Question reference: S6W-25233
- Date lodged: 5 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21777 by Maree Todd on 24 October 2023, what analysis it has undertaken of any reduction in the number of young people participating in sport.
Answer
The Scottish Government and sportscotland passionately believe that sport is for everyone. We should all feel included, and able to take part and access the benefits of sport.
An ongoing priority for the Scottish Government is to support participation across all groups and tackle inequalities in participation.
Currently available Scottish Health Survey data shows that 11-15 year old’s participation in sport appears to have remained stable since pre-covid levels at 65%. Other data that we use to track participation in sport is published by sportscotland.
Recent data published by sportscotland in 2023 shows significantly increased participation levels in their national Active Schools programme, across the past academic year (2022-23), with over 4.6 million visits (a rise of 34% on 2021-22) made to almost 247,000 Active Schools sessions. The number of Active Schools participants (over 269,000 children and young people), deliverers (over 17,900 with 90% of those being volunteers), and school/club links (over 2,500) also increased from the previous academic year as the recovery from covid continued.