General Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 9 October 2025.
Elizabeth Smith
Conservative
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it being Scottish women and girls in sport week, what financial progress has been made against its 2021-22 programme for government commitment to double its investment in sport to £100 million by the end of the current parliamentary session. (S6O-05045)
Maree Todd
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government’s women and girls in sport week campaign aims to increase the visibility of women and girls in sport, highlight opportunities to get involved and discuss barriers and drivers to participation. The 2025-26 budget underlines our on-going commitment to sport and active living by protecting that investment, despite a challenging economic background. We recognise the significant impact that spending on sport and physical activity has on delivering health outcomes, and doubling the investment in sport and active living during this parliamentary session remains the Scottish Government’s ambition.
Elizabeth Smith
Conservative
The Minister will understand that the Scottish National Party’s 2021 programme for government commitment to double the investment to £100 million substantially raised the hopes of sporting bodies, which have been struggling with resource issues for years. It is little wonder that they are aghast at seeing the figure of around £40 million in the revised autumn budget. Taking away the sportscotland spending of £35 million leaves just under £5 million for the active healthy lives programme. It is worse still when those bodies see that the £40 million figure is lower than the 2021-22 revised autumn budget figure of £44.5 million. Will SNP ministers honour their 2021 programme for government commitment?
Maree Todd
Scottish National Party
I assure Liz Smith and the Parliament as a whole that we meet sports governing bodies regularly and we recognise the challenging situation that they are facing, which is, frankly, worsened by some of the decisions that have been made at Westminster, such as those on employer national insurance contributions, which have added strain to a sector that, as Liz Smith acknowledges, was already in difficulty.
It remains our ambition to double that budget. We have one more Scottish Government budget to go before the end of this parliamentary session. I am very hopeful that, unlike last year, the Scottish Conservatives—who did not previously find it possible to vote for the investment in sport of nearly £50 million—will find it in their hearts not just to support the budget and maintain that investment but to negotiate to increase it. That would be great.
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