Continued Petitions

PE1811, on an independent sports ombudsman, which was lodged by Ken White, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to establish an independent sports ombudsman in order to provide a duty of care to all participants, coaches, officials, support staff, volunteers and clubs to ensure that all are treated fairly and without prejudice, and to review and arbitrate on disputes with Scottish governing bodies.

Since we last considered the petition in September, we have received a submission from the Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing and two submissions from the petitioner. In his submission, the minister notes that he is

“confident that all ... SGBs ... have transparent policies and procedures in place to ensure that all members of the SGB and associated clubs are treated fairly and equally.”

He advises that

“The Scottish Government want to see a fair and transparent sporting system in Scotland”

and that he

“would be happy to give due consideration to any proposals brought forward with those intentions.”

This is another interesting petition. As I said during our previous consideration, there are, as we speak, on-going investigations into some areas of sport where people who have participated at the very highest levels have complained about the way that they have been treated. We need reassurances. As with our famous youth football petition, we need to ensure that when young people go into sport, their needs and interests are protected and they are not bullied, and that people who volunteer feel that they are properly engaged with.

I was surprised at the minister’s strong position in saying that he had confidence that all governing bodies “have transparent policies” in place. As the petition makes clear, it is one thing to have transparent policies, but whether they are implemented is another issue. We should certainly do a little more with regard to the petition. As with the youth football petition, it might at first seem that there is nothing to see here. However, we need to feel a bit more confident in exploring these matters, because the question of safeguarding is so important.

I will call on members for comment—I remind them to pause briefly to allow their microphones to be switched on before they speak. We will start with Tom Mason.

There is a question to be asked regarding whether the solution that the petitioner identifies is the right one. In writing to the Scottish Sports Association, we would want to flag up the question: if not that solution, then what? I was struck by the petitioner’s comment that if the complaints officer does not agree with a complaint, there is no further recourse, and there is a sense that matters are not resolved. That is our general concern, and we would hope that the Scottish Government is paying attention to the questions that we are pursuing. In this instance, we agree that we can see an issue, and we are wondering what the solution is. We hope that writing to the Scottish Sports Association will inform our thinking on that.