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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 30 August 2025
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Displaying 1174 contributions

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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Forth Valley)

Meeting date: 21 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

The witnesses have already talked about people presenting at A and E departments. Among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Scotland has the highest acute hospital expenditure but the lowest preventative and community-based expenditure. The equation seems to be very lopsided. There are worrying metrics that show that there is, for example, low provision of key diagnostic equipment and beds per capita. Do you tend to keep track of those metrics? For example, do your boards keep track of how the provision of MRI or CT scanners per capita compares with international benchmarks?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 21 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

I recently met people from Boxing Scotland, which is based in Glasgow. They told me about their work in trying to get women and girls into sport, particularly into sports that are traditionally male dominated, such as boxing and football. There was a feeling that, if you do not get young people into a sport early in life, it is harder to encourage that engagement once they are young adults. Do panel members have a view on what steps can be taken to encourage women and girls into sport at a young age, especially in ways that encourage them to participate and stay involved in physical activity in the longer term, and how you can make that introduction to sports that are traditionally male dominated such as boxing?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 21 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

I wonder whether Mr Murphy might have a view on why South Lanarkshire took that step.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 21 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

Those are really helpful insights. There is a balance between passive advertising of availability versus engaging with groups of people—young women, in particular—who might not feel comfortable and who could feel intimidated by a sport such as boxing, and encouraging them to do a taster of it and have a go at it. Maybe the active schools programme could be looked at as an opportunity; it certainly sounds interesting.

We have heard stories about young people in physical education classes being split into groups to do stereotypical sports. The girls would go off and do dancing and the boys would go off and do football. That stereotypical streaming of different sports can be extremely counterproductive. Have you observed that happening, and how do you think the active schools programme could address it?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 21 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

Okay. That is interesting.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 21 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

That is good to hear.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 21 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

Planning is a major factor and it plays an important part in making women and girls feel safe. For example, I know that Sustrans’s submission indicates that just 39 per cent of women in Scottish cities feel safe cycling in their area. Planning can be a male-dominated space and it can often be confrontational and egocentric. Do Living Streets Scotland and Sustrans have any suggestions on how we can make sure that gender concerns are considered and that women are adequately consulted on planning decisions and on active travel, particularly with respect to the new development plans that have been drawn up by local authorities in the wake of national planning framework 4?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 21 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

Are there any ways to try to codify that so that there are clearer rules on design for urban spaces? Are there exemplars that could be used to create national standards?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 14 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

It is interesting to follow the conversation around sex-segregated sport, in particular in educational settings, and the context in which misogyny can come into it, especially in team sports with the introduction of the element of competition.

I was reflecting on your point about public facilities such as parks and accessibility in that respect within a feminist town-planning perspective. One initiative that has been quite positive, certainly in Glasgow, has been the parkrun initiative. It has been quite successful at seeding community-based sporting activity in otherwise sterile public spaces. In that context, it is a mixed-sex activity.

You made an important point about the appropriate context depending on the type of sport that is involved, and you talked about the idea of tasters for different sports that are perhaps not traditionally female oriented. With gender, there is a bit of nuance needed about what might be more appropriate in different contexts. For example, a mixed setting might be appropriate for the parkrun, but there might be other instances such as swimming—Glasgow has traditionally had female-only swimming evenings—where nuance might be needed. Have you identified certain areas where a mixed setting might be more appropriate than it would be for others? Is that something that you have looked at?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity

Meeting date: 14 March 2023

Paul Sweeney

That is helpful. Are particular messages needed to offer reassurance around managing diet and activity, so that those things are not seen as some sort of self-flagellation exercise to chase an unobtainable image, but are instead about the person taking control. Is there a powerful public health message that we could push more?

I have previously mentioned in a debate on vaping in the chamber the iconic public health advertisements in the 1990s. I wonder whether we can revisit the ideas behind that, because the advertising was highly effective.