Chamber and committees

Thanks for letting me get that on the record.

When we went to Dunfermline and spoke to some governing bodies, the governing body for rugby told us about flexibility, the social aspects of the game and changes to rules. We also visited Fighting Chance to see judo, and an amazing woman, who was also a professional rugby player and a mum, told me that she went to a variety of judo classes at different levels and was able to take her child along with her so that she could get her fitness back and continue with professional rugby.

We know from the BBC sportswomen’s survey that a quarter of respondents—which is not a lot—said that they felt supported in having a baby and continuing to compete and that a third delayed having a family. Notwithstanding the need for policies and support within sporting organisations, would another part of the solution be to have other sports that women can be involved in and to which they can take their children? Would that contribute to getting them back to being competitive?

I am not sure who would want to pick up that question. Because judo is part of it, perhaps Connie Ramsay can answer.

That is really helpful, and it goes back to Kate Wallace’s earlier comment about balance and about children who have been harmed having a right to recovery and having agency. You also said that restorative justice has to be victim centred. Could we add anything to the bill that would support that?

I am interested in victims and I am wondering what you feel would be the impact of the bill in its current form for child victims.

I suppose that this is a quite separate question. I noted the comment in the St Mary’s Kenmure submission that, more often than not, children are in the centre because of acute stressors, neurodevelopmental impairments and adverse childhood experiences. I would be interested in hearing from Claire Lunday the numbers on neurodevelopmental issues, if she has that information.

Claire Lunday, you have also talked about the way in which children arrive at the centre, and I was just wondering whether you can suggest any additional preparations that might be helpful to other children such as letting them see photographs and pictures of where they will be going, dimming the lights a bit, keeping the noise down and so on.

Are you talking specifically about neurodevelopmental issues?

Okay. Thank you.

That is helpful. I will ask you about that balance in a minute. For now, I wonder whether Sheriff Mackie or Chloe Riddell wants to say something. Last week, we heard that only 14 per cent of victims respond to the offer of information. Clearly, there needs to be research into why that is, because the people we spoke to did not have the information behind that. Could the working group look into that, or should it be looked into somewhere else?

Do you feel that there is a need for a bit more research to understand why only 14 per cent of those victims respond?

We would really welcome a further submission from you with that detail, which it would be helpful for the committee to see.