries in Europe to take part in a landmark UEFA study to illustrate the unique benefits of football participation nationwide. The strategic return on investment model was created to provide national associations with a tool to help them to understand the value of football participation at all levels. It provides tangible evidence of how football can improve lives. The SFA actually put a monetary value on participation in football: the 2018 report concluded that the total number of registered players in the game was worth more than £500 million annually to Scotland.

In my region, one of the best-known community clubs is Motherwell FC, which Gillian Mackay mentioned. Motherwell Football Club Community Trust uses the brand name of the club and the power of football to bring positive change to the local community. Ms Mackay has visited it, as have I. In 2021, UEFA’s social return on investment report demonstrated a huge variety of social, economic, educational and health benefits associated with the local community in Motherwell because of the programmes that were available through the trust and the club. Social benefits include improved educational attainment, reduced school absence through targeted social projects, and participation programmes spanning projects for disability football and children and young persons’ football.

Last year, I was delighted to visit Fir Park to see at first hand how much of a positive impact such programmes have on people of all ages and backgrounds. Efforts there to have me pull on my boots again have so far proved fruitless, but you never know—it might happen.

The 2021 UEFA report concluded that, even though it has a staff of just seven, supplemented by more than 60 volunteers, the impact of the Motherwell Football Club Community Trust’s activity was worth £13.6 million across social, economic, health and education measurements, which is very impressive indeed.

Cumbernauld Colts Football Club is an excellent example of how the presence of a community football club can positively impact on the lives of women and girls. It launched a women’s team earlier this year, with the aim of its becoming the biggest club in North Lanarkshire to offer girls football.

I should also mention Hamilton Accies, which has been running a very successful scheme that goes into local schools to teach young people about drug safety. Accies’ ground also has a food bank, a men’s shed and even a beach. Yes—a beach. I urge members to go there. The club has built a beach behind the ground.

I will briefly mention the contributions of other members. There have been various calls for the England football team to have its own national anthem. That sounds like a pretty good idea to me, but no one made any actual suggestions on that. Off the top of my head, I can think of “Land of Hope and Glory” or perhaps “Jerusalem”, but there might be other ideas.

“Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, which Mr Kerr does regularly.

Neil Bibby talked about snobbery towards football; Douglas Lumsden revealed his own football memories, but then told us that he cannot remember what he had for dinner last night. Stuart McMillan reminisced about his piping tour of football grounds and spoke of his love for Greenock Morton FC. Michael Marra and Richard Leonard mentioned the serious issue of brain disease linked to heading the ball, which we should debate further, and Gillian Mackay mentioned Motherwell and Falkirk and, rightly, said that we need to see more Scotland games on free-to-view telly, as Tuesday’s game was.

Speaking of Tuesday’s game, before it started, I spent some time with British Transport Police at Glasgow Central station, watching how the officers marshall the fans. It was a seamless operation. England fans were in good spirits, and I hope that both teams get to the Euro finals. I am sure that they will, and I am sure that they will do well. I support the motion.

I am not sure that that is a sight that I would wish to see. Stephen Kerr might wish to intervene to disabuse me of that notion.

I should not need to point out to Stuart McMillan that I am a Scotland fan. I think that he knows that I was born in Aberdeen, so I was rooting for Scotland.

It has been a largely positive debate. It did not quite start off that way, but I invite the minister to make her closing remarks, when she responds, wholly and 100 per cent positive, in order to reflect the nature of the debate that we have had. That is what one would expect, given the subject.

Everyone who has spoken is a fan of football. Some of us will have played football at some point in our lives, to varying standards—not very high, in my case. I suspect that Stephen Kerr has never pulled on a pair of boots.