SportScotland Chair’s Governance Breach – Sport’s Minister asked to intervene as critical evidence destroyed, conflicted complaints process

Tony Brian, a former chair of Cricket Scotland, has called upon Sports Minister Maree Todd to intervene urgently following what he considers a clear breach of governance by Maureen Campbell, the Chair of sportscotland.

Ms. Campbell has refused an offer to meet to hear testimonies from six senior figures in cricket. This includes whistleblowers reporting major failings and misconduct by senior management at sportscotland in connection with its supervision of Scottish cricket, the 2022 Plan4Sport review into the sport and the subsequent, flawed process to investigate allegations of racism.

Mr. Brian and five other senior figures in the sport (their names and contact details have been provided to Ms. Campbell) were closely involved in the trauma Scottish cricket has experienced over the last three years and asked to give evidence to her personally.

Mr. Brian said: “Among people who love cricket in Scotland, trust in sportscotland and particularly in its complaints process, is practically non-existent. Ms. Campbell has refused to even speak with these senior and well-respected figures in our game, instead stating that they should report their concerns to a process run by the very people they are complaining about!

“It is basic good governance, to avoid the obvious conflict of interest, that investigations cannot be carried out or overseen by the people who are the subject of the allegations. This is made clear in the Model Complaints Handling Procedures (para 37) issued by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman who oversees complaint handling by public bodies such as sportscotland. Insisting that senior sportscotland staff investigate multiple, serious allegations against themselves through their internal complaints process is clearly unacceptable and seems a half-cocked attempt to brush this under the carpet.

“This refusal to listen to important evidence is symptomatic of how sportscotland has approached any formal complaints or requests to present evidence about the scandal it created in Scottish cricket over the past three years. sportscotland has also made strenuous efforts to drastically limit its responses to numerous Freedom of Information requests and to use all possible exemptions, even one which is designed for journalists.

“As time passes and more evidence emerges, it becomes clearer and clearer that sportscotland has been involved in a scandalous cover-up of what really happened in connection with Scottish cricket and so-called allegations of racism over the past three years. Ms. Campbell had the chance to stop the rot, but in refusing to meet six senior figures with genuine concerns including whistleblowers, it

appears she is continuing an opaque and unaccountable culture adopted in recent years by sportscotland executives, rather than fulfilling her clear obligations as an independent non-executive chair. The sports minister must now intervene.”
In December 2021 and following untested and unproven allegations by some individuals and a concerted media campaign by people connected to them, sportscotland instructed a review into what they called racism in Scottish cricket. When that review was published in July 2022 it claimed it had uncovered “448 examples of racism” in Scottish cricket (as was stated repeatedly by the-then sportscotland CEO, Stewart Harris).

However, in sportscotland’s update in January 2023 (Changing the boundaries report into racism in
Scottish cricket January update - sportscotland the national agency for sport in Scotland) those 448
“examples of racism” were framed dramatically differently and far less seriously, as follows: “More than half of those (246) related to policies and procedures across the sport, which created a culture where individuals were discriminated against, while 202 detailed individual concerns relating [sic] to direct racism, discrimination and inequalities”.

Thus, sportscotland was no longer claiming that there had been “448 examples of racism” but instead 246 issues relating to policies and procedures which allegedly “created a culture where individuals were discriminated against” and 202 “individual concerns” [notably no longer “examples”] – a very major softening of wording and a significant reduction in the seriousness of the supposed findings. Mr. Brian said: “Furthermore, the 246 issues supposedly relating to policies and procedures have never been published and both sportscotland, who commissioned the report, and Cricket Scotland, the body in respect of whom the review was done, say they have never seen them. “Astonishingly, the company that carried out the review says it has destroyed all the records and papers relating to the review.

So, those 246 have therefore disappeared without trace and without ever being seen! “And not a single one of the 202 supposedly “detailed individual concerns” has resulted in any action or findings against any person or body, even after £647,849 was spent by sportscotland on lawyers instructed to carry out in-depth investigations of 53 of the cases.

It can only be assumed that the other 149 “individual concerns” were assessed as being unworthy of any investigation. “As a result, all the so-called ‘evidence’ that Cricket Scotland was institutionally racist has simply evaporated. The headline-grabbing findings from the 2022 review can now be revealed as utterly unsupported by any facts, making this arguably the biggest sporting scandal in recent Scottish history.

“The testimonies offered by the six individuals would have provided further and critical information to demonstrate the failings in what sportscotland has done and sanctioned. Yet the Chair, Maureen Campbell, has refused to meet them, despite the clear obligations of a chair of a public body to investigate issues raised about its senior management. “In light of the failings of sportscotland at the highest level to hear and investigate the evidence offered, Maree Todd, as the Scottish Government Minister legally accountable for sportscotland, is duty bound to instruct a full and completely independent inquiry into sportscotland’s conduct in this matter, including into the review itself.

As a result of its refusal to act properly, sportscotland can simply not be trusted to look into any aspect of this growing scandal.”

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