Sport and physical activity policy in Scotland: An intersectional approach to addressing inequalities

Abstract

Key health indicators and participation rates across sport and physical activity have remained stagnant in Scotland since it gained devolution powers. Across the same period, evidence has demonstrated that inequalities in health and participation continue to worsen, raising concerns about the effectiveness of policy to be able to stymie such inequalities from becoming entrenched within society. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse current issues with sport and physical activity policy in Scotland through an intersectional framework, understand the experiences of delivering such policy, and how future policy might be developed to be more effective in addressing issues of inequality. The data was collected as part of an academic fellowship with the Scottish Parliament, which enabled access to 23 individuals in key decision-making roles at 20 different organisations with responsibilities for the implementation of sport and physical activity policy in Scotland. The results indicate significant challenges in current approaches to policy delivery, including an over-reliance on universalism and a lack of intersectional applications. It is argued that inequalities should be understood both in terms of their individual characteristics and also being contextualised in an intersectional way. This position informs the recommendations for future policy development.

Introduction

As part of its devolved powers from the United Kingdom Government, the Scottish Government is responsible for funding sport and physical activity (PA) in Scotland. Addressing health inequalities has been a focal point of the Scottish Government's policy rhetoric since devolution. This positioning has led to sport and PA policies being developed within the Department of Health and Social Care. Despite this, inequality and health poverty contribute significantly to existing disparities in sport and PA participation (Meir et al., 2024). Although a ‘Scottish approach’ to policymaking relies on public participation, consultation, and cooperation (McHugh et al., 2023), economic and social disadvantage has not been identified as a national sport and PA strategy priority in its own right. Therefore, gaps remain between policy intent, delivery and impact. The political intentions of the Scottish Parliament following devolution were that consultation and bottom-up policy making would be part of a culture of openness, power sharing, equality, and accountability, to enable a new political culture away from the adversarial politics of the UK system of government (Arnott, 2024). However, previous policy actions have been insufficient in addressing inequalities and reversing the crisis of inactivity (Hallal et al., 2012; Rutter et al., 2020; Kay, 2020; Finch et al., 2023; Meir et al., 2024; Meir, 2025).

These inequalities remain stubbornly present, becoming entrenched at a young age and persisting into adulthood (Rowe, 2019; Rowe and Brown, 2023). For example, people living in the most deprived areas of Scotland are much less likely to participate in sport (37%) compared with those living in the least deprived areas (64%). Furthermore, 57% of people in the most deprived areas of Scotland meet the recommendations for MVPA, with 31% having very low activity, while in the least deprived areas, 73% of people meet the recommendations and only 13% have very low activity (SHS, 2022). In addition to the issue of economic and geographic inequality are a wide variety of specific inequalities, such as disability, gender, and race, among others.

Understanding the nuances of these individual inequalities is fundamental to understanding how inactivity can be better understood and addressed. However, it is also essential to understand how these individual forms of inequalities intersect with one another, as exclusion and oppression can never be simply reduced to one fundamental point of difference (Crenshaw, 1991). Intersectionality recognises the complex entanglements involved in understanding an individual's identities and experiences, as well as how power and privilege can operate within a given context. Employing an intersectional lens to these issues of inequalities in sport and PA can help policymakers understand the wider context within which individual inequalities relate to patterns of inactivity.

Whilst the notion of political change in Scotland has largely been driven by social and cultural pressure, national policy in relation to issues such as poverty remains highly centralised (McCrone, 2024; Scott and Mooney, 2009). Further to this, and despite the rhetoric around social justice and the reduction of poverty, policy has generally been framed within a neoliberal framework of economic growth and competitiveness. There remain obvious tensions between the two opposing objectives of social justice and economic growth (Scott and Mooney, 2009). This has also been reflected in Scottish sport policy, with strong emphasis being placed simultaneously on the hosting of international sporting events and driving community sport and PA participation (Jiang and Whigham, 2023). The logic is that investment in the former will benefit the latter, despite repeated counter-evidence from the academic community (e.g., Stewart and Rayner, 2016), as well as the Scottish Government's own analysis on the impact of hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games, outlining only minor positive impacts at best (2015). These contradictions across the political and social spheres, and the inequalities they produce, are the products of continuously intersecting socio-political processes of power and domination (McCartney et al., 2021). It can be argued that within Scotland, these processes lead to a centralised approach to policy making, short-termism and a lack of coherence across different policy areas (Finch et al., 2023).

Graeber and Wengrow (2021) offered relevant insights into the complexity of the political nature of inequality. They identify that inequality as a singular concept is ideal for the encouragement of half measures and compromise in policy circles. A singular concept of inequality removes the nuances required to truly understand the multiple inequalities that impact people. The framing of inequality in such a way is prohibitive for those who seek to change unequal societal structures, as it implies that no meaningful solution to the problem of inequality is possible (Graeber and Wengrow, 2021). Therefore, if inequalities are an inevitable outcome of unequal distribution, there is a requirement to look beyond the current Scottish Government's capacity to address inequalities in sport and PA engagement, and to determine alternative perspectives that will challenge current half measures.

