As the convener of the cross-party group on sport, I bring us back to the spirit of sport. I am grateful to Tess White for bringing forth the topic for further discussion, because there is no doubt that it is an important one, as is evidenced in the comments of Sharron Davies and by how much I agree with her.

The issue is also one that has been greatly exercising the minds of all the governing bodies that are represented by the Scottish Sports Association, which acts as the secretariat to the cross-party group. What a wonderful job it does of supporting our sporting bodies and, particularly when it comes to the difficult and sensitive matters, all the volunteers across Scotland, encouraging much more accessible sport, even in difficult circumstances.

Tess White’s debate coincides with this year’s women and girls in sport week. In the past, we have celebrated our national and international female champions, the volunteers who work with women and girls at the grass-roots level and all those who work so hard to make our sporting facilities more accessible to women and girls.

This year’s theme is leadership, which can mean lots of different things. Leadership can mean someone who is the captain of a team, a successful team that inspires others or someone who is taking up sport for the very first time. However, for me, it is also about the courage and determination to overcome some of the barriers that are faced by women and girls. The motion is so important because there are several serious barriers in the way of many women and girls, not least of which is their own personal safety.

I hope that I can speak to the chamber with my many years of considerable experience—perhaps too many to recall—of coaching several different sports where, for eminently sensible and practical reasons of personal safety, decisions had to be made about whether mixed teams were the better option or whether teams should be organised on a female or male basis. I note that those sensible and practical reasons about personal safety are exactly the same ones that are used by sporting bodies when addressing the current controversies. As the cross-party group convener, I support that.

Tess White’s motion and her speech have rightly identified the extent of the current controversies. I agree that it is not just a question of safety; it is one of fairness. She is right to highlight the concerns from the recent Olympics regarding gender eligibility, most especially in the very high-profile cases in boxing and athletics, although perhaps some of us take a very different perspective on that. Tess White is also right to highlight the reactions from some of the world governing bodies that have decided to take action to prevent transgender participation in female sport, pending further research, and the reaction of the UN special rapporteur, to say nothing of the reaction from female and, indeed, male athletes.

I want to finish on the motion’s last point—namely, the need for an open and transparent debate in which no one feels unable to speak up. In my very long experience in sport, we can never succeed if controversy gets in the way of what sport is supposed to be all about.