Liberal Democrat Sports spokesperson Jim Tolson MSP has welcomed Liz McColgan’s suggestions to help get more young people involved in sport.

The Liberal Democrats believe that the SNP should be much more ambitious about exercise in schools and have suggested a raft of measures to help children achieve a new and ambitious target of every child getting the equivalent of one hour of physical activity every day.

Commenting, Mr Tolson said:

“I hope that the Minister for Sport listened carefully to Liz McColgan’s comments and is now prepared to take action.

“Liberal Democrats are proposing a raft of measures to get more young people into sport. We want the SNP to be much more ambitious and adopt our target of every child getting the equivalent of one hour of physical exercise a day.

“As Liz McColgan quite rightly points out, a base fitness level is needed for children to enjoy fully participating in sport. Extra coaching provision will be needed if more children are to be taking part in sport. We believe that the Government must support local clubs who work with schools so that Active School clusters can commission sports coaching from local clubs for, during and after the school day.

“Encouraging children to choose healthier lifestyles is a vital part of tackling the obesity epidemic.”