However, the current policy approach of focusing on individual characteristics of identity and inequalities, as evidenced by a series of reports on health inequalities in recent years (e.g., HSCSC, 2022; Public Health Scotland, 2024; Scottish Government, 2024) has yet to shift the needle on participation trends within sport and PA, which could be attributed to the extant systemic power inequalities which are embedded within such contexts (Collins and Kay, 2014; Denison et al., 2021). Although sport and PA are frequently positioned by those in Governmental power across the world as sites through which inclusion can be achieved, critical sociological research in these areas continues to identify flaws within this ideological framing (e.g., Simpkins et al., 2022; Storr, 2021; Ward et al., 2024). These sectors can be described as ‘inequality regimes’, which are settings that reproduce traditional hierarchical power dynamics based on an individual's identity characteristics through deeply-embedded social, cultural, historical, and political influences (Acker, 2006). As expounded by Simpkins et al. (2022), sport organisational cultures are particularly susceptible to these, with an intersectional lens being used to explore the ‘inequality regimes’ of sport leadership contexts and their impact on Black women's experiences. We propose that by adopting a similar intersectional approach to Scottish sport and PA policy, this research can provide appropriate recommendations for future policies, strategies, and practices that acknowledge the need for identifying specific characteristics of inequalities but understand and address them in an intersectional way.

Addressing the issues outlined in this introduction is a significant challenge. In response, this research provides evidence gathered from a cross-section of high-level individuals responsible for sport and PA delivery within Scotland. This evidence has been gathered with the assistance of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government. It concerns the challenges posed by inequalities, the need for ambition in addressing those inequalities, and the requirement to evolve the narrative around the nature of sport, PA and participation. Building upon these understandings, the aim of this paper is to determine the key inequalities that impact inactivity and to explore the potential for intersectional solutions to those issues. The article will address this aim through the following objectives:

Identify specific inequalities that impact participation in Scottish sport and PA.

Critically explore the intersectional nature of those inequalities.

Recommend policy solutions for addressing inequalities in an intersectional way.

Background

The Scottish Government stated in its 2021 Programme for Government that it would double investment in sport and active living to £100 million a year by the end of the Parliament (Scottish National Party, 2021). At the time of writing and as the current Parliament enters its last few months, that target remains unmet, although the recently released budget for 2026/27 states that the Scottish Government will invest an additional £40 million in sport and PA. Amidst the backdrop of a looming Scottish Parliament election, the specifics of this offer remain vague, but do include universal free swimming lessons for every primary school child in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2026). The lack of investment up until this point has created a real-term funding reduction of nearly 25% since the 2021 commitment. Sports Governing Bodies have stated that due to this reduction, they are becoming less inclusive and less able to play a role in broader health prevention and community cohesion schemes (Scottish Gymnastics, 2025). As Jarvie (2019) argues, successful societies are inclusive societies, and sport has the capacity to contribute to this aim if appropriately supported by policy and funding.

The challenge lies in entrenched structural barriers that reinforce inequality in Scottish society (Meir, 2025). The causes of inequalities are intersectional with social inequality as the ultimate divider. It reinforces material deprivation, creates multiple challenges in everyday life and impacts negatively on people's capacity to engage in sport and PA (Kay, 2020). One area where these concerns are highly evident is in health inequalities.

Health inequalities and geographical variations

It is important to understand the impact of health inequalities in contexts of high deprivation. There are significant differences in the life expectancy and health of people across Scotland, depending on factors such as where they live, their age, gender, and their ethnic group (Scottish Government, 2018). This was supported by the Scottish Household Survey (2022), which highlighted that 51% of people with limiting long-term conditions meet recommended activity levels and 34% have very low activity. By way of comparison, 69% of people with a non-limiting long-term condition meet the recommendations, and 15% have very low activity. These concerns are reinforced by the statistics showing that in 2018–2020, there was a 24-year gap in healthy life expectancy between people living in the least and most deprived 10% of local areas in Scotland (Finch et al., 2023).

Discussing health inequalities requires an understanding of the contrasting demands and issues between rural and urban areas. For example, children from urban environments are often less active than children from rural communities (McCrorie et al., 2020). Further to this, the cost of participation in sports clubs and activities such as gyms, the availability of sporting facilities in deprived areas, the cost of equipment, and the time cost associated with participation in PA were considered to disproportionately impact women and girls experiencing socioeconomic disadvantages (HSCSC, 2023). Ultimately, there are considerable variations across different local authorities in Scotland. The extent of the variation is shown by comparing the average of sports participation rates (for 2015‒2017) for the top ‘performing’ local authorities (58%) with that of the lowest performing (42%). This difference of 16% is significant and reinforces the complexities associated with addressing socio-economic disadvantage and the exclusion that can be experienced across geographic regions (Rowe, 2019; Sportscotland, 2015; Sportscotland, 2020). To understand this further, it is important to focus on specific groups within Scottish society, the barriers they face in engaging with sport and PA, and the intersectional nature of their inequalities.

Rates of participation

Young people

Health inequalities exist in the earliest stages of childhood, particularly for the most disadvantaged children (Finch et al., 2023). In consideration of these health inequalities and how they might impact future generations, there are significant concerns when analysing the current participation rates of young people. For example, only a small minority of young people are currently meeting daily PA recommendations. There is a growing disparity between young people who are physically active and those who are not (Scot Gov, 2022). This has been exacerbated by many activities not returning to pre-COVID-19 patterns (Murray et al., 2024). More specifically, the HSCSC (2022) stated that less than one in five (17%) of adolescents in Scotland meet the current PA recommendations for 60 min a day of MVPA. These concerns are further reinforced through the data, with less than half of adolescents in Scotland usually walking to school and very few pupils’ cycling (HSCSC, 2022); 35% of pupils living in the most deprived 20% areas in Scotland are inactive, compared to 23% of pupils in the 20% least deprived areas (Kay, 2020); and young people who are already active are more likely to become involved in in programmes such as Active Schools than those who are not (Meir et al., 2024).

