Debate on 'Observatory for Sport' to scrutinise sportscotland and community sport

Delegates from Scottish business and sport will examine policies and practices in Scotland, Denmark, and the Netherlands, the latter two being countries regarded as role models for community sport with higher participation and memberships than Scotland.

Chaired by the CEO of Lloyds TSB Foundation, and backed by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, discussions will focus on the positive influence which effective and engaged teams of sports professionals, volunteers, and supporters can have on Scotland's economy in both business and the community.

The case for independent audit of an organisation hardly needs to be made. Sportscotland has a vested interest in delivering evidence of increased physical activity as it's part of how their effectiveness is judged.

Charlie Raeburn, who came up with the "observatory" notion, claims there is insufficient detailed information about Scottish sport participation and "almost non-existent statutory requirements" for provision by local authorities.

"Adequate" and "appropriate" are the statutory requirements. Nowhere is it defined what that actually means.

"What is really happening to sport with all the cuts to local authority spending?" asks Raeburn. "What hard information is given to local and national politicians about community sport?"

Many people in clubs, local authorities, and schools are "really concerned and often very upset, about the current direction of travel," he says, but feel unable to express concerns. "There appears to be so little information available beyond reading about Government-sponsored projects. There is no obvious dialogue and there are no discussion forums to explore these issues."

"Ambassador" for the observatory project, he has a much-respected background: most recently as sports manager for West Lothian Council, but he is now retired. He was formerly swimming technical officer for Edinburgh, covering both the education and recreation systems, a pe advisor, Scottish men's swimming team coach in the David Wilkie era, a national selector, Commonwealth Games swimming commentator, and for 10 years manager of Warrender swimming club.

"Membership figures are skewed and not audited properly," says Raeburn. "If you are funder and auditor, I am not sure it works. I am not out to have a go at sportscotland, but the process needs to be independent."

We agree, because there is evidence that the process is neither sufficiently robust, independent, forensic, or accurate.

Sportscotland's data on membership is at best misleading. In early February they released details of memberships of the 17 Commonwealth Games sports from 2011/12 to 2014/15, the latter being projected figures. They ranged from a decrease of 6% for lawn bowls, no change for target shooting, to a 58% increase for netball, with no figures at all for wrestling, just "incomplete upward trend figures".

Squash was listed as having a 20% increase. However, the recently-published annual report of Scottish Squash and Racketball Ltd says there was no such increase.

When we asked the quango about this yesterday, their spokesman reminded us that they'd made it clear figures were "projected", and said they "will be publishing updates in the coming weeks/months. Most sports were accurate, one or two have even bigger increases, while Scottish Squash’s proved to be optimistic. However, these figures come from the governing bodies themselves and are then verified by us."

However, John Dunlop, then CEO of SSRL, insisted last night that his sport provided no such data, and that far from being verified, he spoke thrice to a sportscotland officer, warning that the data was incorrect. "I did this with three witnesses in the car at the time," said Dunlop,. "The 20% figure was absolute fiction."

Despite the willingness to report "incomplete" figures for wrestling, sportscotland reported the 20% figure. Sportscotland continued to insist late last night that the 20% figure came from the squash governing body. "My assumption is that he [Dunlop] was involved in Scottish Squash providing us with their projected figure," said the spokesman who did not believe he had ever spoken to Mr Dunlop. "I am utterly unconvinced by his interpretation of events."

However, Dunlop, no longer with squash, but then one of only three employees, said no mechanism existed in their membership system to record any short term increase, or decrease. "Even if there had been a 20% increase, we would not have known it."

I am certainly aware of children who attend, say, four several Active Schools activities per week, being classed as four different people, thus massaging figures, and of school sport taster sessions lasting six weeks - little more than a box-ticking exercise.

All of which persuades me that an independent "Observatory" is not simply a good idea, but a necessity.

Sportscotland know of today's meeting, but will not be present. They have their own conference next month on the future of sport in Scotland..

A spokesperson said: "There is now more data for sport in Scotland than ever before and it is also the most comprehensive it has ever been. We work closely with our partners in local government, clubs, and elsewhere to collate data, and the Scottish Government’s Open Data Strategy encourages the collection and publication of data for people and communities to use . . . We have detailed and accurate data on the Active Schools Network and Community Sport Hubs. We are always happy to engage with individuals and organisations to help continually improve the reliability and accessibility of information pertaining to Scottish sport."

Financial institutions and charitable trusts will attend this afternoon's "Observatory" seminar. To get it off the ground will take £420,000 per year. But if sportscotland wish to boost credibility they should pass their data-gathering to the independent observatory for validation. This would save money and remove criticism.