Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, May 17, 2012

Official Report 1184KB pdf

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Physical Activity

The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-02904, in the name of Shona Robison, on meeting the challenge—physical activity and its contribution to tackling obesity. I call Shona Robison to speak to and move the motion. Minister, you have 13 minutes.

14:56

I am pleased to open the debate by exploring the significant challenge that obesity presents to Scotland and the Scottish people. I will also set out how physical activity contributes to tackling the problem.

Obesity levels are rising internationally, and Scotland is not alone in facing what has the potential to be one of the most difficult health challenges that we will see in our lifetime. I will put the issue in context. We have made good progress on a number of public health interventions, from smoking cessation to our approach to reducing alcohol consumption. Obesity is one of the next challenges for us, because our obesity levels are the third worst among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, behind the United States of America and Mexico. That is the stark reality that we face.

I am sure that all members will agree that the rationale for addressing obesity is compelling, not just for our national good but for the health of every individual in our communities. If we were to do nothing, the direct cost to Scotland by 2030 would be around 70,000 more type 2 diabetes cases, 400,000 cases of hypertension and 21,000 more heart attacks. Those are frightening statistics, but it gets worse because as well as obesity having a direct impact on the health of individuals, it is likely that if obesity levels continue to rise the cost to the Scottish economy will be around £3 billion, or 2 per cent of Scotland’s gross domestic product by 2030.

That is why we set out our approach in 2010 in the preventing overweight and obesity route map, which outlines our commitment to addressing the main challenges of obesity through four themes: energy in, the working age population, early years intervention and energy out, which is the focus of this debate. It is more than two years since we published the route map, and I intend to bring back to Parliament a full and comprehensive update report next year on the progress that we have made.

Although our progress in a relatively short time is welcome, we need a transformational change to shift our culture. We aim to achieve our aspiration of the majority of Scots being in a normal weight range by 2030. Our national strategy will help us to deliver that, but it is important to re-emphasise that it will not be achieved overnight or even within the lifetime of this Parliament.

The report “Growing Up in Scotland: Overweight, Obesity and Activity”, which was published last week by the Medical Research Council, reinforced the challenge as it showed that 22 per cent of six-year-olds have been found to be overweight. The report also showed that the majority of them had already been classed as overweight at four years old, which underlines the importance of addressing the issue.

Members will be aware that we introduced a child’s healthy weight health improvement, efficiency, access and treatment target in 2008 in recognition of the seriousness of the problem. More than 8,000 children have been engaged in locally based interventions and we have established a new target of more than 14,000 children coming through programmes over the next three years. That builds on and complements our recent take life on campaign, which targets families. We know that habits that are formed in childhood and adolescence continue into adulthood. Interestingly, evaluation of last year’s take life on campaign resulted in 76 per cent of parents encouraging their children to be more active and 59 per cent doing more physical activity with their children. We hope to build on that successful model in the future.

It is recognised internationally that overall physical activity levels are declining, but Scotland is bucking the trend—albeit with small increases—in the number of adults who are active. Scotland has made every effort to push ahead with international best practice, and I am pleased to inform members that we have taken action in all the areas that are recommended in the European Union policy guidelines on physical activity.

Increasing physical activity on its own is not the solution to obesity, but I firmly believe that, as part of a wider programme of interventions, it will go a significant way towards achieving lasting results and will improve health outcomes. Physical inactivity is one of our major health challenges and contributes to nearly 2,500 deaths in Scotland each year. The cost to the national health service is around £91 million each year, and a further £58 million is associated with the cost of medicines to treat conditions that are associated with physical inactivity. I find it astonishing that, although many other health risks are commonly understood, physical inactivity, although one of the major causes of mortality, is largely overlooked. I will return to that later.

According to the World Health Organization, physical inactivity is the fourth leading health-risk factor and accounts for 6 per cent of all deaths globally, placing it behind hypertension, tobacco and high blood sugar. Last year, the four United Kingdom chief medical officers published their guidelines, which stated that adults should be active for at least 30 minutes at least five times a week, and that children should be active for 60 minutes every day. Evidence tells us that meeting the minimum target in the guidelines will reduce overall mortality by 30 per cent and that 30 minutes of walking daily provides more protection against death than any preventative medication. Put simply, if physical activity could be bottled and sold as a drug, it would without doubt be a superdrug.

We are making progress, with 39 per cent of adults now meeting the recommendations in the guidelines, which is up from 37 per cent in 2009. However, the biggest progress is being made among teenage girls, for whom the figure has steadily increased from 64 per cent in 2008 to 70 per cent in 2010. That demonstrates that our targeted investment in that group is delivering results.

Let me turn to what we intend to do to drive forward progress. Resources are crucial to achievement of results. I am delighted to announce that, despite the difficult financial environment and budgets being under pressure, we are maintaining the physical activity budget at £3.3 million per year for the next three years. We are also working with our delivery partners to introduce a more creative and innovative approach in this area. That builds on the success that we have delivered so far and includes continued investment in Scottish Athletics to support the jogscotland programme, which has over 430 jogging groups with almost 22,000 members. That approach is consistent with improving the alignment of sport and physical activity.

We are also providing a substantial investment of £1.2 million each year to the Paths for All Partnership, which delivers a walking programme throughout Scotland and has a proven track record in engaging older Scots in particular. That recognises the tangible benefits that arise from providing older people with opportunities to be active and builds on the evidence of previous investment. We are also delivering efficiencies by aligning the Paths for All Partnership’s activity with other walking projects to build on their ability to deliver more than 11,000 people regularly taking part in the 440 community walking schemes throughout Scotland.

I have been taken with the overwhelming evidence of the health benefits that come from walking, which is why I am delighted to announce the development of a national walking strategy that will set out our ambition and aspiration to ensure that the support and infrastructure is in place to maximise the opportunities for everyone to walk.

We have also listened to the people of Scotland and increased the sustainable transport budget. That will help to develop the infrastructure of the national cycle network, which covers 2,000 miles and was responsible for 40 million journeys in 2010. The network is important because it connects communities and provides cycling opportunities. That is why I am happy to accept Alison Johnstone’s amendment.

We will continue to use the excitement of the Commonwealth games and other events to deliver a legacy and to build on the success that we are already achieving. A major plank of the work is our focus on schools and the early years, and our commitment to deliver two hours of physical education for every primary school pupil and two periods for every secondary school pupil is only part of the story. Although we are making progress, with 64 per cent of primary schools and 67 per cent of secondary schools meeting the target, we are determined to do more. That is why we have made available to local authorities nearly £6 million of additional support to ensure that the gap is closed by 2014.

The work forms an important part of our approach to early years intervention. It is designed to raise awareness and to educate young people about the importance of being physically active. The work includes dance, swimming and education projects and it builds on lessons that have been learned in our successful active schools programme, which has delivered 5 million opportunities to children and more than 79 different activities.

We are also developing an active girls programme, which will be supported by about £1.5 million over the next three years, to build on the success of a number of dance-related projects that are aimed at teenage girls.

Community sports hubs also play an important part, and the 57 that are in place, many of which are based in schools, are increasing opportunities to be active. That is consistent with our desire to open up the school estate and ensure that all communities have access to local school facilities. We aim to build on the good progress through the new school sports award that will be launched shortly to recognise and celebrate best practice in schools.

However, I want to do more. Although about 43 patient referral mechanisms are already in place throughout Scotland, there is an opportunity to formalise the links and pathways between NHS referral and physical activity opportunities at community level. To that end, we will work with the Royal College of General Practitioners to develop a patient centred high-quality general practitioner intervention that will build on and complement existing referral systems. Up to £100,000 will be made available to support an exciting new approach to a health intervention that will seek to adopt a more intensive approach that will test a mix of rural and urban models. It will explore individual health risks and lifestyle choices and it will be delivered alongside an appropriate referral mechanism to community sports hubs, leisure centres, walking groups and sports clubs. It will also inform our approach for future referral and support.

I can also announce that work is being done to draw up an implementation plan for the Scottish version of the Toronto charter, which is the gold standard of international best practice for investment in physical activity. That model was published in 2010 and it is internationally recognised as being revolutionary because it systematically explores the evidence to inform public policy investment by determining what works and what does not, through the lens of physical activity. The charter has the potential to deliver lasting results and to achieve the culture shift that we need in order to reduce both the financial costs and the human costs of inactivity.

We all enjoy a lifestyle and an environment that encourage us to be inactive and to overconsume. It will require a shift in culture and thinking to translate that into a position in which being active becomes normal for everyone. I want Scotland to be transformed and to become internationally recognised as an active society, but that has to start with how we see ourselves and Scotland. The work that I have described should be open to scrutiny and review, and that is why I am committed to coming back to Parliament regularly to report on how we are progressing with the challenge of obesity. I am pleased to commend the motion to Parliament.

I move,

That the Parliament notes the detrimental health impact that obesity can have on individuals, including an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, and the strain that it places on NHS resources and the wider economy; acknowledges the key contribution that physical activity can make to tackling these issues; recognises that, in Scotland, levels of participation in physical activity are increasing, defying the international trend; welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to and initiatives promoting and encouraging physical activity across all Scottish communities; notes the scale of the challenge in getting people more active, and supports the drive to create a lasting active legacy for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

15:09

No matter what age each of us is, I am sure that, if we individually thought back to our own childhood, we would agree that our lives are significantly different from those of our mothers and fathers. In the majority of cases, the energy that our parents expended going about their daily lives was significantly greater than that which we expend. Most men in my father’s age group worked in manual jobs and travelled by public transport, and they often had a walk at either end of their journey. Mothers carried home shopping every day because freezers were not commonly available. If they had employment outside the house, they often came home knowing that they still had several hours of cooking and cleaning ahead of them without many of the labour-saving devices that we take for granted. The children with whom I grew up walked to school every day, and we played with our friends outside the home every moment that we could in sun, rain or snow. We seemed to walk for miles. Indeed, studies show that, per person per year, people walked 63 miles less in 2003 than they did in 1975. Our working, home and school lives involved much more built-in activity.

