The Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee has launched an inquiry into the impact COVID-19 restrictions on sports clubs and leisure venues have had on local communities across Scotland.
The Committee’s inquiry is seeking to quantify the various societal benefits that sporting clubs and leisure venues provide their communities. They are asking sport and leisure organisations what support they require to ensure these community services can be maintained.
The inquiry will then examine impacts on individuals and their communities from the reduction or cessation of sporting events, and community-based activities undertaken by sporting organisations. This will include investigating the impact on the mental and physical health of individuals.
Lewis Macdonald MSP, Convener of the Health and Sport Committee, said: “Our sporting and leisure clubs are woven into the fabric of our communities providing a wealth of benefits to our society which so many people rely on.
“But with a ban on mass gatherings since March and with leisure centres closed for much of this time, the Covid-19 pandemic has hit this sector particularly hard. In many cases threatening their very existence and their ability to provide vital community services.
“Our inquiry wants to hear from sporting clubs, organisations and leisure venues on the unprecedented financial challenges they are facing and the support they require to come through this pandemic.
“We are also keen to hear how individuals across Scotland who engage with these institutions and the various community services they provide have been impacted.”
To help inform the inquiry, last week the Committee wrote to the Scottish Government seeking detail on when more fans will be allowed back into football grounds and on the financial challenges facing Scotland’s football clubs.
That letter can be found here:
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