Rebecca Evans: I think my statement there was probably poorly worded, because I do reassure you that Government is looking across all of our portfolios in terms of what we can be doing, as I said, to prevent people becoming addicted to gambling in the first place and then to lessen the impact that it might have. The Welsh Government has a planning policy seeking to sustain and enhance the vibrancy,...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. I am pleased to launch our tobacco control delivery plan for Wales 2017-20. The actions contained in this plan have been developed to address tobacco use in Wales, and will ensure our work remains on track to reduce smoking prevalence levels to 16 per cent by 2020. Cigarette smoking is the greatest single cause of premature death in Wales, causing around 5,450 deaths a year....
Rebecca Evans: Reducing smoking levels in Wales remains a priority for our Government. In 2012, we published our tobacco control action plan for Wales. The plan set a target to reduce smoking levels from 23 per cent in 2010 to 16 per cent by 2020. It also expressed a vision of a smoke-free society for Wales in which the harm from tobacco is eradicated. I am pleased to say that our 2012 plan has resulted in...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much. I thank you very much for your welcome for the plan, but also for those important questions as well. You began by talking about how shocking it is that so many people are still smoking and the impact that has on families. In my statement, I said that smoking kills over 5,000 individuals every year. So, that’s 5,000 families impacted terribly by smoking. It is the main...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those questions, and particularly for the focus that you gave at the start in terms of what we can do to prevent children and young people from taking up smoking in the first place. And our recent public health Act, as you know, extends the smoking ban to places where children and young people often frequent. And there’s a commitment within that Act that Ministers...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those questions. I’ll begin where you finished in terms of talking about collaboration with other organisations with a keen interest in this area. ASH Wales have been funded for three years to support us in the delivery of our plan, but they play a really important role as well in terms of having wider discussions with all of those people with an interest in tobacco...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for that question. Under the current smoke-free premises regulations 2007, managers of hotels, guest houses, bed and breakfasts, inns and members’ clubs with residential accommodation are allowed to designate bedrooms for smoking. There’s no legal obligation for them to do so, as it’s up to the manager to decide whether or not smoking rooms are to be allocated. But, when...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. In July, I received and published the independent panel’s report on their review of Sport Wales, with a firm commitment to consider the report and its recommendations over the recess and make a statement on the Government’s response in the autumn. I welcome the review and its recommendations, and I thank everyone who participated in the process. I am particularly grateful to...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those comments. I probably—well, I certainly wouldn’t agree with your opening comments regarding the relationship between Welsh Government and Sport Wales. I don’t think they paint a fair reflection and they certainly don’t paint a fair reflection of Sport Wales as an organisation. I’ve been clear all along, with all of the history that we’ve had with the...
Rebecca Evans: Okay, thank you very much for those questions. I was very pleased to be able to work with Plaid Cymru to include that amendment within the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017 in terms of introducing a national obesity strategy for Wales. I’m pleased to inform you as well that it’s one of the areas of the Bill that I do take as a priority. So, it will be one of the Parts of the Bill that I’m...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those questions and comments. Having heard you speak previously with such passion about Newport Live and the potential that it has and what it’s already delivering, I was really pleased to go along and see what they did for myself. I was just as impressed as I expected I would be after hearing you speak about them. At the same time, over one side, we had people...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for those questions. I think you’re right in the sense that the review itself did recognise that there is some work for Sport Wales to do in terms of its relationships with stakeholders and how they manage those relationships. So, one of the recommendations for Sport Wales within the review was for it to consider how it manages those relationships with the national...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for those questions and comments. You particularly referred to the importance of having the right mix of facilities in the right parts of Wales, and that’s certainly something that the Cabinet Secretary for economy’s facilities review is looking at, in terms of what do we have at the moment in Wales already, but where does the investment need to be in future in order...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for that question, and I would be happy to provide the Assembly with a written statement in the coming weeks on the road map and the particular timescales that we have for the implementation of this part of the Act.
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for that question. We certainly were proposing to remove that 24-hour nurse requirement within the regulations because it was very stringent and very strict, and actually didn’t give residential homes the flexibility that they actually need—that we believe they need—to meet the needs of the people they care for in the most appropriate way. So, in future, the statement of...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for that question. Developing the workforce and providing public assurance are two of my personal key priorities, but they’re also priorities of Social Care Wales, which, as you’ll be aware, came into existence in April of this year. And those two issues, I think, are very much front and centre as well of their strategic plan for the next five years. And they’re very much...
Rebecca Evans: Health Technology Wales has a remit to assess emerging technologies across health and social care and make recommendations for their adoption. Our efficiency through technology and integrated care funds support the rapid evaluation and upscale of new and emerging technologies within real-world care settings.
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for that question and the recognition of the huge range of assistive technologies that there are, and the sheer potential of them in terms of improving the care that we offer people. There are already established funding mechanisms in place and established approaches with regard to the adoption and expansion of the use of assistive technologies. For example, our digital...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for that question, and I have certainly had discussions with the Cabinet Secretary for the economy on the fact that we have identified social care as a sector of national strategic importance. And, of course, you will have seen in ‘Prosperity for All’ that it is one of our key cross-cutting themes alongside housing, which also plays into this kind of area as well....
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. The UK Chief Medical Officer has commissioned the UK physical activity committee to consider the evidence calling for a ban on contact rugby for school-age children. The committee rejected the call to ban tackling and did not feel that rugby participation poses an unacceptable risk of harm.