Women and girls

For women and girls, there is the acknowledgement that they face intersecting barriers to participation in sport and PA and will encounter these barriers from an early age (Ljungmann et al., 2025). Such barriers faced by women and girls, including harassment, safety concerns, and negative body image (HSCSC, 2023). In response to these barriers, health and gendered offerings have been recognised by the Scottish Government, with Scotland being the first UK country to launch a Women's Health Plan (Scottish Government, 2021). Despite this, these barriers continue to reinforce the ‘gender gap’ in sports participation, which starts very young and girls’ participation drops markedly as they move into their teenage years. By the age of 13–15 years, more girls do not participate in sport (55%) than do (45%) (Rowe, 2019). Traditionally, girls have been less positive about sport than PA and were more concerned about having fun and being with their friends, rather than the competitive element of sport (HSC, 2017; Sportscotland, 2005). Whilst it has been argued that there are numerous girls and women who enjoy the competitive element of sport and PA, many prefer to focus on enjoyment and should be offered ample opportunities to do so with like-minded participants (HSCSC, 2023).

Non-competitive and informal sport is more likely to play a role in the older age groups in women. For many, sport and PA become more relevant when they create involvement and foster social relationships. Further diversification to promote sport and PA's more pleasurable and social aspects could widen opportunities for engagement and create diverse, informal and non-standardised opportunities to be physically active (Dellacasa and Oliver, 2024). As it stands, however, the relationship between gender and competitive/non-competitive sport in Scotland remains unclear due to a lack of relevant data (Davison and Cowan, 2020).

Further to the issue of competitive/non-competitive sport are barriers to participation in sport and PA because of a lack of understanding and education about the impacts of pregnancy, periods, menopause, and other women's health conditions on participation. For example, teachers in Scotland perceive that the menstrual cycle has a significant impact on participation in physical education. Further to this, both adolescent and adult football players often perceive sporting performance to be impacted by their menstrual cycle. They also experience difficulties in communicating these experiences from an early age, which then limits access to the support they may require (Brown et al., 2022; Donnelly et al., 2025). Alongside this concern is the impact of negative and marginalising experiences in physical education and a lack of female-only sporting opportunities (HSCSC, 2023). Addressing barriers to participation for women and girls requires a broader understanding of the development of an equal, diverse and inclusive sporting system within Scotland.

Ethnic minority groups

Scotland's census in 2022 evidenced that the proportion of people with a minority ethnic background rose to 12.9% in 2022 from 8.2% in 2011 (National Records of Scotland, 2023). Further to this growth, minority ethnic populations are significantly younger, with over 11% of under-18 s from minority ethnic groups compared to just 1.5% of those over 65. This changing demographic is most evident in Glasgow, where 20% of its population is from minority ethnic groups (Scottish Government, 2022). Issues around integration, health, funding, and social cohesion in relation to ‘new Scots’ participation in sport and PA going to be a significant area of interest in the coming years.

The Scottish Household Survey (2022) reports that participation trends within minority ethnic groups are equal to those of the overall population (82% including walking, 51% excluding walking). There is a recognition that the development of more single sex opportunities for women from ethnically diverse communities and a range of religions would increase their engagement with sport and PA opportunities (Todd, 2023). However, intersectional analyses from wider sources suggest that these figures overlook several issues; for instance, Sport Wales (2022) reported a longstanding pattern of those children from Asian, Black, and Other ethnic backgrounds being less likely to be active than any other category, while Sport England (2021) consistently noted the lack of Asian female sport and PA participation. This is a key area where more information and data are required to understand the underlying issues and barriers that exist within Scotland.

Disability

In 2024, Scottish Disability Sport commissioned the Scottish Disability Sport National Survey. Key findings from the survey indicate that 80% of participants did no PA at all in a given week. Reasons identified included inappropriate public transport options, lack of encouragement to be more active, reliance on family and friends, and a lack of confidence (SDS, 2025).

Further to these concerns, Davison and McPherson (2021) highlighted that data within the 2018 Scottish Health Survey suggested that poverty and deprivation negatively impact participation in sport for people with disabilities. The combination of having a disability and living in poverty creates ‘significant challenges in terms of sports participation that may influence motivation levels for people with disabilities living in Scotland’ (Davison et al., 2023, 11). The issue of poverty is further reinforced by individuals expressing a fear of losing benefits. Whilst they express a strong desire to improve their physical health, they were concerned that if their participation led to improvements in physical function, they would be reassessed for their benefit entitlement (Davison et al., 2023; SDS, 2025). Alongside poverty, significant levels of sedentary behaviour amongst people with a disability are a concern, which negatively impacts general health (Davison et al., 2023). Furthermore, intersectional barriers faced by disabled girls and women are underexplored, relating to a lack of accessible and suitably adapted facilities and infrastructure (HSCSC, 2023), while there is a lack of Scottish-specific data on individuals’ lived experience of disability and participation in sport and PA (Davison et al., 2023).

