It is a great pleasure to close the debate on behalf of Scottish Labour. As many members have done, I begin by thanking the committee, its clerks, its witnesses and those who sent in evidence to tackle this most important question.

Scottish Labour is committed to seeing more women and girls live active lives and participate in sport at all levels. It is important that the committee considered participation from the very start, all the way through to the elite level. As we have heard, it is through such participation that so much good can be done for people’s physical health, mental health and the emotional health that comes from working with friends.

We have heard a number of members speak about involvement in teams or, as Kaukab Stewart put it, the tribe that someone belongs to as they grow up, and the ability to have a group around them who will support them when things go wrong. As I saw at the weekend, that might involve just slipping a football over to someone, but it can be turning to them to get good advice about more substantial matters. It is about a sense of belonging that allows young people to develop and test out their characters as they grow into adulthood.

There is so much that is positive in the committee’s report, from the initial summary in paragraphs 3 to 69 that identifies the importance of breaking down the barriers that women in sport face. Those range from women’s health, which we have heard so much about, to the problems with negative body image to which many members have drawn our attention, and to harassment, safety concerns and access to facilities. Above all, the positive aspects include someone being made to feel welcome when they walk up to a door next to a playing field, a squash club or whatever the sports venue might be, and when someone opens it, smiles and says, “Hello. Come in.” Receiving such a welcome is so important for everyone who participates in something new.

In a number of contributions we heard about the challenges that people face as they get older. It is hard to do something new at any time; it is even harder to do it when a young child does not even know that a sport exists, or when they do not see people who look or talk like them participating in it, or they do not see it on television or on social media or YouTube, which I find my young children watch frequently.

If people do not see those sports being played—like the recent women’s XV rugby tournament in which the Scotland team did so well against the rest of the world—they cannot decide to participate themselves.

The report is huge, and this afternoon’s debate cannot do it justice. It would be good to return to the topic to see where we are in a few months’ time.

There are some areas that were mentioned by several speakers that I would like to pick up on. The first is the issue of negative body image that the convener, Neil Bibby, Ruth Maguire, Brian Whittle and Emma Harper referred to, which comes up in so many reports, and meetings and talks that we have with young women. We hear that it is a real challenge being a young woman and growing up in this world because of the expectation placed on them by mysterious others on social media—or those who apparently earn vast amounts of money and live wonderful lives—about what they should or should not look like.

However, sport is one of those areas that, through just having fun in the playground, growing up and developing an understanding of the support—