That is based on written evidence and evidence that the committee heard in its sessions. Simple things such as lighting in parks or on cycle paths would make them much safer places for women, and they would certainly feel safer there.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to doubling investment in sport and active living to £100 million per year over the current session of Parliament is welcome. However, a significant proportion of that funding needs to be targeted at increasing rates of female participation in sport and physical activity, particularly among those who face intersecting barriers to participation such as disability; ethnic, religious or socioeconomic background; or being from the LGBTQ+ community. On that subject, the committee heard evidence in support of greater use of equality impact assessments to ensure that sports infrastructure and facilities are designed to facilitate access for all.

Imagery and messaging aimed at encouraging greater participation in sport and physical activity should actively promote inclusion and diversity. We should be improving equalities education in schools to help overcome stigma and discrimination that might otherwise discourage girls who face intersecting barriers to their participation in sport and physical activity. Moreover, decision makers need to work together to identify and promote positive role models who properly reflect diversity and inclusion, and to pursue strategies aimed at recruiting a greater diversity of female applicants into coaching and leadership roles.

Although we have come a long way in recent years, there is still much further to go if elite female athletes are to achieve anything approaching parity with their male counterparts. The Scottish Government should consider setting up an independent women’s sport trust for Scotland, which could help grow revenue from women’s sports and reduce reliance on men’s sports for funding.

Women in elite sport need sustainable career pathways that enable them to pursue their sport while earning a sustainable income. The industry also needs to do more to produce clothing and equipment that meet the needs of women in elite sport.

In addition, there is a chronic lack of research into female physiology and the impact of menstruation and women’s health conditions on training and performance. Women in elite sport still lack appropriate support when it comes to decisions around pregnancy. It cannot be right that so many elite female athletes continue to be forced to make a choice between continuing their career and starting a family.

Sexism and abuse are on-going concerns. To address them, our report calls on the Scottish Government to consider setting up an independent body to tackle cases of misconduct and abuse in elite female sport. The media, too, has a crucial role to play in its promotion of women’s elite sport. There has been progress in that respect, but much remains to be done. Shockingly, the Scottish women and girls in sport advisory board’s 2019 report “Levelling the Playing Field” found that more than a fifth of online news articles relating to women’s sport included sexualised reporting and images. That has a hugely damaging impact on self-confidence and self-esteem, and undermines female participation at all levels.

Television sports coverage remains significantly skewed towards male sports. While the quality and quantity of the coverage of major women’s sporting events has improved, levels of coverage outside the window of those events drop to a small fraction of the overall sports coverage in the media. At the same time, there is evidence to suggest that the public has a real appetite for following more women’s sport in the media. The number of people watching TV coverage of women’s sport in the first half of 2022 doubled to more than 36 million compared with the same period a year before.

To further stimulate and encourage growth in coverage of, and public interest in, women’s sport, our report recommends that the Scottish Government consider whether additional public investment might be needed and, if so, where to target it for maximum effect. It would also be helpful to receive an update from the minister on the planned Scottish sport media summit and on what bearing the outcomes from the summit might have on further improving the quality and quantity of future media coverage of elite women’s sport.

For good or ill, social media have an undeniably huge impact on female attitudes to, and engagement with, sport and physical activity. Sports organisations and governing bodies can play an important role in disseminating and amplifying positive messaging around the health benefits of regular participation in sport and physical activity by girls and women, and in challenging misogynistic attitudes and behaviours.

The Scottish Government can also play a role by providing support and guidance around social media strategy development. The United Kingdom Online Safety Act 2023 could also provide a framework for stronger action, including sanctions, to address the harmful impact of the negative body image content that exists on social media.

In order to effectively benchmark progress towards closing the gender-based participation gap, we recommend commissioning a new population-level survey to give us an accurate and comprehensive picture of current rates of participation in sport across all segments of the population. We should also explore incentives to encourage research organisations to direct additional resources towards research in sports science, with a specific focus on women.

In conclusion, I look forward to hearing both the minister’s initial response to the findings of our inquiry and the other contributions in this debate. As our inquiry found, breaking down the many persistent barriers to female participation in sport will require on-going determination and focus.

I move,

That the Parliament notes the recommendations contained in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s 7th Report, 2023 (Session 6), Female participation in sport and physical activity (SP Paper 445).