Older adults

Scotland is an ageing country, with the older population (65 + year-olds as a proportion of the total population) estimated to grow from 19.4% to 25.5% by 2045 (Public Health Scotland, 2024). This growth will have significant impacts on health provision and the welfare state over the next two decades and reinforces the need for older adults to be as active as possible. Over the same period, the number of children (aged 0 to 15) and young adults (aged 16 to 29) are both projected to fall by 79,900 and 57,300, respectively (NRS, 2023). Whilst these issues bring challenges, they also bring opportunities. However, there is a clear pattern of declining rates of participation in PA as adults get older. This is clearly evidenced through summary activity data from SHS (2022), which highlights that 74% of 45–54-year-olds meet the recommendations for PA with 20% having very low activity, with the figures for 55–64-year-olds being 58% and 26%; 65–74-year-olds 55% and 29%; and 75+-year-olds 37% and 49%. When walking is included in participation data sets adults participating in sport and exercise was 80%, whereas after removing walking this falls to 54%, demonstrating its popularity among these age groups (SHS 2022). Although there was a decline in participation in sport and PA beyond walking between 2007 and 2016 for people under 65, there was a very slight increase for those aged 66 and above (Davison and Cowan, 2020). However, with people expected to live longer there is the understanding that Scotland's diverse and ageing population has much to offer sport. There are people with a wealth of knowledge and experience to be passed on, which is an opportunity that should not be missed (Jarvie, 2019).

Intersectionality

While there are certain benefits in breaking down inequalities by the characteristics which have been discussed, there are growing calls for policy and research in sport and PA to focus on the intersectional aspects of social inequalities (e.g., Lambert et al., 2025; Peers et al., 2023). This directive is argued to promote more inclusive policies than those which focus on singular aspects of identities, while tackling some of the more complex challenges associated with social exclusion from sport and PA participation (Lusted, 2014). While a characteristic-specific focus can highlight specific populations which have received limited attention, these often overlook the wider contextual and structural issues which have underpinned social exclusion for decades (Hylton and Totten, 2013). Such structural issues do not appear to have been considered within much previous sport and PA policy, despite the language of intersectionality becoming more commonplace within policy making circles. However, as yet, this has not translated into sport and PA policies being framed around an intersectional lens. This could be because a strong focus on equality is not always coming from the top, and there remain some concerning attitudes towards equality, particularly from some of those involved in some Scottish Governing Bodies for Sport (Research Scotland, 2016). Peers et al. (2023) also suggested that it may be due to a lack of accountability when it comes to implementing intersectional policies, an issue often compounded by the majority of decision makers frequently lacking lived experiences of the complex issues they are attempting to address. Such a dearth in the application and even acknowledgement of intersectional inequalities within sport and PA policy making is potentially overlooking the interrelations which exist between different personal identifiers, which could be preventing the transformative structural changes required to enable greater participation in sport and PA in various communities.

Methodology and methods

This paper stems from an Academic Fellowship research project which the author(s) undertook in partnership with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), which is based within the Scottish Parliament. The initial purpose of the Academic Fellowship project was to explore the existing cultural, social, and economic barriers to sport and PA participation, as well as their potential policy solutions, in a way which both scrutinised current policy enactment and could help inform future policy developments. The research took place over 12 months and involved an initial review of evidence, empirical data collection, compilation of a final report, and dissemination across the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government. Both the evidence review (Meir and Scott, 2025a) and final report (Meir and Scott, 2025b) are publicly accessible via the Scottish Parliament website.

For the empirical data collection, the project adopted a critical qualitative approach in order to investigate the various definitions associated with the challenges of sport and PA participation and policy, to critique existing assumptions pertaining to these areas, and explore possible future developments (Denzin, 2017). Due to the complexities associated with trying to understand the sport and PA policy landscape from various perspectives, a critical qualitative approach enabled the researchers to consistently scrutinise and interpret the cultural, social, and economic aspects involved in policy design and action as described by the participants. Overall, the data collection involved 20 semi-structured interviews with 23 individuals from 20 different organisations, which took place online using Microsoft Teams. The identities of the organisations and individuals involved in the research have been anonymised throughout the project, as per the ethical agreement implemented at the outset of the research. However, each of the individuals interviewed was a key decision maker within their place of work, with job titles including Chief Executive Officer, Senior Development Officer, Project Manager, Policy and Communications Officer, Policy Manager, and Director of Wellbeing. The organisations included were key stakeholders in Scottish sport and PA, ranging across the national, regional, and local levels, as well as spanning the policy sphere of involvement, including influencing policy direction directly, Scottish Government partners, and policy delivery at the ground level.

Participants were sampled purposively through criterion-based sampling, with specific individuals identified as being able to contribute to the research due to their recent involvement in Scottish sport and PA debate, development, and/or delivery by SPICe. An initial shortlist of 25 individuals from 21 organisations was drawn up by SPICe, before the researcher(s) then initiated recruitment through an introductory email. Written consent regarding the study and publication of data was provided by each participant prior to interviews being scheduled via a participant information sheet, which outlined the details of the study, with additional verbal consent being sought at the start of each interview. A semi-structured interview guide of nine questions was developed based on the research questions of the project. This guide was used in each of the interviews to provide a consistent base of inquiry. The questions asked about their experiences, understandings, and opinions of sport and PA policy development and implementation, while retaining a degree of flexibility for participants to explore relevant avenues of discussion which arose spontaneously during the interviews. Each interview lasted one hour on average, with transcripts being automatically generated through the Microsoft Teams application and being checked for accuracy by the researcher(s) before data analysis commenced.

