New Petitions

The next new petition for consideration today is PE1811, on an independent sports ombudsman, lodged by Ken White. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to establish an independent sports ombudsman to provide a duty of care to all participants, coaches, officials, support staff, volunteers and clubs, ensuring that all are treated fairly and without prejudice, and to review and arbitrate on disputes with Scottish governing bodies of sport—SGBs. We have received written submissions from the Scottish Government and the petitioner. The Scottish Government notes that all SGBs that receive public funding via sportscotland are required to have open and transparent policies and procedures in place. Sportscotland contracts auditors to undertake external development audits of SGBs in which they invest. Those examine governance, financial management, risk management, planning and reporting, human resource management, policies, communication and information communication technology. The Scottish Government does not note any opinion on the need for an independent sports ombudsman in its submission.

The petitioner agrees with the Scottish Government that everyone must be treated equally and issues should be able to be addressed, but he notes that, if an SGB refuses to discuss anything, the Scottish Government must appoint an independent sports ombudsman.

Sport is an important area. Sport engages a lot of young people and involves a lot of volunteers. There have been controversies in the area; in the past, issues in cycling have been flagged up and recently gymnastics has had issues that have been flagged up at a UK level. We also know from our work that the way in which young footballers were treated historically is a current issue.

The petitioner says that there is an issue; I do not know whether there is or not, but I know that we have a duty of care to young people who engage in sport and to make sure that there is transparency. We also know that the governing bodies do fantastic work in supporting and sustaining their sports and engaging with volunteers, so I am not suggesting that there is a huge issue here that has to be investigated, but we need to have some confidence that there is rigour in that area of work. We maybe need to ask a few wee questions before we dispose of the petition altogether.

I will ask members in turn for their views.

I should highlight that the role of the committee would not be to arbitrate in that particular case. We can look only at the general issues that could be extrapolated from that. I appreciate that you have flagged up your direct experience, but we would obviously want to look at whether there is a general need for what is proposed, rather than dealing with the individual case that has prompted the petition in the first place.

I think that, again, there is consensus on the petition. We recognise that there is a general issue, rather than just the specific one that David Torrance flagged up, and we want clarity from the Scottish Government on its views. We want to know whether the Government thinks that we need an independent sports ombudsman, as has been suggested, and where concerns about a Scottish governing body should be raised if there is no independent sports ombudsman. We are agreed on that, so we will take that action.