Chamber and committees

Artificial grass pitches play an important role in the delivery of sport and physical activity across Scotland, helping the nation to lead more active, healthy lives. Well maintained artificial pitches allow for year-round, intensive use and can provide significantly more playing hours than traditional grass pitches.

There are already alternatives on the market such as cork, corn husks and olive pits amongst others. sport scotland are part of the UK Artificial Grass Pitch forum monitoring work on the long-term viability of these products. St Andrews University has already installed a full-size 3G pitch with cork infill, and there is research and development continuing across the industry with more products in the market.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry published a wide-ranging report in April on rubber crumb infill. It is the largest study ever conducted in the US on the topic and was launched to characterise the chemicals associated with tire crumb rubber and to identify how people may be potentially exposed to those chemicals based on their activities on synthetic turf fields. In its conclusion, the report highlighted that:

‎ “As expected, a range of metals, semivolatile organic compounds, volatile organic compounds and bacteria were detected in recycled tire crumb rubber infill.
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‎ "Although chemicals are present in the tire crumb rubber and exposures can occur, they are likely limited. For example, only small amounts of most organic chemicals are released from tire crumb into the air through emissions and no differences in PAH metabolites in urine were observed between study participants using synthetic turf fields compared to those using grass fields.”

The full report can be read here: https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/federal-research-recycled-tire-crumb-used-playing-fields-and-playgrounds?utm_source=brevo&utm_campaign=Friday%20News%20Roundup%2019%20April&utm_medium=email

The Scottish Government has implemented the following recommendations since the Good Governance Steering Group’s inception in 2015:

Re-instating the Regulatory Review Group (RRG) was a priority for business when developing the New Deal for Business recommendations and is pivotal in supporting Ministers understand and mitigate challenges associated with implementing regulations. Within its first six months, the RRG scrutinised regulation implementation on high-profile proposals, including Alcohol Minimum Unit Pricing, Vaping, Heat in Buildings and Circular Economy Bill.

To ensure transparency, all meeting minutes and advice sent to Scottish Ministers are published on its webpage found on the Scottish Government website. The minutes from the RRG meeting on February 17 have now been published on Regulatory Review Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Facility time for trade union officials is key to ensuring trade unions can effectively represent members and reflect the staff voice in college decision making. However, remission in order to undertake trade union duties is an operational matter for individual colleges.

We routinely engage with a range of stakeholders in our work across Scottish Government, including work to implement the recommendations and observations of the Committee.

The UK's State Report covers the measures that have been adopted, by Government, relating to the rights described in the Convention, and on the progress made in upholding them. Scottish Government did not engage with these groups for the specific purpose of providing our updates to the UK Government for inclusion in their State Report, due to the nature of the reporting process.

Scotland is determined to play our part in eradicating racism, inequality and injustice – and in building a better, fairer world. Specifically, the Race Equality Framework demonstrates our commitment to eliminating racism – our Vision for a fairer Scotland is that by 2030 Scotland is a place where people are healthier, happier and treated with respect, and where opportunities, wealth and power are spread more equally.

The remit of the Good Governance Steering Group is regularly reviewed in collaboration with sector partners represented on the group. At its inception, the group agreed it would be an advisory body. The group is authorised by the Scottish Government to investigate any activity and to seek any relevant information it required in support of its duties.

At its inception, the Good Governance Steering Group agreed to be an advisory body with no executive powers.

The Scottish Government is represented on the group and the group regularly reviews its remit.

To date, no approach has been made to the Scottish Government to change the decision making function of the group.

The remit of the Good Governance Steering Group was reviewed at its last meeting on 2 May 2024. This was done in partnership with the group, which includes Scottish Government representation.

We will give full consideration to new research in this area, and we are supportive of efforts to examine evidence on the wider impacts of microplastics which will be material to helping shape any future regulation.

EU legislation designed to protect the environment from exposure to microplastics means that, from 2031, rubber crumb infill material will no longer be available for use on artificial pitches within the EU. We are working with the UK and Welsh Governments to better understand the impacts microplastics have on the environment and will consider the need for future legislation under for example the UK REACH regulation on the safety of chemicals.

sport scotland are following the study being conducted in the UK to measure the migration of micro plastics from pitches with the mitigation measures in place as per the CEN code of practice. This will conclude in 2025.

Table 1 shows the number of attendances and those waiting eight hours or more aged 65-74, 75-84, 85-94, and 95+ at A&E in Scotland in March 2024.

Table 1: Attendances and over 8 hours waits, March 2024