My point is that our lives and lifestyles have changed so significantly over such a relatively short period of time that we have hardly noticed, and our physical activity levels have dropped to a point that is seriously bad for us. The fact that the problem is relatively recent might account for so little having been written about it and there having been so little interest in the area until recently.

We know that inactivity contributes to heart disease, strokes, diabetes and some cancers as well as to mental health problems. Therefore, it is important that we all consider our lifestyles and increase the amount of energy that we expend. For that reason, we have every sympathy with Alison Johnstone’s amendment, and we will vote for it at 5 o’clock.

Some studies have suggested that the walkability of local neighbourhoods is directly related to physical activity levels and that the promotion of physical activity should be a key element of urban planning in the future. Being active often also encourages us to be more interactive with our families, neighbours and friends. It can be particularly important for older people, who can all too easily become isolated. I think that that is the point of the Greens’ amendment, and I look forward to hearing what Alison Johnstone has to say about it. We would all do well to remember what I have said when we talk about planning in the various committees and levels of the Parliament.

The health benefits of activity are undisputed and the relationship between poor health and inactivity is clear, but we are debating the link between obesity and inactivity. We must bear in mind that there is conflicting evidence on that. There are studies, including one that was carried out in Plymouth over a period of 11 years, that seem to show that it was not so much a lack of exercise that caused children to gain weight, but that they became less active because they had become heavier. My colleague Dr Richard Simpson will address that issue more fully in his contribution. However, whether obesity and activity are linked as closely as the motion suggests, it is absolutely clear that being overweight or obese is very bad for a person and that being active is good.

I have drawn members’ attention before to a statistic that worries me, and I make no apology for doing so again. It is a fact that, until the age of 12, boys and girls are as active as each other, but at the age of 12 or thereabouts, girls stop being active and almost immediately drop to a level that their male counterparts do not reach until they are 40. Therefore, we need to continue to encourage young women and girls to find new ways to increase their participation, whether in dance, Zumba, cheerleading or organised sport. I welcome the minister’s comments in that regard.

Most of those young women will go on to become mothers, and statistics show that children are more likely to be overweight and inactive if their mothers are overweight and inactive. It is frightening that many parents do not recognise obesity in their own children. Understandably, they do not want to admit that there is an issue and a problem in that regard. We need to ensure that support and help are given to those families. We need to break that cycle and if we can use the Commonwealth games and indeed the Olympic games to spur people on to become involved in sport, in dance or in just walking more often we should do so.

We must instil better eating habits in our young people. After all, our nation seems to have not only a unique and dangerous relationship with alcohol but a particular obsession with fast food. I am genuinely depressed at the number of young people to be found queueing outside fast-food outlets at lunch time, particularly as many of them are school or college students. We all enjoy the occasional curry or fish supper but, when it is a person’s daily lunch time meal, it is not good for their health and cannot be good for concentration levels after lunch and, in turn, overall attainment levels.

As a result, we must actively combat the twin evils of bad diet and low activity levels.

A number of authorities in Scotland have taken policy decisions to refuse hot food licences within a certain distance of school establishments. Does Patricia Ferguson agree that that is one way of combating the queues of schoolchildren outside fast-food outlets that she mentioned?

I certainly think so. However, we must also ensure that the food that is offered in schools is appetising enough to encourage young people to stay and eat it, instead of leaving the school in the way that the member has indicated.

Breakfast clubs, which were an early first step in my area, have had a significant effect on local school pupils’ eating habits. Instead of—as is often the case—skipping breakfast altogether, the children who attend the clubs are encouraged to have fruit and cereal in the morning. They are also encouraged to get into the habit of brushing their teeth regularly, with the knock-on effect of a reduction in the number of primary school students needing treatment for dental caries. Again, that must be a good thing.

Although I find the Scottish Government’s motion optimistic, I have to say that the minister has backed it up with some very interesting information on current Scottish trends and I am pleased to hear that we appear to be bucking the trend in activity, if not in obesity. Of course, that is often due to the initiative of local groups and the encouragement that they get from local authorities and community planning partnerships, which understand the benefits of increased participation in local communities.

At this point, I want to mention the North Glasgow Healthy Living Community in my constituency, which organises a range of activities over the year. The most notable is probably the annual 5K, in which I have taken part for the past four or five years—and, in case anyone doubts that, I have the medals to prove it. I am usually in the walking category but the event is also attended by those who are wheelchair bound, families with their buggies and so on. It is a fantastically social occasion and a good way of getting people out to enjoy the fresh air. The event is supplemented by 1Ks for local primary school pupils and attendance levels are remarkable. Literally thousands of people have taken part in those events over the years and I am always delighted to be a part of them.

Both our amendment and that of the Conservatives seek to remind the minister that her Government has still a long way to go to deliver on its PE pledge. Not only has the commitment been watered down, but even the watered-down target is nowhere near being achieved.

Will the member give way?

Unfortunately, I am in my last minute. I am sure that the minister will take the chance to respond later.

We accept that PE is not the only factor in creating a healthier and more active nation; nevertheless, it is a good place to start, although I stress that it must be PE of good quality. Indeed, my colleague Mark Griffin will say more about that later. As PE classes in schools are often where we find tomorrow’s sporting stars and those who will inspire future generations of young people and encourage them to become active, I sincerely hope that the Scottish Government will refocus its efforts and its activity to deliver that important pledge. That said, I welcome the minister’s announcements and look forward to hearing more about them and having a very constructive debate about their content in the weeks and months ahead.

I move amendment S4M-02094.3, to insert at end:

“but, in noting the importance of establishing good habits of physical activity from an early age, regrets that the SNP’s manifesto pledge of two hours per week of quality physical education has been delayed and watered down.”

I call Nanette Milne. You have six minutes, but there is time if you feel inclined to take interventions.

15:19

No one can doubt the need for action to address the increasing problem of obesity in this country, whose health consequences are well known and cannot be overstated. As we have heard, ISD Scotland published figures on childhood obesity only last week that revealed that 21.4 per cent of primary 1 children in the academic year 2010-11 had a body mass index that put them in the overweight bracket. The proportion of obese pupils was up from 9.5 to 9.6 per cent and it is particularly worrying that the number with severe obesity has risen from 5.4 to 5.5 per cent. It is a shocking indictment that more than 5 per cent of Scotland’s young people are severely obese.

Almost a quarter of women and just over a fifth of men in the UK are already classed as obese—those are the highest figures in Europe. Experts predict that, on current trends, 48 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women will be in the obese bracket by 2030 and many more will be classed as overweight. Surely we must prevent that prediction from becoming a reality.

I am a bit of an expert on the subject, in which I have practical experience. One issue in relation to obesity is that proper care is not provided at the very early stages. When I was a child, my mother fed me double doses of milk, which the NHS did not really pick up or follow through. That means that I have been overweight throughout my life. Does the member agree that, to prevent obesity, we need to tackle that important issue at a very early stage?

I am coming to that matter. I agree absolutely with the member. I, too, was an overfed young baby. As I get older, I struggle to keep my weight in the right place.

There is no doubt that physical wellbeing and maintaining a healthy weight depend largely on the combination of a well-balanced healthy diet and a physically active lifestyle and that the problem of obesity must be tackled on both those fronts. In yesterday afternoon’s debate on the development of a national parenting strategy, it was emphasised that parenting starts pre-conception and continues through to adult life. I am in no doubt that encouragement and support for an active and healthy lifestyle should be an integral part of parenting. Being overweight is often a family problem, and finding a solution to overweight children often starts with a family making changes together for a healthy family lifestyle.

I welcome today’s debate and the Government’s commitment to promoting and encouraging initiatives to increase physical activity in all Scottish communities. There are many examples of good practice across the country, but we have a very long way to go. The Government’s obesity route map and the actions that are being taken in line with its principles are a good template for where we should go, but I agree with the Ramblers Association that

“action at a population level is required to support wholesale behaviour change country wide to enable the nation to live healthier lifestyles as a default choice, and this preventative action needs appropriate levels of investment.”

That investment must start with our children. If they are encouraged from an early age to be physically active, they are likely to maintain that pattern throughout life and to pass on that lifestyle to future generations once they become adults.

We should seek to remove the barriers to physical activity that many children face nowadays. Our risk-averse, health-and-safety-conscious and litigious society results in many young children being kept indoors, glued to television and computer screens, because of our natural fear of traffic hazards, predatory adults or the discarded equipment of those who depend on injected drugs.

Children are driven to playgroup, nursery and school, and they might well be prevented from taking part in the rough-and-tumble playground games that taught previous generations of children how to protect themselves as they grew up to face life’s hazards. Near home, children face signs that say, “No Ball Games”, “No Golf Practice” and suchlike, because they have not been taught how to behave responsibly outdoors or how to respect their neighbours.

I realise that I sound old-fashioned, but I feel strongly that children should be given freedom—within reasonable limits—to experience informal outdoor activity and interaction with their peers. It is not natural for a young animal to sit still—most want to be active—so it is concerning that the most recent Scottish health survey showed that as many as 28 per cent of children do not undertake the recommended amount of physical activity each day.

That brings me to my amendment, which is on physical education provision for schoolchildren. I note the cross-party consensus on that, about which I am delighted. The Government’s election pledge five years ago to provide two hours of physical education per week for Scottish pupils was welcome and we are all extremely disappointed that so far it has not been achieved. It might be the case that, as the motion says,

“levels of participation in physical activity are increasing, defying the international trend”,

but we need to remind the Government that there is no room for complacency and that it should be looking to implement its manifesto commitment.

Action is being taken in many communities to improve levels of physical activity. Members were given examples ahead of the debate by Ramblers Association Scotland, which I know will be delighted by the commitment that the minister gave to the development of a national walking strategy. We have been given evidence by the Paths for All Partnership and the Scottish Sports Association. Yesterday evening, there was an excellent presentation from the inclusive design for getting outdoors consortium, on how older people can be encouraged to undertake regular activity.

