Rebecca Evans: Formally.
Rebecca Evans: Health boards in Wales follow national guidance to support general practitioners and other healthcare professionals in the management of patients with coeliac disease. Staple items, such as fresh bread and pasta, are available on prescription to help patients optimise their nutritional status and maintain a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle.
Rebecca Evans: Yes. There are no plans to change the current situation with regard to staple items such as, as I said, fresh bread and pasta being available on prescription. Community pharmacies are actually really important in terms of providing people with coeliac disease the opportunity to buy a wide range of products, as well as what they receive on prescription. That just reinforces again the...
Rebecca Evans: Well, the Welsh Government joined many others in expressing some disappointment at the lack of ambition in the UK Government’s childhood obesity strategy. There are a number of areas in which the Welsh Government has consistently urged the Secretary of State for Health to deliver stronger action at a UK level, and that includes tougher action on sugar, for example, and particularly on the...
Rebecca Evans: Although latest figures suggest that obesity levels among children in Wales are stable, rates are still unacceptably high. Our programme for government makes a clear commitment to tackling obesity, working across Government and with schools to promote and increase healthier lifestyle choices.
Rebecca Evans: This is an issue affecting local authorities right across Wales, and, in terms of the why, I think the reason there is that, in 2014, the Supreme Court reached a decision known as ‘Cheshire West’, which widened the definition of what’s meant by deprivation of liberty, and Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales have jointly described a 16-fold...
Rebecca Evans: I don’t recognise the picture that you’re paining in terms of the support that we are giving to sustainable social services, to our third sector grant scheme, which is where the funding to which you refer, which was formally in the family fund, has been brought into. We have that fund, which is worth £22 million, which brings together four previous grant schemes, and we had 84...
Rebecca Evans: The draft budget shows an extra £25 million for social services, and that was in respect and in understanding of the severe pressures that the social services sector are under at the moment. Pressures include, for example, the national living wage coming in next year, which will impact on local authorities and providers themselves. But it’s very important to respect the fact that it’s...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for that question, and for your welcome for the nicotine register particularly. But with regard to the special procedures, I know that during the public health White Paper consultation, and through the previous Assembly scrutiny, many Members and Assembly Members suggested a list of special procedures that should be extended to include things such as those you suggest, like dermal...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for raising that particular issue, and I know that a survey by Help the Aged, as they were when they undertook the survey—now Age UK—found that more than half of older people found a lack of public toilets prevented them from going out as often as they would like, and that very much reflects the kind of story you’ve told us now about one of your constituents as well. I’ve...
Rebecca Evans: I thank the Member for the question and I know this is something he has taken a particular interest in, and that the body representing hairdressers has also written to all Assembly Members on this particular issue as well. It’s our view that industry regulation and health and safety are non-devolved, so it’s not something that we believe that we would have the powers to regulate within...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for those questions, and I neglected to address Angela’s point on the community-focused schools issue, so apologies for that. It is one of our manifesto commitments to make sure that we use the resources that we have in communities, particularly with regard to schools and the capital investment that we are making in twenty-first century schools, making those facilities available...
Rebecca Evans: I thank the Member for those comments and, again, for the very constructive way in which the party has sought to engage with the Bill at this early stage. With regard to the register of e-cigarettes, I’m really pleased to say that e-cigarettes will be included in the register of retailers. This is the only part of the Bill where you will find e-cigarettes, because you’ll be familiar with...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for raising these issues. With regard to the advertising industry and what we can do there, the Cabinet Secretary and I were very disappointed that the UK Government’s obesity strategy didn’t take any action in terms of addressing advertising aimed at children and young people particularly. We wouldn’t have the powers here in order to legislate in that area, so the...
Rebecca Evans: I thank the Member for those comments and obviously share your clear disappointment that the Bill wasn’t passed at the previous stage in the Assembly, but I’m looking forward to working constructively with you as we move forward on it. You mentioned several items that you are disappointed they aren’t addressed in the Bill, but of course, legislation is only one part of the way in which...
Rebecca Evans: I thank the spokesperson for the warm way in which she has welcomed the return of the Bill to the Assembly, and for her constructive comments this afternoon. I look forward to working with Members across all parties as we develop the Bill in the months to come. Your first question related to the fiscal implications of the Bill, and, at that point, I’d direct your attention to the...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I was pleased yesterday to introduce the Public Health (Wales) Bill, with its explanatory memorandum, to the National Assembly for Wales. The Bill affirms this Welsh Government’s continuing commitment to taking a lead on public health and doing the maximum we can to further improve and protect the health of people in Wales. We know the public health...
Rebecca Evans: I’d certainly like to give the legislation and the new integrated autism service, which, as I say, only came into force in April of this year, a chance to bed in. But, I think, what is really important is that I met recently with NAS Cymru and I’ve asked them to work through their draft Bill, which I assume is the same as your draft Bill, with my officials, identifying areas that they...
Rebecca Evans: There’s no difference in terms of what the First Minister said and what I’m telling you today. The point is, and what I’m illustrating to you is, the legislative and policy levers that we’ve put in place must be given a chance to bed in before we can take a decision on whether or not legislation must be introduced to fill in any gaps that there are. So, today, we’re not being asked...
Rebecca Evans: Yes, of course.