Following the completion of the interview process, the data were analysed using Braun and Clarke (2006) 6-phase thematic analysis guide to explore the deeper patterns and themes. The author(s) devoted time to becoming familiar with the data through several read-throughs of the transcripts before generating initial codes relevant to the research questions. Data were organised into separate documents corresponding to these initial codes, which included inequalities, gender, disability, race, etc., before initial themes were devised. After reviewing and revising these themes to ensure coherent patterns across the data were established to enhance the credibility of the interpretations, these were then defined and named “The Nature of Existent Policy & Practice”, “Facilitating and Embedding a Systems-Based Approach”, and “Building the Evidence Base”, which formed the structure of the final report and the basis of the following findings in this paper (Nowell et al., 2017). The draft of the completed report was sent to each participant for their feedback, as well as to SPICe, prior to final publication, with no comments or alterations being received within a two-week period.

Results

Targeted provision

The participants were aware that there are significant inequalities in Scotland in relation to access and participation in sport and PA, and that these are continuing to widen.

The gap between those living in the most deprived and those living in the least deprived has widened since 2022. (RP2)

Participants also discussed how this disparity has been reinforced by the broader inequalities that exist within Scottish society. The challenge, therefore, as posited by the interviewees, is how do we mitigate against these broader inequalities within sport and PA. One way of doing so is through exploring the balance between universal and targeted provision. One participant highlighted the issue with the nature of programme design and who these programmes are for:

We're creating programmes that that, you know, benefit the masses, but it's not the masses that need those programmes. (RP13)

Local autonomy drives provision and, therefore, targeted and/or universal provision becomes a matter for local decision making. The challenge of how to balance both perspectives is highlighted in the comments below:

We do a significant amount of targeted work because we recognize if we don't, we'll just create bigger inequalities. We also have a universal offering, but we recognise that offering is not fair because the people who potentially want to come but can’t because of cost or because of their circumstances with their disability etc. (RP10)

I think we benefit from flexibility to be able to understand our communities. And I think if it's too targeted, it becomes too inflexible and sometimes you miss those that need that support. We need to allow people that are working out in communities to be able to target provision based on their understanding of that community. (RP9)

The most obvious issue associated with targeted provision, particularly in areas of deprivation, is the significance of the challenge. Ultimately, ‘it is very difficult target effectively, particularly people living in poverty’ (RP9), and to do so, organisations are required to ‘go under the skin of different population groups in different localities to understand what some of those barriers are’ (RP20). Stakeholders from across the sporting landscape in Scotland are required to be cognisant of this concern and argue for a level of policy focus and funding required to make significant change. This position is highlighted by a participant in their statement below:

I mean, you're really looking for 10-year investment in some communities. And I really think that unless that commitment comes from a prolonged period of time, it's a sticky plaster job. (RP4)

Whilst the author(s) support a renewed policy focus in this area, there are broader social and economic challenges that people face in their desire to be more physically active. This position is highlighted in the statements below:

It may be a policy priority, but it's not a family's priority. Probably on a day-to-day basis, they're not looking at how improved physical activity levels will reduce their health burden down the line. (RP9)

I think there's too many other aspects of people's lives being impacted by other factors that this doesn't even hit home. (RP4)

This is not just about what something costs or the associated costs such as transport, but it is the broader challenge of people being time poor and/or the potential loss of earnings. This is highlighted clearly by one of the participants below:

It's not just a cost of accessing something. It's the cost of the time that you're spending accessing. (RP11)

Alongside the issue of deprivation in relation to participation and engagement are the 22% of people in Scotland who are undertaking less than 30 min of MVPA per week. This group were discussed a number of times and highlighted as a policy priority moving forward. The key reasons for this policy focus are highlighted by two participants:

Those undertaking less than 30 minutes of MVPA per week should be a priority if we are working in the context of population health. (RP6)

I think the other thing for me that is quite key that again we need to really focus on is those people that do under 30 minutes. It's actually the biggest burden on the NHS and people from this group are most likely to die earlier. (RP2)

Participants argued that to rise to the significant challenge of raising participation in those who undertake less than 30 min per week of MVPA requires a shift in both narrative and expected outcomes. This shift includes:

Raising awareness of specific barriers to enable understanding ‘beyond some of the assumptions that are made regarding this group’ (RP6).

Understanding that increasing participation within this group would be a big success ‘even if the overall population level figure had not changed’ (RP6).

Raising awareness of how programmes ‘attract the kind of active able rather than trying to specifically attract the group that perhaps we think most needs the program’ (RP8).

Understanding that ‘the terminology and the definitions that we use around this context can be quite misleading and quite off-putting. So, for a lot of people, the term sport and exercise, for example are a complete turn off’ (RP1).

Challenges of implementing intersectionality in sport and Pa

The issues of poverty, deprivation and those undertaking less than 30 min of MVPA per week are clearly linked. The participants identified a significant number of instances where inequalities are intersectional based on their own experiences. For example:

People, you know, not only maybe disabled, but they also have, you know, a long term health condition. It is a cross-cutting situation where we have somebody who is disabled and in turn chances are they may also then have financial challenges as well. (RP10)

The need to better understand intersectionality and its impact on engagement and inactivity is highlighted by an individual participant below:

We have to move to that intersectional approach, and we have to start to deal with the collective issues around involvement. (RP22)

To develop a broader understanding of intersectionality and its impact on inactivity requires a more in-depth knowledge of the way in which certain inequalities impact specific groups where the need is greatest. To take one example, older adults are a group for whom promoting PA is significantly underdeveloped in relation to policy. It is well known that older adults are not one homogenous group, and that the health of people defined within this group is significant in its disparity. However, there remain specific challenges here that require an increased policy focus. This perspective is highlighted in the comment below:

As usual, government people move on, things change and older adults appear to no longer be a priority for enough people for something to be done, which is a shame, because if you talk to chief medical officer, he'll tell you that's a priority group for him. (RP6)

One reason why they would be a priority is that the relationship between ageing and health inequalities is significant. It has been shown that in Scotland, life expectancy and healthy life expectancy are lower than those in equivalent countries (Finch et al., 2023). In many instances, the impact of poor health is being felt at increasingly earlier ages:

We are fully aware of the challenges the city's facing in terms of an ageing population and the fact is that people may have more than one long term condition and sadly that long term condition is reaching them at an earlier age. (RP10)

Another example can be given regarding the impact of geographical inequality on inactivity. There are significant disparities in how people across a variety of different areas in Scotland are able to access opportunities for PA. Ultimately,

Everyone does just have very different realities depending on where they live and that drives their behaviours. (RP5)

The disparities between urban and rural living are also evident. One participant spoke from their own experience of living in the city and the benefits for their activity levels that it brings as well as the difference they experienced when in a suburban or rural environment:

I live in the city and walk everywhere because it's just easier and it's better. And so you rack up steps that way. Even when I go visit my parents in a suburban area, driving is the default. You know that's way you get about and that's the same in rural areas. You jump in your car to get anywhere. (RP5)

Another issue that drives inactivity in rural areas is rural poverty. Whilst assumptions can be made that living in rural areas will inevitably increase opportunities to be outside and to be active, there remain ‘marginalised communities that struggle to access the kind of mainstream provision for various things’ (RP9).

Furthermore, disability and its impact on people's opportunity to engage with PA and sport garnered significant policy and academic focus, yet there are still numerous challenges remaining in turning that focus into reality for individuals. Ultimately, ‘people with disabilities are not meeting the physical activity targets. They're not physically active’ (RP23).

Addressing these key issues requires an understanding of what inclusion truly means within sport and PA and the complexities involved in realising inclusive practice and creating truly inclusive environments at an intersectional level. This challenge is highlighted clearly below:

The fear factor around disability is still there. Inclusion delusion is still there. People think they’re being inclusive, when if you do a bit of digging, then actually not. So we need to change that by good quality assured education and training. (RP23)

I don’t think anybody says, we’re not inclusive. You know, nobody's ever going to say that. But as we said, when we say, well, how many disabled people have you got? Oh no, we haven’t got anybody coming, but we’re really open to having them. (RP23)

Highlighting such positions is not a criticism of what is currently happening within practice. Rather, it is raising awareness of just how difficult developing inclusion within sport and PA is. One concern is that whilst many people working for or alongside people with disabilities and/or learning difficulties are doing fantastic work, they are not being fully supported in the delivery:

There's loads of great work, don’t get me wrong, loads of great work happening at all levels of sport, but I think it's been driven by people rather than strategy at the moment, and we need to make sure that it's driven by both. (RP23)

There remain significant issues, not just within sport and PA, in ensuring inclusion is delivered but further criticism comes from the notion that inclusion and intersectionality is no more than an afterthought or a buzzword that can be utilised in mission statements but without the need or desire to fully realise it, as has also been reported within Australian sport and PA policy and management contexts (Lambert et al., 2025). The comment below reinforces much of what is already known about this issue:

I think there's also a degree of paying lip service still in some areas. Yeah, we’ll put that in because it's addressing the government agenda. But what does that actually mean?. (RP23)

Additionally, building upon our understanding of the challenges around participation, it is important to address issues around female participation. There has been a recent policy shift towards female participation and the challenges associated with it. This has been explored extensively in the recent report published by the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee in 2023 entitled ‘Female participation in sport and physical activity’. We concur with the majority of recommendations within the report and want to highlight what we argue are two significant and corroborative aspects that mirror the findings of HSCSC (2023) from this research. These focus on the nature of female sport and the consideration that is required as to how it should develop at the grassroots and community level. This focus is evident in the two comments from an individual research participant below:

I think a lot of focus put on elite sport, and using elite sport to try and encourage young girls into sport, I don't think that's the right pathway to go. What they want is friendship, fun, and enjoyment. (RP7)

Making young girls sport accessible and encouraging them to make it what they want rather than what you want them to have. The key is to find out what they want and then use that. (RP7)

When thinking about inequalities and intersectionality in relation to gender and engagement, the LGBTQI + community is representative of the socio-economic challenges that are faced by so many people who are seeking to engage with sport and PA. This was expressed by a participant's view of sport and human rights more broadly:

We're not just talking about LGBTIQ + people we're talking about human rights as a whole and really understanding that universal access to sport being a human right because we don't see that coming from sport's governing bodies or from the sports sector at all. (RP11)

In relation to the balance of policy focus, there remain significant challenges in maintaining a policy focus on LGBTQI + participation and engagement. Part of the reason for this is a constantly evolving policy landscape. For example:

There is more of a focus on women and girls, for example, which is great, but that often doesn't include any of our work within LGBTQI + inclusion. So that's part of the battle for us sometimes making sure that we still belong in that space. (RP11)

Further to this are the current perspectives around trans participation. The participant highlighted a key issue. They expressed their concerns as to how the discourse around trans participation has shifted from the principles of inclusion:

Our conversations are a lot less about inclusion than they ever have been, but we strongly believe that they should be about inclusion. We also understand that restriction is necessary to a certain extent. (RP11)