In my area, I immediately think of the parents who are organising a walking bus to school, of groups such as the Grampian Cardiac Rehabilitation Association, and of Aberdeen Sports Village, which runs a hugely popular aerobics class for retired people—the class is fully subscribed every week and there is a waiting list to join it. The sports village is one of the best-ever developments in Aberdeen and is busy every day of the week with people of all ages undertaking various kinds of exercise.

My party has committed to a charitable trust fund to give all pupils in Scotland the opportunity to receive at least one full week of residential outdoor education between the ages of 11 and 15, and to opportunities for greater participation in grass-roots sports.

Everyone can take exercise, whether they are children playing hide-and-seek or other active games or adults walking to work, walking instead of using the lift to go upstairs—and downstairs, as I see some of the young researchers in the Parliament building doing—cycling or participating in organised sport. The imminence of the Olympic games and Commonwealth games presents an ideal opportunity to promote physical activity as the best possible legacy of the events.

The minister announced interesting initiatives, which I hope will be successful. I look forward to hearing how they progress.

I move amendment S4M-02904.2, to insert, after “trend”:

“notes, however, that the Scottish Government has not succeeded in delivering on its 2007 pledge to provide two hours of physical education per week for all school children in Scotland, but”.

15:27

I really welcome this debate. It is essential that we understand the challenges that obesity currently poses to our national health and the devastating impact that it will have in future if we do not do all that we can do.

We have shared—and I am sure that we will continue to share—many facts and figures during the debate, many of which cause great concern. We need to hear them, because they will act as a catalyst and a strong call to action. That is important, because obesity limits the lives and life chances of too many Scots and is costing us a fortune—socially and economically.

There are many consequences of having an obese population, including human suffering and an increase in the demand for and cost of healthcare services. The British Medical Association said in its briefing for the debate that obesity-related illnesses cost the NHS in Scotland in the region of £171 million in 2003. Given the increase just in the numbers of people who have type 2 diabetes, the cost has increased markedly, as the minister noted.

Scotland has one of the highest levels of obesity in the OECD countries, with more than a million obese adults and more than 150,000 obese children. Six in 10 adults and three in 10 children are obese. The increase in the obese population did not happen overnight. Earlier this week, a programme on television documented life in the 1970s. I was struck by the scenes of jubilant Scottish fans celebrating a good result in a home international football match in 1977; I was also struck by the generally trim body shape of the people who were celebrating. What has changed, and what can we do about it?

Professor Philip James, the chair of the international obesity task force, thinks that we have created an obesogenic environment, which has made it difficult not to become overweight, and that factors outwith individuals’ control are having an impact. For example, designing towns and cities around the car has had an impact on the number of people who walk to and from work and to shops—Patricia Ferguson touched on that. Our lifestyles are increasingly sedentary, with the increase in desk jobs and the attraction of couch-potato recreation choices such as TV, surfing the web and video gaming. Our best intentions are constantly challenged by a marketing-savvy food industry that encourages consumption of unhealthy food items, with children being particularly manipulated.

Dr Dennis Bramble and Dr Carrier of the University of Utah, and Dr Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University, have studied the impact of running on the human body and, indeed, on human evolution. Their studies investigate the impact of the fact that we no longer need to use our bodies in the way that our hunter-gatherer ancestors did, and how successful we have been in developing technology and equipment that turn lazing around into a way of life. Let us be honest: how many of us do not use the remote control to turn the TV channel?

Dr Bramble notes that humans have a mind/body conflict. He says that

“we have a body built for performance, but a brain that’s always looking for efficiency.”

We conserve energy as a survival mechanism, so encouraging physical activity, among many Scots, is hugely challenging. However, an active life must become our way of life—physical activity is a habit that Scotland must cultivate. The western diseases that shorten so many lives were largely unknown to our ancestors, as were plasma TVs, bath-size tubs of popcorn, and super-size junk food offerings.

As the Ramblers Association points out, six out of 10 adults and 28 per cent of children do not meet minimum recommended physical activity levels of moderate physical activity. Walking is free—it does not need any equipment. Living Streets notes that 22 per cent of households on less than £10,000 use walking as their main mode of transport, compared with only 8 per cent of those with income more than £40,000. On the school run every morning, I walk or cycle along the Union canal. Those 15 minutes are some of the best-quality time that I can spend in the week. I welcome the fact that 80 per cent of people joining the Paths for All Partnership’s walking groups are women, because women are disproportionately uninvolved in sport and physical activity.

What is to be done? We have a national plan and we have to implement it. We can reduce obesity by investing 10 per cent of our transport budget on active travel, as recommended by the Association of Directors of Public Health. We need to ensure that the Government target of 10 per cent of trips being taken by bike in 2020 is achieved. We need to ensure that all our pupils receive a minimum of two hours per week of PE. Some schools go way beyond that, but schools such as South Morningside primary school, in Edinburgh, have space constraints and high pupil numbers, which make that very difficult.

It is essential that national and local government continue to work together to provide solutions if we are to achieve that target. Active schools is doing a great job, letting school pupils try a wide variety of sports and physical activities, such as street dance. Active schools’ charges are low, but if someone has two or three children and is on a tight budget, those charges for extra-curricular activity might be off-putting, or simply unaffordable.

Concern around costs in local authority provision exists, too. Squeezed family budgets and reduced incomes affect the ability of people to take part in formal organised sport and fitness activity. I want the Government and local authorities to work together to ensure that such facilities are affordable.

Despite many opportunities to use brownfield sites, open green space continues to be under pressure from development. Young and old alike need access to informal green space if they are to benefit from important unstructured activities—from rounders, to just pottering around, to goalie-when.

I ask you to come to a conclusion, please.

I thank the minister for her intention to support my amendment. I move amendment S4M-02904.1, to insert after the first “active”:

”; considers physical activity among children and young people to be a priority; recognises the important role that the design of the built environment, active travel and access to open space have in promoting a culture of informal physical activity; considers improving facilities and reducing costs to users to be preventative spend and key to enhancing participation in sport and physical activity”.

We come to the open debate. Speeches should be of six minutes.

15:33

I thank the minister and the Government for lodging the motion. I also thank them for grasping the nettle of obesity and for the couple of reports that were produced in the previous session of Parliament. Those reports set out some new groundwork, which was commendable.

We also have an action plan, to which others have referred, which I think runs to some 15 pages. I will go briefly through a few parts of that action plan and reflect on how the plan affects my part of the world.

Patricia Ferguson said that this is a particularly urban issue—I hope that I did not overstate that. I want to make the point that this is not just an urban issue. If someone lives in a relatively small town, once they have walked across the town and come back again, there is not very far for them to walk. Different places have different problems and different constraints, and we need to address them all.

I want to make it absolutely plain, in case it is not obvious, that exercise is a personal issue. When I go back to my office this afternoon, the choice of whether I take the stairs or use the lift is—providing that the lift has not broken down—my personal choice. As we talk about social effects, places, social constraints and the obesogenic environment—all of which are perfectly valid points—we have to remember that the amount of exercise that we do is entirely up to us, as is our diet. However, we must accept that we all live in varied circumstances and that we cannot force people to exercise, which means that we must ensure that we have an appropriate strategy that covers everybody.

As a preliminary point, I state that I recognise, as others have, that our society has reached a point at which being overweight has become normalised. Parents might simply not recognise that their children, and they themselves, are overweight.

The action plan places considerable emphasis on cycling. I make the obvious point that cycling is not very safe when cyclists have to share the road with cars. Cycling is at its safest and arguably at its best when there is a dedicated cycle route. I live in Brechin, in my constituency, which is approximately 10 miles from Montrose in one direction, 10 miles from Forfar in the other direction and 10 miles south of Laurencekirk. Those are all journeys that my constituents could make—for work or pleasure—by bike if they did not have to compete with cars either on main roads or on twisty minor roads, which each pose different dangers.

I note that, around the country, there are many unused railway lines. Dr Beeching might have given us part of the solution. There are many areas where putting a cycle track along an old railway line would go a long way towards providing dedicated cycle routes, which would help many of us.

The same thing applies when it comes to walking. I made the point that the issues around exercise might not only be of concern in urban areas. My wife and I frequently go walking, and we need to be able to go places where we are not competing with cars or barbed wire. Even in Brechin, which is a relatively wee place, it is not necessarily easy to find many of those places, and we tend to finish up on the same circuit.

I live in a wonderful environment in which crime is almost unknown. I recognise that many Scots do not live in such an environment, and I also recognise, therefore, that providing a safe environment in which people can go for a recreational walk is crucial and may in fact be the overwhelming factor in many urban settings.

Does Mr Don accept that, in itself, simply having more people walking in their community—rather than feeling that they have to go somewhere else, because they do not feel safe in their area—helps to enhance the safety of that area, and that streets and paths that are walked more often become safer just because people are choosing to do that?

The member makes a fair point. A busy, occupied space is a much safer space—until, of course, it becomes so crowded that the pickpocket has a field day.

The action plan mentions attractive green spaces, and I make the point that Scotland is an attractive and green place. If people can get out there, they can go on wonderful walks. Over the past week, those of us whose local paper is The Courier will have received some wee booklets about walks in Scotland. My wife and I realised that we had done many of them. However, we also realised that it was hard for people to get to them if there is no suitable bus access. We need to address that issue. If we want to get people out of cars we have to ensure that they do not need cars, and having bus routes to the right places is part of that.

My time is running out, but I would like to make one more point. We have many public facilities. Surely schools in particular should be accessible out of hours. I know that that point is clearly understood, but we need to work on it to ensure that sports facilities are as usable as possible by the local community.

