Rebecca Evans: Well, this is where we’re heading, Mike, over the course of the speech. So, indeed this Act does put a special focus on autism. It puts a joint duty on health boards and local authorities to undertake the population needs assessment and to report on this by March of 2017. Autism and learning disabilities are identified as core themes of that work, and the assessment must identify the range...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m very pleased to have this opportunity today to set out how the Welsh Government is working to improve the lives of children and adults with autism and their families in Wales. But before I do that, on a personal note, I’ll remind Members that before I came into politics I worked in the autism sector, so I understand the issues that people with...
Rebecca Evans: Local authorities are very aware of how seriously Welsh Government takes the implementation of the Act and one of the first things that I did after coming into post was to remind them of their duties under the Act, but it’s not just that this is a responsibility of people in travel; actually it’s a responsibility of people in local government right across. So, local authorities now are...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Members will remember in my recent oral statement I set out what the Welsh Government is doing to support active travel in Wales and what we’re doing more broadly to encourage people to become more physically active. I’m pleased to give my full support to the motion being debated today and I’m very grateful to Members for the genuine interest and enthusiasm...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for that question. I think our active travel Act is a prime example of how we’re trying to take forward that particular part of the agenda in terms of trying to make Wales a really easy and accessible place—for walking and cycling to be the No. 1 choice of transport for shorter journeys. I met with our active travel board just this morning. I’ve been really enthused...
Rebecca Evans: Increasing levels of physical activity is a priority for the Welsh Government. We are addressing this through legislation, policies and a range of interventions. We are committed to developing a cross-cutting healthy and active strategy, setting out how we will maximise the impact of all that we are doing.
Rebecca Evans: Well, I’m sure that the Cabinet Secretary has heard your comments there, and this would be something that the Cabinet Secretary would deal with. In terms of my responsibilities, I’m really keen to see fall prevention improved in Wales, and this would be particularly of importance to people who suffer from osteoporosis as well, in terms of ensuring that they don’t have a really...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for that question. You’re right to point out the success that we have had in recent years in terms of working towards our target of 16 per cent of people smoking by 2020. We’re currently at 19 per cent now, so I think we are certainly well on track to hit that target. Some of the real success we’ve had has been amongst children and young people. For example, in 1998, 29 per...
Rebecca Evans: We are committed to promoting healthy and active lifestyles to prevent ill health and encourage general well-being throughout life. The programme for government will build on progress to date with measures such as the public health Bill, the Healthy Child Wales Programme and a new Wales well-being bond.
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. I’m pleased to be able to respond to this debate, and I thank Eluned, Mike and Dai for their contributions. This Government has been strongly focused for a number of years now on building a care service fit for the pressures of the modern world. We have brought forward groundbreaking legislation to reform care, based on a person-centred approach. We have protected social services...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, for the opportunity to explain the background to this legislative consent motion. I’ll begin by putting on record my thanks to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for their scrutiny of the issues, and I note that the committee has not raised any objections to the LCM. The UK Government introduced the Policing and Crime Bill to Parliament on 10...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those questions. We’ve received all, now, the existing routes maps and I’ll be, shortly, formally accepting the final three of them. In terms of what we’ve learned, we’ll be supporting our local authorities in terms of developing those integrated network maps through a pilot project, which I’ve just recently announced. That will work with a number of local...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for those points. Just to reiterate again the key importance that we see to infrastructure being seen in the round when we’re talking about building transport links and the transport citizens of the future. They absolutely have to include walking and cycling. I’m interested in what you say about the satellite car parking facilities. I think that’s fantastic,...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for those points. I’m very keen to ensure that we give local authorities the kind of support that they need, and the guidance that they need. So, it is disappointing to hear the example where perhaps the design guidance has not been followed to give an optimum cycle path, especially when having a new cycle path is a great thing, so let’s try and make it the best possible quality...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for the welcome that you've given it and for the support that I think that we've had right across the Chamber here in the Assembly today. With regard to the workplace, I think there is an opportunity for employers to be supportive of their employees' efforts to make active travel journeys, for example by providing showers in the workplace and so on. I know we certainly provide...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for those questions. I’ll begin with the question that you raised on planning, and how we are ensuring that planning is an enabler for active travel. I’m considering now how we might make revisions to planning policy and guidance to strengthen the emphasis on active travel, and that’s something that I would be working with colleagues on as well. You would have heard the...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for those questions and also thank you for the very constructive session that we had with committee in which we explored in quite some detail the aspects of physical activity to which you referred. You asked about the statistics—the figure of £51 million as a cost to the NHS every year in terms of the lack of physical activity. That figure was given to us by Public...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Improving the well-being of people in Wales and enabling them to be more active is a key manifesto commitment for us. Walking and cycling in particular offer a multitude of benefits to individuals, to society and to the planet. The Welsh Government, with the support of the previous Assembly, has put in place a new framework that will ensure that we can realise...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I’ll do my best to answer as many of those points as I can in the time remaining to me. Mark Isherwood began by talking about reducing drug-related deaths, and every single drug-related death is of course tragic, but the numbers are so low that we have to be very cautious about interpreting year-on-year fluctuations in those figures. We are looking...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. I’m pleased to open today’s debate proposing that the National Assembly for Wales notes the Welsh Government priorities for substance misuse as set out in our new substance misuse delivery plan 2016-18.