To address exclusion through aligning it with the understanding of specific inequalities, significant thought is required as to the way in which sport and PA programmes determine and realise intended outcomes. This position was specifically addressed by an individual research participant:

Organisations are required to think a little bit about the impact that they want to have and develop really clear outcomes that can be measured. This is not only important at the program planning stage, but it also helps people think about how you're then going to support people on the ground who are facilitating the activities to actually have the similar kind of shared outcomes as well. Too often I think you can have people who have designed a fantastic project with really clear outcomes and have really thought very deeply about who they're trying to target and then that kind of gets lost as people put the project into practice. (RP8)

Discussion

While the results have tended to focus on specific inequalities in relation to participation in PA and sport, and the ways in which they might be mitigated, it is important to reframe these through an intersectional lens. Given the systems approach used to develop the Physical Activity for Health Framework (Scottish Government, 2024), an intersectional lens would appear to be an appropriate approach to take, given the holistic philosophy underpinning both. As discussed by Lambert et al. (2025), the language and ideas of intersectionality were clearly recognised by the participants included within this study, with some even discussing how they use intersectionality to inform their daily practices.

However, this was only the case for certain individuals and organisations, rather than the whole collective, which alludes to a lack of intersectional implementation across the sport and PA policy piece in Scotland. As such, Scottish sport and PA policy could be accused of adhering to Acker's (2006) concept of inequality regimes, as repeated efforts to address structural inequalities through policy have consistently failed to stimulate meaningful changes in practices when working across a range of target groups (Kay, 2020; Meir, 2025; Meir and Scott, 2025b).

Reasons for failing to move the needle on participation levels across these groups, as discussed by the participants, also resonate with the two common reasons for inequality regime change failure (Acker, 2006): an unwillingness to redistribute power by those who possess it, and unintended consequences of focusing on individual forms of inequality. The latter aspect challenges the purpose of interventions, which only focus on individual aspects of identity without consideration for the intersectional characteristics that contextualise it, which has been particularly relevant for many gender-focused interventions, which unintentionally reinforce gender hierarchies within organisations (Simpkins et al., 2022). This is a phenomenon that many of the participants highlighted when discussing the relative successes and failures of specific projects which targeted singular characteristics. Ultimately, inequalities stem from multiple sources and exacerbate the unequal distribution of agency and resources. This is reinforced by the dynamics of power and the limitations of democratic systems through which people seek to tackle inequalities (McCartney et al., 2021).

Inequalities can also be discussed in relation to the concept of luck, the distribution of which in society can be understood as systematic (Dowding, 1996). Recognising the role luck plays in individual outcomes is a counterpoint to dogmatic beliefs of meritocracy, which, if ignored, makes people less likely to contribute to the infrastructures and environments that provided them with the opportunities to be successful (Frank, 2016). Such an understanding of luck and inequalities more widely, possibly provides an explanation why it is less likely that people of privilege would be supportive of sport and PA policy that specifically targets those who have been less fortunate than themselves. Essentially, it is difficult for those who possess power to relinquish it (Acker, 2006; Dowding, 1996; Frank, 2016; Ward et al., 2024). As noted by McCartney and colleagues, ‘income and wealth inequalities can be seen as important measures and reflections of differential economic power between groups at particular times in particular places’ (2021, 15).

Such a position returns us to the notion of those in power being unable or unwilling to attempt to address multiple inequalities (Graeber and Wengrow, 2021; Lambert et al., 2025). It is also driven by the inability of politicians to create a compelling narrative that engages the public and convinces them of the value of greater resource redistribution across society. Ultimately, to ‘understand the realities of power is to acknowledge the gap between what elites claim they can do and what they are actually able to do’ (Graeber and Wengrow, 2021, 430). The reality of power allies with the challenge of structural reform in relation to greater resource redistribution.

Universalism or targeted provision

A feature of post-devolution Scotland has been a preference for universalism in public services, which tend to be free at the point of use, as demonstrated by the recent Scottish Government funding announcement of providing free swimming lessons for all primary-aged children (2026). There is a longstanding debate in social policy studies about whether universalism or selectivity in the provision of public services is more progressive. Universalism provides free services even to the better-off and advantages them if they engage with those services e.g., public leisure facilities. Alternative perspectives can ‘sustain support for public provision by binding all classes into the system and fostering shared social citizenship as well as discouraging opting out into private provision’ (Keating, 2024: 425), which might involve approaches such as an initial selectivity which targets the most vulnerable groups while accounting for the intersectional contextuality, or proportionate universalism (Maini et al., 2025). This debate has become even more pertinent considering the lack of investment in sport and PA over the previous programme of government (Meir et al., 2024).

The challenge for sport and PA in this context is that maintaining the focus on increasing collective participant numbers as opposed to targeted interventions is more likely to reinforce and/or increase the gaps between those who are active and those who are not (Research Scotland, 2018). As Rowe and Brown (2023) state, many of the megatrends affecting sport are working in the direction of pushing participation down in Scotland rather than up, increasing inequalities as opposed to reducing them. Structural inequalities such as gender and class in sports participation appear to be entrenched in Scottish society despite public policy priorities targeting these groups (Rowe, 2019). This is reflected in the intersectional challenges being faced across Scotland by specific groups such as the relationship between health inequalities and geographical location, young people and poverty, women and health, ethnic minority groups and social cohesion, disability and family and, the social exclusion ageing adults (Davison and Cowan, 2020; Finch et al., 2023; HSCSC, 2023; NRS, 2023; SDS, 2025).