15:40

Obesity is a major problem in Scotland. We have one of the highest rates of obesity—only the United States of America and Mexico have higher levels. The latest Scottish Government figures, in 2010, show that 27.4 per cent of those aged 16 to 64 were considered obese, which is a rise of 10.2 per cent since 1995. On average, the percentages were slightly higher for children. According to the Scottish health survey, 32.5 per cent of children had a BMI outwith the healthy range.

More worryingly, “Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland” estimates that by 2030, 40 per cent of the adult population in Scotland will be obese. Obesity not only increases the risk of diabetes but leads to high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart attacks. The projected increases by 2030 in all of those show concerning trends. Furthermore, there is the pressure on the health service’s resources. The report estimates that NHS costs will have doubled by 2030. I am sure that the scale of the problem is clear to everyone in the chamber. The real issue is what we can do to reverse those trends so that the 2030 predictions do not come to pass.

Physical activity is important, but it is not the only way to tackle obesity. First, we need to raise awareness of the issue. The recent growing up in Scotland study found that nine out of 10 parents with obese or overweight children did not recognise that there was a problem. That is a worrying statistic and would seem to suggest that we are failing to raise awareness and educate parents effectively so that they raise the next generation to have healthy eating habits and active lifestyles.

Secondly, we need to promote the benefits of breastfeeding. Audit Scotland’s 2010-11 overview of the NHS showed that many NHS services were failing to meet breastfeeding targets. It is clear that more work needs to be done in that area to encourage and promote breastfeeding.

A recent study carried out by the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland found that

“children who had been breast-fed for three to six months were 38 per cent less likely to be obese at nine years of age compared to exclusively formula-fed children. Those breast-fed for six months or more were 51 per cent less likely to be obese.”

Numerous studies throughout the world have come to the same conclusion. We need to do more to promote breastfeeding in Scotland.

Continuing the catch-them-young theme, the jumpstart programme run by NHS Ayrshire and Arran holds activities all around Ayrshire for kids aged from five to 15, encouraging them to eat more healthily and exercise more. Starting at five means that those children develop healthier lifestyles that become the norm, and they take that with them throughout their lives. Jumpstart is a 10-week programme that consists of a range of fun activities and allows the children to make new friends. Parents, too, benefit by discussing ideas, sharing tips and getting tailor-made programmes to use at home for their child. Once they have completed the course, children who took part get a free pass for a local leisure centre for six months.

So far the programme has been a great success. As of November 2011, 550 children and young people have taken part, and the numbers have been increasing. The spin-off is that parents are getting involved and learning about obesity and the associated problems, too.

The successful jumpstart programme’s popularity was spread mainly through word of mouth. Programmes such as that, which raise awareness and help tackle obesity, could reach many more young people if we put more effort into promoting them.

The forthcoming Commonwealth games offer an excellent opportunity to develop activity programmes and raise awareness of obesity, but we must ensure that all parts of Scotland benefit, rather than focusing solely on areas where the games are taking place.

I welcome the minister’s announcements today. However, the Government is failing to meet its pre-election pledge from the 2007 Scottish National Party manifesto, in which it promised to

“ensure that every pupil has 2 hours of quality PE each week delivered by specialist PE teachers.”

In November 2010, it was reported that only 55 per cent of primary school children and 23 per cent of secondary 1 to secondary 4 pupils were getting that amount of PE, and that, in most cases, it was not being delivered by specialist PE teachers.

Despite the Government pulling money from the education budget and sportscotland to provide local authorities with additional resources, that pledge has now been watered down to just two periods per week for S1 to S4 pupils.

We all understand that money is tight, but it would make more sense to spend to save: to be more efficient in supporting and promoting healthy and active lifestyles, and in so doing to reduce obesity.

We cannot afford to fail, and we need to do more to ensure that we prevent the 2030 predictions from coming true.

I must ask the member to conclude.

We need to become more effective at preventing obesity rather than just dealing with the consequences later. The clock is ticking, and we need to get that right.

15:46

Obesity is a highly complex matter and a difficult subject to tackle, due to the number of factors that are involved. If we had a simple cause, we would have a simple solution. Two of the main causes of obesity are the type of food that is eaten and the overconsumption of food.

It is difficult to define the facts in relation to that simple statement, however. For instance, those who exert themselves in physical exercise or sport can eat more, but they must pay close attention to what they digest and when. That is because there must be a balance between eating and exercise, as well as the need to eat at regular intervals. If that does not happen, the balance of weight can go hopelessly wrong, even for top athletes.

One of the major challenges is the eating habits and exercise of children today. Again, that is not just about what they eat and when, although that is vital. The food must also be healthy. Another important aspect of today’s eating habits is the manner in which children and adults consume their food. How many of us have our meals sitting in front of the television at irregular intervals, rather than eating at the table in an organised manner at roughly the same time every day? That sounds easy to achieve, but working parents find that time is not on their side with regard to organising such regular meals.

We must also contend with the modern entertainment that is so readily available to children. There is wall to wall children’s television, most of which is highly entertaining and highly successful in attracting audiences, from very young children to young adults. Children can also sit on the sofa with their hand-held consoles, game choices for which run into the tens of thousands and cater for practically everyone from cradle to grave.

My daughter, who attends gymnastics three days a week, still has her eye firmly fixed on her Nintendo DS. She can master that at the same time as playing the part of Hannah Montana as she recites songs sung on TV by the US star. It takes her mum or me to encourage other pursuits to prevent overindulgence, so I know that such matters are difficult for many families.

However, if we can take steps to make a difference and tackle long-term obesity, perhaps we can have some success with our children, as they are more likely to react positively if the message is consistent and the messenger is a person to be trusted. The starting point must therefore be with parents, guardians and schools. When it comes to schools, without a doubt a great passport to avoiding obesity is sport and exercise. It is good to know that 55 per cent of primary schools get two hours of PE per week, which compares with only 5 per cent of primary schools in 2005. Meanwhile, 60 per cent of secondary school pupils get at least two periods of PE a week. As has been highlighted, we must go further and do much better than we do now. I therefore welcome the assistance and support from sportscotland, which will add £3.4 million. That is bound to help to reach 100 per cent of pupils, a target that members certainly all want to achieve.

We must explain the consequences of obesity to the responsible persons in a child’s life. There is the real prospect of very serious health conditions, such as diabetes, which can cause blindness and loss of limbs. I am fairly certain that many parents are completely unaware of the dangers involved in obesity in children and that they have no idea that they are literally feeding their children to death and, at the same time, not encouraging them to do at least the minimum amount of sport or exercise.

Unfortunately, the statistics show that unhealthy parents who are overweight or obese are likely to have overweight or obese children, so we also need the parents to participate in sport and exercise.

However, it should not be only doom and gloom stories that are portrayed. The benefits gained from tackling obesity and winning over it should be the overriding goal and target. It should not be about just how children look, but how they feel about themselves. Losing their extra weight will breed confidence and will benefit not only their health, but their outlook in life and their future prospects. I believe that girls, who may be mothers, will respond positively to the message that they can look forward to being an adult, to a healthy life and to bringing children of their own into the world.

It is just possible that the children can lead the way. If we can get it right with our children, perhaps they will lead their parents to a better, healthier life.

15:52

I thoroughly enjoyed Alison Johnstone’s speech and I am happy that we will back her amendment at decision time. She speaks with great authority on the issue. I have had many discussions with her about sport, on Twitter and in private.

Patricia Ferguson made the interesting point that we walked 63 miles a year less in 2003 than we did in 1975. I did a quick calculation and I am pretty sure that I made that difference up during the recent local election campaign but, leaving that aside, it is a worrying statistic that, as a nation, we are walking a great deal less.

I am aware that I am probably in no position to lecture people on physical activity, although I made my long-awaited five-a-side football comeback at the weekend—we shall speak no more of that.

I speak as somebody who, as a teenager and as a young person, was very active. I competed for my local athletics club and have district and national medals at home. However, like many, I stopped exercising in my late teens and that, combined with both a poor diet and what we shall euphemistically refer to as the student lifestyle, sent my weight spiralling upwards. It has been a struggle to reverse that ever since. Those who follow me on Twitter will know that I have chronicled that as Mark versus the flab. Nonetheless, my experience emphasises that although physical activity in our younger years is good, it has to be sustained, because stopping at any point can send someone into a period of reversal, which undoes all the good and can still lead to problems in later life.

I was also interested in Patricia Ferguson’s point about children queueing at fast food outlets and, in my intervention, I raised a point about the policy decisions that some local authorities have taken in relation to licensing applications for hot food stands, mobile hot food units or hot food establishments within a certain proximity of a secondary school. I absolutely take on board the point that Patricia Ferguson made in her response to me, which was about ensuring that we provide nutritious and appetising food in our schools to encourage pupils to stay and eat there.

There is one area where I have personal difficulties in that regard. My former school, Dyce Academy, which is in the area that I represented on the council and now represent as an MSP, is situated right next door to an Asda supermarket. For as long as I can remember, there have been queues of schoolchildren going into the store either to buy chips and pies from the hot food takeaway, or going into the store itself and buying less healthy products because they are available there. At the end of the day, the store probably has its profit margin in mind, and there is no doubt that the profits are heavily boosted by young people going in and purchasing such food, but when they can control what is being sold to young people, they should reflect on that and on the role that they can play in encouraging the young people who go into their stores for their lunch to make healthy choices.

Prior to entering the Parliament, I was involved in the coaching of youth football. We can all see the benefits of grassroots sporting activity and what it can deliver. It is important that our society does all that it can to nurture and develop grassroots sporting clubs across the range of sporting activities. As well as the two hours of PE that has been spoken about in today’s debate, we need to focus attention on extra-curricular sporting activity. In many schools, that very much depends on having a willing teacher who is able to give up their time to provide that activity. At my school, one teacher in particular gave up a huge amount of his time to run the school basketball team. He is still at the school and still running that team, to the best of my knowledge. Once that teacher retires, will someone else take on the running of the school basketball team? That is an issue that we need to reflect on.

