Press Release

SMITH CONDEMNS SPORTSCOTLAND DECISION

18/5/06

Margaret Smith, Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh West, has condemned the Scottish Executive’s announcement that it intends to relocate sportscotland’s headquarters from its current location at South Gyle in her constituency to Glasgow.

Ms Smith commented:

“Moving sportscotland to Glasgow makes no sense. The Executive’s job relocation policy was intended to spread civil service jobs all around Scotland, but a clear majority over the past seven years have in fact moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow.

“This is bad news for Edinburgh, bad news for sportscotland, bad news for sportscotland’s employees and bad news for Scottish sport. They now face the choice of commuting to Glasgow, relocating themselves and their families or losing their jobs altogether.

“A recent professional report showed that around 30% of sportscotland’s staff would leave the organisation if it moves to Glasgow. It makes no sense to allow this to happen at a time when sportscotland needs all its experience and expertise to fight for the 2014 Commonwealth Games to come to Scotland. In order to help our athletes to achieve their best at those Games, we need organisational stability in sportscotland: not organisational chaos.

“Audit Scotland will soon publish a report into the relocation policy and whether or not moves such as Scottish Natural Heritage have represented good value for money. It therefore seems utterly illogical to relocate SportScotland before that report is published.”