The causes of inequalities are deep rooted, structural, and require to be resolved through long term investment that target specific communities through (a) an intersectional, holistic, and sustained approach to understanding the physical, social, structural, and environmental landscape; (b) a cross governmental commitment to the realisation of a systems based approach (Scottish Government, 2024) and (c) for social inequality and material deprivation to be treated as a priority at national policy level (Carlin et al., 2024; Finch et al., 2023; Kay, 2020).

Ultimately, we argue that inequalities, sport and PA should be thought about in two ways:

Instead of thinking about inequality as a whole, there is a need to think about which inequalities are the most important to address and why.

Once this has been determined, there is a requirement to look at those inequalities in an intersectional way.

Inclusive sporting environments

To embrace the challenge of intersectionality requires the creation of inclusive sporting environments. During the research, RP23 stated that there remains an ‘inclusion delusion’ within Scottish sport and PA in relation to equity of opportunity. There remains a discrepancy between the political visions of sport for inclusion and the lived realities of those targeted in policy (Dowling, 2024). In the context of PA and sport inequalities in Scotland, this is due to the conflation of issues and an inability to fully appreciate the considerable diversity within specific groups by way of intersectional understandings, and the need for a nuanced and specialist, yet joined-up, response to each topic area (Sportscotland, 2020). Bringing about real change to how inclusion is developed is seen as overtly challenging for organisations. Dominant discourses tend to be reproduced, and any change that occurs is driven more by individuals who champion the cause rather than systems and core values (Legg and Karner, 2021). In defence of sport and PA organisations in Scotland, there are limitations in their capacity and capabilities to deliver on inclusive objectives due to the challenges in interpreting evidence or navigating complex, emotive and ever-changing social debates (Jarvie, 2019; Sportscotland, 2020). Therefore, organisations must be appropriately supported through funding, guidance and resources to enable the realisation of an inclusive sporting environment across Scotland (Meir et al., 2026).

Building the evidence base

One way of supporting organisations in the creation of more inclusive environments that support intersectionality is by ensuring they have sufficient and appropriate data to work with. Whilst data in relation to sport and PA in Scotland exists, it does so across numerous organisations who each use their own reports, surveys and formats (Murray et al., 2024; Rowe and Brown, 2023). As it currently stands, the evidence base for ensuring informed policy and practice across sport and PA is insufficient. To ensure policy and practice are fully informed, it is critical to measure current rates of participation in sport and PA, broken down by age, gender, socio-economic backgrounds, disability, sexuality, ethnic and religious background and other characteristics (HSCSC, 2023; Lambert et al., 2025). Without more nuanced data sets, the capacity for organisations to understand intersectional issues and determine their key priorities, or for policy makers to produce fully informed work, is more limited than it should be.

Conclusion

In this research, we have evidenced and analysed specific inequalities that are significant within the Scottish sport and PA policy context. These are deprivation, those undertaking less than 30 minutes of MVPA per week, older adults, geographical inequalities, disability, and gender. Whilst we acknowledge the specificity of this analysis, the need to approach inequalities in sport and PA in an intersectional and targeted way is also apparent. Although there remain disagreements about the relative values of universal and targeted provision, we argue that the evidence provided in this article warrants the move towards more targeted and proportionate provision to support the implementation of the Physical Activity for Health Framework (Scottish Government, 2024).

Building upon this position, there were a number of competing perspectives throughout the research, but one statement summarised the importance of shifting towards a more targeted approach to sport and PA:

We just can't afford universalism anymore. (RP17)

In shifting away from universalism, there are no easy wins, and this runs counter to the narrative of sport and PA as a vehicle for positive social change. To ensure opportunities for positive social change can be realised, an increase in their understanding of specific groups, their specific needs and the challenges they face is required across the Scottish sporting landscape. We know that a targeted approach is far more complex than universalism, but we also know that for significant improvements to be made in addressing those who are inactive requires significant changes in approach. Inequalities are specific yet also intersectional, and this understanding needs to drive any future approaches towards equalising opportunities for engagement. Building upon this understanding and considering the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2026, our recommendations to address inequalities through an intersectional approach are:

In the short term, the Scottish Government should determine priority inequalities in collaboration with voluntary and public sector sport and PA organisations. In consideration of the recently announced funding uplift, this priority should focus on the provision of specific and negotiated resources to provide targeted support for identified communities in an intersectional way.

In the long term, any future policy development needs to determine specifically the inequalities that it is seeking to address and the intersectional nature of those inequalities. This development will require funding and guidance for organisations to adapt their practices so that they can target identified inequalities based on specific community needs.

Considering the requirements of the Physical Activity for Health Framework (Scottish Government, 2024), ring fenced resource is required to support public and voluntary organisations to embed the new framework in practice.

As it stands, a universal approach to sport and PA provision is the default. There are excellent examples of targeted provision across Scotland, but there is a need for a progressive and incremental shift away from universalism towards targeted and proportionate provision, despite the challenges involved. This transition will require the new Scottish Government to determine a series of national objectives in relation to targeted provision to be supported for scalable delivery at the local level through appropriate provision of resources and funding in a proportionate way.

A significant change in how data is collected to inform practice is needed. Sport and PA organisations require a clear perspective as to what data needs to be collected and why, how the data should be collected and by whom, and the process by which it will be utilised to support policy and practice by being accessible to all.