The work that is being done to develop the Commonwealth games legacy and cashback for communities is having a positive impact on developing and nurturing grassroots sporting activity, and the Government is to be commended for its actions.

Nanette Milne spoke about the Aberdeen sports village. One of the things that I was most pleased to be able to do as part of Aberdeen City Council was to push through the new 50m pool that is being developed in Aberdeen. Again, that will massively benefit my and Nanette Milne’s constituents in the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire areas by giving them access to such high-quality facilities in the north-east of Scotland.

I agree that we are talking about not just sport, but getting people to be more active in general. Walking instead of using the car is something that we can all do that can have a big impact. We should all aspire to a more active nation, and as members of the Parliament we should do all that we can to lead by example. Society will, undoubtedly, reap the benefits as a result.

15:58

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on a pressing issue. We have heard from various speakers that Scottish people who are obese experience a negative impact on their health and wellbeing. We have heard about the strain that they put their bodies under, the increased risk of developing heart disease and certain cancers, and the cost to the economy and the NHS in Scotland. We also know that Scotland’s record among developed nations is one of the worst for levels of obesity.

An increase in regular physical activity is one of the key ways in which we can address the problem, and one of the best ways of driving up levels of physical activity is through a culture of regular exercise and participation in sport. Our schools have a key role to play in that.

When I was at secondary school—although it was not yesterday, I think that it was more recently than anyone else in the chamber—[Laughter.]

What makes you think that?

Mr Yousaf challenged me on which of us was younger and I won through on that, so I can say with some confidence that I am the youngest member in the chamber.

When I was at secondary school, my classmates and I got two periods of PE every week. Those two periods were certainly beneficial to me, although I never needed much encouragement to take off my shirt and tie and get my shorts and T-shirt on—I promise members that I do not have a change of clothes with me, so they need not worry. That meant that although my time at secondary school predated the Government’s targets, if those targets had been in place at the time, they would have been met and my classmates and I would have contributed to another positive statistic for the Government.

However, we must look at the education that is delivered in such lessons. When I was at school, the two classes in my year were merged and then split up into a boys group and a girls group. Roughly 25 boys would be getting ready for PE in the changing room when the PE teacher would announce his entrance by shouting, in his deep, booming voice, “Right boys—football!” There would be a cheer from most of us and then—rain, hail or shine—we would be sent out on to the ash football pitch for a 40-minute grudge match between the two registration classes. From first year to fourth year, I was involved in twice-weekly football matches between the C class and the D class. There was little else by way of PE in between.

As I said, that was beneficial for me. I loved playing football and I still do. As members can imagine, in a west of Scotland school, most of the guys in my class enjoyed it, too. I cannot speak in a debate about sport without mentioning the fact that one of those guys was Darren Barr, who I imagine will feature for Hearts in the Scottish cup final at the weekend.

However, not everyone enjoyed football. The same core of five to 10 pupils would forget their kit or have sprained ankles or sore heads, or they would just mill about the pitch to avoid a confrontation with the teacher. Those five to 10 boys would never have got into the culture of regular activity through their two periods of PE, as the extent of their physical activity was the short jog from the changing room up to the football pitch. Despite that, they would still have been classed as having their two periods of PE every week, in line with Government targets.

I am glad to say that things have changed at my old school. After I left it, the previous Scottish Executive made St Maurice’s high school a sports comprehensive, along with two other schools in North Lanarkshire. That was done to advance the principle of raising achievement for all, which involved recognising that education was not just about academic success and, similarly, that sporting and physical activity was not just about football.

Fitness motivators were piloted to introduce in the PE curriculum classes such as body jam, cheerleading and dance classes. The intention was mainly to encourage girls to participate, but boys took part, too. The provision of those classes marked a shift away from the regular netball PE lessons, which seemed to disenfranchise more girls than football did with boys. North Lanarkshire Leisure now provides free access to the gyms and swimming pools in the area for S5 and S6 pupils during exam time to help continue the culture of regular physical activity beyond S4.

Active schools co-ordinators are driving up participation and performance levels in schools. At the recent St Maurice’s high school awards, the regional and national successes of girls basketball, netball and football teams were amazing to see. Their performance was at a much higher level than that of the equivalent boys teams. I spoke to some of the recipients of awards, who told me that they were planning on moving on to university and that they would join university sports clubs and teams because of the positive experience that they had had at school.

What has happened in North Lanarkshire and at St Maurice’s, in particular, is a shining example of how to engage pupils in sport and physical activity by providing the time for high-quality PE teaching that covers a wide range of sports and activities, and which caters for all abilities.

One of the getting it right for every child principles is that children should have

“opportunities to take part in activities such as play, recreation and sport which contribute to healthy growth and development”.

We should ensure that we have a new generation of young Scots for whom a culture of irregular or no physical activity is alien, because they have been engaged in high-quality physical activity that suited them and which they enjoyed.

You must close now, please.

However, we will not achieve that if we continue to count throwing 25 boys out on to a football pitch for two periods a week as a success. I look forward to hearing from the minister how the quality of physical education will be assessed as we move forward with the range of initiatives that she has announced.

16:05

I, too, welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate on tackling obesity in Scotland. We must remember that obesity is not confined to Scotland and is a global problem. The World Health Organization has spoken of obesity as

“the greatest health threat of the 21st century”.

In 2008, 1.5 billion adults worldwide aged 20 and over were overweight or obese. In 2010, 43 million children were overweight or obese. That is worrying. We have heard the worrying statistics in Scotland on young people who are obese and in some cases severely obese. We have heard that adult obesity in Scotland is predicted to reach well over 40 per cent by 2030 if we do not deal with the issue.

We have heard about the risks of being overweight or obese, which include a risk of serious disease and premature death. Obesity also contributes to an increased risk of osteoarthritis, low self-esteem, depression and psychological problems. Those latter issues apply to children as well as to adults. In 2007-08, the estimated cost to our health service was £457 million, and the figure is predicted to increase. It is therefore vital that we try to halt any further rise in obesity, while reducing existing obesity levels among the population.

We need to put the issue in context and understand that preventing obesity is a complex matter. The 2008 report by Sheffield Hallam University that followed an earlier foresight report states:

“There is no example anywhere in the world where the obesity trend has been reversed”.

I say that not to argue that we cannot do it, but to point out that the challenge is huge. The same report talks about the obesogenic environment that promotes obesity and unhealthy weight levels. That is just by circumstance and not because of anything that has been done deliberately. Alison Johnstone referred to our reliance on vehicles and the fact that our built environment is designed around that. We have labour-saving devices, easy access to and availability of cheap, high-fat and high-sugar foods, internet shopping, eating out, fast foods and takeaways, super-sized products and genetic and social factors.

Of course, there is insufficient physical activity. Therefore, the challenge is great and requires a complex and multifaceted solution. The cross-cutting approach in the Scottish Government’s obesity route map recognises that. It makes commitments to tackle all the factors that contribute to an overweight and obese population: food consumption and diet; behaviour in the early years; health and wellbeing in the workplace; and physical activity. Paramount in that is early intervention. Many members have made the point better than I could about the importance of intervening at an early age.

Much of what I was going to say has been said, so I will say a little about my personal experience of the challenge of trying to maintain a healthy weight. Many people have said to me, “That is not a problem for you, Margaret,” but all my adult life, I have struggled to maintain a healthy weight. I have gone to every weight loss club known and reached the target at every one. I have been 2 stone lighter than I am now and 3 stone heavier. However, in the past seven years, I have managed to maintain a healthy weight. I have always had a healthy lifestyle and eaten healthy foods, but I believe that the difference is that I have sustained physical activity, which is walking. I appreciate the minister’s comments about walking and the national walking strategy. Physical exercise alone will not result in weight loss, and nor will changing eating habits. We need a combination of the two to maintain a healthy weight.

The focus should be on maintaining a healthy weight, because it does not benefit any of us if our weight goes up and down. I know many people who are in the same situation as me. For me, there is evidence that walking has made a huge difference.

It is not an easy task, even for people like me who were not overweight as a child. We must recognise that there is a lot more involved than just saying to people that they should cut down what they eat and take a bit of exercise. Lots of other factors must be considered.

The minister outlined many of the initiatives that the Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities and other organisations, is taking to increase physical activity among our population. The initiatives include investment in cycling, encouraging walking to school, two hours of quality PE each week—which we hope to achieve by 2014—and investing £25 million from cashback for communities directly in sporting facilities. In my constituency, Kilwinning benefited from that money. There is also the legacy of the Commonwealth games, which will ensure increased access to sports facilities and a more active nation.

Regular physical exercise is important in the jigsaw of tackling obesity, but we are not all budding athletes or fans of the gym. We need to look at what activities are available. There has to be a variety: walking, cycling, aquarobics, swimming, Zumba and keep fit, to name but a few. We have to aim for every section of the population. We must recognise Patricia Ferguson’s point about young girls, who, on reaching the age of 12 or 13, give up physical activity. That is a time when a lot of young girls’ body shapes are changing, and they do not want to strip off and take up gym. We need to look at a variety of physical exercise because that, I believe, will have a positive impact on our stated aim of having people live longer and healthier lives.

16:11

I am guilty as charged, Presiding Officer. I stand before you as a person who knows that he is overweight and does not take enough exercise, but who is perhaps not totally inactive. I walk to work most days. Perhaps I have no other option, although Mr Q, my dog, is not with me this afternoon—he is out walking.

Obesity is a complex matter, but one that must be put into perspective. We must find out what the causal links are. Yesterday, we discussed the national parenting strategy in the chamber, and that links to part of what I will say this afternoon. As parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and relatives who have young children, we have a responsibility. It is not so many weeks since Easter passed. How many of us indulged in the Easter festivities and went out and bought our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews chocolate? We had alternatives and choices. We could have taken them something healthy. Did we? We know that a healthy option is better for them but, as role models, did we take that step forward? If we are going to make a change, it is our responsibility to make it. We must not be a society of people who just tell others, “This is how you do it”; we must adopt the philosophy ourselves and lead by example.

In my constituency of Aberdeenshire West, we have some of the most wonderful opportunities to keep active. We have fantastic forestry walks, areas where people can ramble, hillwalking, rivers in which we can canoe, areas where we can take our mountain bikes and areas where we can just have leisurely pleasure walks. However, as Nigel Don said, sometimes it is an effort to get there. If the infrastructure is not there to enable people to get there, they might not go.

In Huntly in my constituency, the Deveron Arts organisation had what I think is a unique initiative: a slow marathon, which I took part in. I do not have the medal to prove it, but I did sign up. The marathon involved walking the distance from Huntly to Ethiopia and back. One of the participants in Deveron Arts is from Ethiopia and she came up with the idea that if our schools and people in our community all signed up, we would walk a distance equivalent to 225 marathons. With the number of people who took part, we covered the distance from Huntly to Ethiopia and back. That was a nice initiative for getting children, parents and older members of our community involved, all walking whatever number of miles they wished for the slow marathon. There are nice initiatives out there that people can do that do not take money or a Government to implement.

I congratulate Aberdeenshire Council on endorsing the community sport hubs, which are a way of getting our younger people back into sport—hopefully, at a cost that is affordable to them. Sport, physical activity and exercise alone are not the answer, however. We have heard the stark reality of the statistics, which cannot be addressed by exercise and physical activity alone. As Margaret Burgess concluded in her speech, we need a combination of exercise or activity and the right food in the right amounts. Often, we eat the right food but the quantity that we take is far beyond what we require.

I thank Patricia Ferguson for taking me back to all my yesterdays. She reminded me of when my mother tied the dusters round my feet and asked me to slide up and down the hall to polish the linoleum. I inform the younger members in the chamber that that was before fitted carpets.

I say to Alison Johnstone that in 1976 I was a fit, healthy 20-year-old. I was fit and healthy because I swam three times a week, I ran at Meadowbank stadium, I went abseiling and I canoed. Why did I stop all those activities? I started work and my lifestyle changed. I went into a completely different lifestyle and the time that I had available to do those things changed.

Currently, my lifestyle in the Parliament is different. I do not eat regular meals because the activities in the Parliament—the various events that I attend, and so on—mean that I cannot. However, that is no excuse. The problem is that we all try to find an excuse for why we are overweight, why we do not take exercise and why we are inactive. We need to find solutions and accept the fact that we must be role models for our young children. We should ask them not to do as we say, but to do as we do.

16:17

As many members have emphasised, there is a complex relationship between obesity, physical activity and general health. We all know that obesity is a risk factor for many diseases, including several cancers, as was emphasised at the Scotland against cancer conference a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps we can also agree that there are many factors involved in obesity, of which the lack of physical activity is just one and probably not the most important.

Since physical activity is the main focus of the debate, however, we should remember two points. First, physical activity is beneficial to a range of health factors—particularly cardiovascular health—quite apart from the obesity dimension. Secondly, physical activity will be beneficial for obese and overweight people even if they remain obese or overweight. Sir Harry Burns made that point when he spoke at lunch time today at the cross-party group on health inequalities. All of that explains why physical inactivity has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for mortality globally.

I welcome much of what the minister announced today—for example, the initiative with the Royal College of General Practitioners, the quality interventions and the emphasis that she placed on dance-related projects for teenage girls, who often lose interest in other forms of activity during adolescence. I point out that such activities may also be beneficial to teenage boys and, indeed, older boys such as myself.

I also welcome the minister’s announcement of the national walking strategy and the emphasis that she and other members placed on walking generally. More people are travelling about in cars and sitting at desks in offices all day, so there is a particular issue about getting exercise as we go to and from work. I welcome what she said about the Paths for All Partnership and the walk to work scheme that is running this week, as workers across the country take to the paths of our cities to prove that, where there is an option to go on foot, we should make the most of the paths that are available.

A similar campaign is running for schoolchildren in response to recent figures that showed that fewer than half of Scottish schoolchildren walk to school. I welcome the emphasis that Alison Johnstone put on creating the best environments to encourage walking, and I am sure that she would support me if I made the same point about cycling. If we had safer roads for cyclists, that would help more people to travel in a healthy way. I support the target of having 10 per cent of journeys made by bike, and also the demand that several groups have made for 10 per cent of the transport budget to be spent on active travel.

The minister also mentioned the tangible benefits of exercise for older people. Increasing physical activity and exercise in older people has been identified as a key target by the World Health Organization active ageing framework to reduce the global burden of non-communicable diseases.

One of the delights of being on Twitter is that, if we follow the right people, we read all sorts of interesting postings. This week, Lesley Holdsworth, who led the older people’s work for the Kerr review, tweeted a selection of Cochrane reviews that assessed the benefits of physical activity and exercise for older people. I could speak for up to my time limit on that, but I had better not, because I want to move on.

Quite rightly, much of today’s debate has focused on young people. The minister said that the PE target will be met by 2014 and mentioned £6 million of extra funding for that, but I am sure that she is aware that, in her local authority area, the number of PE teachers has been reduced recently. I am sure that she will use whatever influence she has with the administration to reverse that, but it highlights the discrepancy between the overall rhetoric of policy and what is actually happening in many cases on the ground.

Does the member recognise that Dundee City Council is one of the best performing councils when it comes to the delivery of the PE targets? Also, we have to rely on classroom teachers to deliver PE in primary schools because, with the best will in the world, six specialists across 38 schools are not going to be able to deliver two hours of PE to all pupils.

I accept to some extent what the minister says about primary schools, but I think that we all agree that specialist teachers are required in secondary schools.

The Government also made a manifesto pledge to work towards a guarantee of five days of outdoor education for every school pupil, but information that was published in July 2009 in response to a freedom of information request revealed that only seven local authorities held information centrally on outdoor education and in none of them had all pupils been involved in it.

We need to address the cultural challenges that lead to obesity in young people and in people more generally. That was recognised by Dr Andrew Walker in his study of the economics of obesity in Scotland in 2003. I will not quote the cost that he mentioned, because it is a lot more now than it was then, but he said that, for any strategy to work, it must take into account the complexity of the condition and not simply address it as one issue in isolation. He stated:

“A radical programme is needed to tackle this serious modern health issue - a nationwide and collaborative obesity management strategy: firm targets, structured care, health promotion, disease prevention and collaboration between Government departments.”

I trust that the minister is at least ensuring that that collaboration is taking place, and hopefully most of the other objectives as well.

16:23

It has been an interesting debate. I learned lots of interesting things that I did not anticipate finding out this afternoon. For example, I now know what the baby diets of both Hanzala Malik and Nanette Milne were. I did not expect to learn that, nor did I expect to find out that Mark McDonald was a highly active person until he started obsessively tweeting Alison Johnstone, or that Gil Paterson’s real reason for being physically inactive is that he secretly watches “Hannah Montana” with his daughter.

Much of what has been reiterated this afternoon was not alarming; many of the poor health statistics are more predictable than alarming, if we are honest about it.

I welcome the tapering off of the decline in healthiness and of the increase in obesity, and the gradual increase in physical activity that we have heard about, but poor health and diets and low physical activity levels are not inevitable in Scotland. I am reminded of recent conversations about alcohol. Harry Burns has already been mentioned. He talks about a relationship with alcohol as not being inevitable and takes us back just a few decades to when Scotland was seen as a moderate nation in its drinking habits. He has significant information to pass on about how we can promote positive health outcomes in Scotland. He speaks about people not necessarily being born healthy, getting older and having their health decline, but about the need for Scottish people—indeed, all the people in the world—to nurture and develop their health as they go through life. That is vital as we take forward any initiative to tackle obesity and promote physical activity.

I want to say a little bit about the work that goes on in schools. Other members, including Mark Griffin, have shared their school experiences. I concur with part of what Mark Griffin said. It is hard to believe, but I was quite a fit and healthy person at school, as I had a teacher who promoted Gaelic football—not football—in it. I bought into that and was a fit and healthy young man as a result. It is about giving additional choice in schools to young people rather than offering just traditional sports, which, for parts of the west of Scotland, seems to have always meant soccer. In that context, I will give a little mention to St Roch’s secondary school in Springburn, which has developed quite a successful rugby initiative, which is good to see. It diversifies the team sports agenda there, although much of the work is done on a voluntary basis by staff and parents.

I would like to mention the success of the active school networks and the £12 million per annum investment to give a structured approach to physical activities in schools, not only the traditional sports. Excellent work is going on in schools.

We have heard about the transition between school and later life, particularly for young females, who tend not to stay physically active as they get older. There is a similar but not identical trend for boys; it is just not as marked. The transition between school and the life of work is a key point and the Government has to find a way of taking more action to keep people physically active at that point. Physical activity is a habit that many people get into at school but do not retain, for whatever reason, once out in the world of work. It would be good to hear more about how we can take that forward.

On the strength of community sports clubs, I have been remarkably impressed by the organisation of running clubs across Glasgow and Scotland. Earlier this year, I had the privilege of attending the Nigel Barge 10K race for Maryhill Harriers. I say to Patricia Ferguson that I did not participate in the race—I am impressed that she has done 5Ks regularly in the past few years—but a plethora of running clubs took part, and there was a junior section, which was fantastic to see. We have to find a way of promoting such things across Government.

Many community sports initiatives have been supported by cashback for communities, which I welcome. I give a small plug for the twilight basketball initiative in Glasgow. I know that Glasgow Rocks has been quite heavily involved in that.

Another fitness initiative that has been successful and which has received a lot of publicity recently is the football fans in training initiative, and I had the pleasure of visiting Parkhead to see it in action. I want to plug the general work that all football clubs do, not only with the FFIT programme, but in throwing open their doors and facilities to the wider community to promote a range of activities for young people in the local area and their staff. I think that Gil Paterson mentioned the world of work, and Dennis Robertson mentioned that the world of work does not sit well with a fit and healthy lifestyle. Whether we are talking about Glasgow city chambers, Parkhead, town halls across the country or large employers, perhaps workplaces must do more to promote fit and healthy options and lifestyles for workforces and the general public who stay in the area. They have the facilities. They can throw them open, and people can get benefits from them.

Finally, the football fans in training initiative that I mentioned is carried out in partnership with the University of Glasgow. I hope to see for the first time real and robust data on the benefits of using sporting clubs as preventative spending champions in the positive health agenda to provide evidence for investing more in that. We should invest more in that approach, but I realise that we must get evidence to monitor its effectiveness.

16:29

I welcome the generally consensual nature of the debate. There has been some disagreement, on the two hours of PE for example, but I think that it is fair to say that we all know that if children have access only to two hours of PE each week, we will not see a fit, healthy Scotland any time soon.

Margaret McDougall and Hanzala Malik spoke about the importance of optimal nutrition from the very beginning of life. Patricia Ferguson and Nanette Milne noted how physical activity was part and parcel of life in the not-too-distant past. If we were to introduce more 20mph zones and the Living Streets model, that would provide far more opportunities for young people to play outside and for their parents to be more relaxed about that.

Mark Griffin mentioned his recent schooldays. I welcome his recognition that football is not the only sport. Bob Doris touched on the fact that Gaelic football might be an attractive alternative—perhaps we can try that some time.

I was touched by Margaret Burgess’s personal experience, which highlights the need for physical activity. This morning, I was speaking to Bill Walker, who is the head coach of Edinburgh Athletic Club. He emphasised the fact that if we obsess about diet, we will have people who are focused on what they are denying themselves, whereas if we focus on physical activity, we improve our self-esteem and wellbeing. Gil Paterson’s comments hit the nail on the head: fitness should not only be about aesthetics; it has to be about wellbeing.

Dennis Robertson rightly touched on the need for a work-life balance and the fact that we in this building should lead by example. I try occasionally to get out for a walk after lunch. It is difficult, but we can try harder.

I completely disagree with Mark McDonald’s comments: he clearly is in a strong position to speak on the issues, as his understanding of the issues and the need for action is obvious. We will continue to campaign on getting women on to “Question of Sport”.

Nigel Don spoke about open space and said that whether to be physically active is a personal choice. I agree to an extent, but it is far easier to get out and exercise in a crime-free, pleasant environment than it is in some of our inner-city and peripheral housing estates.

Affordability and family finance come into the issue, too. If I had not been granted an athletics scholarship in my competitive days, my family simply could not have afforded for me to train six days a week, as I was one of four children. There are other factors in play in our choices.

Patricia Ferguson noted the impact of the design of our built environment. As I said at the start of the debate, there is a view that we have designed an obesogenic environment. Redesigning and rethinking our streets, workplaces and the layout of our cities will take time and require sustained effort, but that is essential to embedding physical activity into daily lives and schedules.

The minister talked of the obesity route map action plan, which is a good collection of policies and actions that cut across the different areas of Government that need to take action on obesity. I am glad that it was updated at the end of last year and that it is monitored. Five of the route map action plan points refer directly to the design of our cities and built environment. Four action plan points refer to access to open space and promoting children’s play. The availability of safe outdoor space is identified as a key driver of childhood activity. Another four points refer directly to promoting walking and cycling, and several more talk of providing routes to school or work. All those points are highlighted in the Green amendment.

We clearly agree on what must be done to improve physical activity and help to tackle obesity. However, that agreement needs to be followed by spending decisions that mirror it, prioritise active travel over a car culture and support sporting facilities when money is tight. That is money well spent—it is preventative spending. Nigel Don commented on cycle paths, which are a good example of such spend. Indeed, I support Malcolm Chisholm’s comments on safe cycle paths.

The Scottish Government currently spends less than 1 per cent of its transport budget on active travel. That proportion has dropped for the past two years. I believe that the minister is sincere about tackling obesity. We can make great inroads if we invest more in active travel, so I ask her to raise the issue loudly in the Government. Money that is spent on active travel will cut obesity and health spending.

In 2006, the “National Audit of Scotland’s Sports Facilities” found that an investment of £110 million was needed every year for the next 25 years to bring facilities up to an acceptable standard. The Commonwealth games have focused minds. Investment has been made in many facilities, and I welcome the focus on the legacy.

Investment in elite sports is important, but local access to good-quality affordable sports and leisure facilities is a key part of the solution to embedding physical activity in the culture and minds of young people across Scotland. I ask the minister to speak to local government colleagues in Edinburgh to ensure that they work with the community group that hopes to run Leith Waterworld—a local pool that is a unique facility—as a community model.

The debate is important. I hope that it will inform the update of the obesity action plan, but that is not enough by itself. I ask the minister to highlight in her closing speech the need for budget decisions to focus on forms of preventative spend that have multiple benefits, which include tackling obesity. Not all the solution to our obesity crisis comes from central Government, but it is clear that central Government has an important role to play. I welcome the minister’s commitment to action on the issue.

16:36

I begin by apologising for missing one or two speeches, including Alison Johnstone’s opening speech.

I have some simple questions for members. Are they larger or smaller than they were when they first arrived in Parliament? Are they heavier or lighter than they were? In the previous parliamentary session, I observed that I had never met some members on a staircase. The situation is similar in this session.

One innovation in this session has been the burgeoning range of home baking at the coffee stall, which fair flies off the counter. I assume that people in this building consume those goods. The canteen trays fair groan with produce at lunch time. As Dennis Robertson observed, sometimes the issue is the quantity of food rather than its content.

Some of my parliamentary colleagues exercise. John Lamont took up running last year. He has become an absolute bore about the whole thing and he enters marathons around the world. There is an age at which men and Lycra should not meet. I sometimes see him as he comes back into the building looking a very poor soul, which does not inspire me.

I suppose that the point that I am trying to make is as in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”:

“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

Part of the reason why people eat such things is that they quite enjoy them, and therein lies the problem. It is not really enough for MSPs to hope that we can change public attitudes, but a lot of members have pointed to the direction to take.

In opening the debate, Shona Robison sold efforts short in one sense. Anecdotally, my impression as I go about is that more people are exercising. I am aware of more people cycling, running and actively participating in health clubs. The issue is not that we are having no success. However, Patricia Ferguson made an instructive point about the disparity between boys and girls. At the age of 12, girls almost cease to take exercise—they exercise at the rate that men of 40 might. It was interesting to hear that, individually, we walk 63 miles fewer per year than we did in 1975.

I do not know how many colleagues have followed the series “Two Greedy Italians” on BBC 2. In one singularly depressing episode, the presenters went to their home region and heard that, although Italy had had the lowest rate of obesity among young people in Europe, it now has the highest rate in Europe. The social dynamic had underpinned that change. I have always thought of Italy as a country of large families, but they are a thing of the past—most households now have a single child. There has been a trend away from the family meal, when people prepared good-quality, healthy food, which had to go further to feed a large family, towards reliance on what is available in machines, on fast food and on simply giving people money to go and buy whatever is available at lunch time, which might mean a popular choice rather than a healthy choice, as seems to be the disease in this country. The problem is therefore not just in Scotland, although, as the minister said, our record is not good and stands in the way of progress.



I listened to what Mark Griffin had to say. I do not know what he is on, but if we could all have some of it, there might be hope. I suspect that he is on youth, in which case we are all doomed. Until I was 27, I was only 9 and a half stone. Then I married and it all went downhill—[Interruption.] Well, you women want us to go and meet your mothers and all that sort of thing—we used to do exercise before we did that—

Enough!

Richard Simpson is worried for me. The point is that there are all manner of dynamics at play.

A key point that Alison Johnstone, Margaret Burgess and Dennis Robertson made is that walking is free and is something that we could all do far more of.

At the centre of the debate was the recognition that, given that we must address the health challenges that have been talked about if the health service is to cope with demographic changes, tackling the issue with young people is the key. I wonder whether, if we told young people in secondary school that they could leave school an hour early if they had met certain PE criteria, the young people would all queue up to take part. Sometimes there has to be some sort of incentive. If we just say to young people, “If you do not do otherwise, you will grow up to be chronically obese,” that simply does not resonate with them.

The speeches that we heard today were perhaps all made in similar form when we last debated the issue, when the strategy to which the minister referred was unveiled. It is clear that there is an on-going issue. The potential cost of £3 billion in 2030 to which the minister referred is a challenge that we must ensure that the people who succeed us in the Parliament do not have to meet, because it will be impossible to meet it. Politicians and the wider community must find a way to make the next generation want to exercise. That is the magic ingredient that we have not yet discovered.

Thank you for that sparkling performance. I call Dr Richard Simpson, who has just over seven minutes.

16:42

I do not intend to sparkle with revelations like those that have been made by some members. We have had a consensual debate, and it has been none the worse for that.

Patricia Ferguson was right to say that the starting point is the recognition that the world has changed. I go back even further than many members do. As a five-year-old, I walked half a mile down a hill to catch a corporation bus and then another half mile to primary school at Perth academy. There was still rationing at the time, so the diet side of things was not particularly important. We just did not get the sweets, fast food and so on that are available today.

Of course, if we go back even further, obesity used to be a sign of wealth. Today it is a sign of greater poverty. Obesity is so endemic in the population that it is a problem. Two thirds of adults are overweight. We have a generation that is largely inactive and is happier to watch on television the amazing exploits of people such as our champion Dr Andrew Murray, admiring his marathon to the pole or his ultra-long-distance runs, such as his run to Ethiopia—which he did in one go, rather than over 200 marathons in the way that Dennis Robertson described. Perhaps such exploits put people off doing, rather than watching.

Many members reminded us that obesity increased from 17 per cent in 1995 to 27 per cent in 2010. The proportion is predicted to rise to 40 per cent by 2030 if the trend does not change, as Margaret McDougall said. The minister and other members outlined the stark consequences of failure to reverse the trend.

As Malcolm Chisholm reminded us, obesity is only partly about activity. Margaret McDougall emphasised the importance of promoting breastfeeding. That is a starting point, although I would go back a step, because we need to work with pregnant women to promote their good health.

Gil Paterson, in a thoughtful speech, made clear just how complex tackling obesity is. Diet is important; family meals play a part, as Jackson Carlaw reminded us. Parents wrestle with television and games technology, as Gil Paterson said. Perhaps the Wii that we give our children to exercise with is a palliative to our consciences, rather than being real exercise.

When Scots gave up porridge in favour of salt-laden, high-calorie energy foods, when we moved from home cooking to prepared foods, when we went from taking sandwiches to work to eating takeaways, high in saturated fats, we began to travel down this path, which could lead to a reversal of many of the extended years that have been achieved in the past generation. Meanwhile, the health inequality gap simply increases.

What has become clear, and was re-emphasised at the conference in Lyon last week, is that treating children on their own is ineffective. It has to be about treating mothers and families; that is the way forward and the research evidence is now becoming clear on that. Dennis Robertson correctly identified parents as critical and grandparents, too, are perhaps important. A number of speakers made the important suggestion that we need to look to ourselves. I regret that the Parliament does not have a gym or, rather, it has a gym but no equipment. That is a poor thing not just for us, but for our staff. We are employers and we need to look after our staff.

Patricia Ferguson referred to the gender gap and Mark McDonald gave personal testimony of his own struggles, from his 20s on, with exercise and resisting fast food. Margaret Burgess reflected on something that is more true of women but does not apply only to women, which is the see-saw of weight. We need to recognise that a bit more.

In question time today, the minister batted away my question about the counterweight programme. I say to her that I was not being economical with the truth in any way when I said that the Government’s efforts to transition the programme into health boards, which I would applaud, have resulted in six redundancies in the counterweight programme. Scotland is leading the world with that programme—that is a fact. I am certain that it was not the Government’s intention, but the reality is that there has been a failure in transition, as there was with healthy living centres, which had to be rescued by money; and as there was with the retired and senior volunteer programme, which was important in my area in providing exercise for people with learning disability. We need to look at the transition of programmes.

Malcolm Chisholm rightly said that physical activity is not the most important factor, because someone can be overweight and really quite fit and have an extended life with a reasonable quality of life. If someone is overweight and unfit, that is less likely.

I will not go into the consequences of being overweight, but diabetes is probably the biggest challenge, which could lead to a reversal of the cardiovascular gains that we have made. Many cancers are associated with obesity as well.

What should be done? We have targets. Labour in 2004 set the target of two hours of physical education for every pupil, to be met by 2008. Progress was slow. The target date was moved by the SNP, despite a promise in 2007 to meet it. It has now been moved further, to 2014. The watering down of that contract is regrettable. The Health and Sport Committee showed in its report on pathways into sport and physical activity that East Renfrewshire, for example, with good leadership and good commitment, achieved the two-hours goal and an extensive range of participation in sport. That shows that the target is achievable, but there has to be a drive from the new leadership in the councils to achieve it. I hope that it will be a subject of early discussion with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, using the money that the Government has—I am glad to say—announced.

There are other broken promises. Malcolm Chisholm referred to the five days of outdoor education. I add to that the free swimming that was promised and the moratorium on building on playing fields, which does not seem to have been fulfilled completely.

The mainstreaming of active sports co-ordinators is important, as is inreach from sports and athletics clubs. As Bob Doris said, an inspirational teacher in a sport—he mentioned Gaelic football—can often be instrumental in encouraging people into sport. In my area, we had a teacher at Wallace high school who was interested in canoeing—

The member needs to wind up.

I was told that I had between seven and a half and eight minutes by the Deputy Presiding Officer, but I will wind up, Presiding Officer, obeying your instructions.

There are many other things that I would have mentioned, such as Trellis, which is involved in therapeutic gardening; woodlands; and the importance of achieving good walking. However, I will conclude by asking members to support the amendment in my name and saying that we will be supporting the amendment in Alison Johnstone’s name.

Apologies, Dr Simpson. There was obviously a failure in communication.

16:50

As many others have said, the debate has been largely consensual, so I will deal with the disagreements first and get them out of the way before I talk about members’ contributions.

A number of Labour members mentioned the target of two hours of physical education a week in primary schools. It is absolutely my intention to tackle that long-standing target. I gently point out to Labour members that, three years into the Labour Party’s tenure, only 3 per cent of primary schools were meeting the two-hour target. Five years into our tenure, that figure stands at 64 per cent, and at 67 per cent for secondary schools. No one is speaking from a position of strength on this issue. However, we should agree that we have now set a date for the delivery of those two hours a week. I hasten to add that Labour’s manifesto had no end date for the issue and promised only to make progress on it. I do not think that that is good enough, which is why I have set an end date of 2014, to coincide with the end of the Commonwealth games. The target has been around for too long.

As others have said, two hours of PE in primary school and two periods in secondary school should be a minimum. In itself, that is not enough. That is why the other things that are going on in our schools and communities are important. I will discuss those things in a minute.

In her opening remarks, Patricia Ferguson noted that, as well as thinking about energy out and physical activity, we must also think about energy in and eating habits, which are equally important. Earlier, I said that I was not trying to cover all the four main pillars of the route map, but that I wanted to focus instead on just one. However, her point was absolutely right.

I pay tribute to the North Glasgow Healthy Living Community initiative. Such community-based programmes are important, particularly when they can secure the trust of the community in order to help to change behaviours.

Nanette Milne talked about advice in the early years. That is important.

Alison Johnstone said a number of important things. She talked about the affordability of and access to facilities, and mentioned active schools. I hope that I can reassure her by saying that the majority of active school sessions are free, partly because 73 per cent are delivered by volunteers. That is a good thing. We have also said that affordability is one of the key tests of whether a community sports hub will receive money from sportscotland. We have to ensure that the local community can afford to use those facilities.

It is important that the Paths for All Partnership is encouraging more women to be active. That is why we are continuing to give it funding.

Nigel Don always has interesting remarks to make. I acknowledge that parents’ recognition of weight issues is important, as is the availability of walking and cycling routes. A lot of the work that has been done around walking groups in urban areas is intended to help people to make the most of what they have in their locality, rather than getting them to go outwith their locality to take part in walking activities.

I am struck by the point that the minister has just made, particularly in the context of Dennis Robertson’s point about the fact that we ourselves fail to have that healthy work-life balance. Perhaps a legacy of today’s debate might be that we start an informal group of MSPs who are interested in these issues and might want to walk together now and again, either at lunch time or in the evening. I am sure that, across the parties, there would be enough of us to make that something that we could do to set an example.

I am happy to agree to that. There could be some interesting conversations along those routes. We should lead by example, and that is perhaps one way of doing it. I note, too, the comments about the use of the gym. That issue may need to be revisited over time.

Margaret McDougall talked about the even earlier benefits of breastfeeding. There is always more that we need to do to promote and encourage that. She talked about the jumpstart programme in NHS Ayrshire and Arran—again, that is very important—and the benefit of the Commonwealth games for the people of Scotland. We want to deliver a minimum of 150 community sports hubs throughout Scotland, because that is a tangible, important benefit.

Gil Paterson talked about the power of television and, in his case, “Hannah Montana” filling his television screen. “The Saddle Club” fills ours; my purse is emptied when we have to go to the riding school at the weekend, but at least that is a good physical activity.

Mark McDonald talked about the control of food outlets. We are doing a lot of work with local authorities on what happens beyond the school gate.

Mark Griffin made a very good speech, in which he talked about us not getting so obsessed with the two hours or two periods of PE that we do not consider what goes on in those two hours or two periods. That is absolutely right, which is why the aim of part of the funding that we have secured for that through Education Scotland is to consider quality. Education Scotland has a working group to look at how we can drive up the quality of physical education in primary and secondary schools. There are some great examples out there, but we need to ensure that that quality is happening everywhere.

Like Mark Griffin, I pay tribute to North Lanarkshire Leisure. Its target is to deliver 50 per cent of North Lanarkshire’s secondary schools as community sports hubs. That is a good model for elsewhere, and I am keen to support it.

Margaret Burgess gave a good personal account of some of the challenges that she has faced and the importance of walking, which has been a theme throughout the debate.

Dennis Robertson reminded us of the outdoor opportunities in Scotland and talked about the excuses that people use. I would point members to a good YouTube video called “23 and 1/2 hours”, which is about how to be inactive for 23 and a half hours. It is food for thought.

Similarly, Malcolm Chisholm talked about the role of outdoor education and Bob Doris talked about workplace intervention—

Excuse me, minister. Will members who are arriving in the chamber please do so quietly and stop their conversations?

The point about workplace interventions is a good one. Many workplaces are trying to organise walking groups and activity groups at lunch times. However, the life transitions period is important, too, because when many young people go to college or university, some of their sport and physical activity habits change. We are working closely with various sectors to do what we can.

Jackson Carlaw said that it all went downhill after he got married; I am sure that Mrs Carlaw would say the same. In fact, I have already phoned her to tell her—not really. He made the important point that his impression from anecdotal evidence is that more people are exercising. I agree. People are getting the message, but we must not be complacent. We have to step up the pace.

Richard Simpson mentioned Dr Andrew Murray, our physical activity champion. He is by no means saying that we have to go on excursions, walk or run to the Sahara to meet the challenge of physical activity. He leads from the front and inspires other health professionals to recognise the importance of physical activity—that is important. If we could get every health professional to prescribe physical activity instead of other things, would we not be in a better place, given the opportunities that that would present?

I will not discuss counterweight because I did so earlier and I want to end on a consensual note. The debate has been important, but it is not the end of the journey. I would be delighted to come back next year and give a full progress report on the obesity route map. I thank everyone for their contributions.