Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:20 pm on 5 October 2016.
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 cent of 16-year-old girls were smoking once a week, but that’s now down to 9 per cent. The figures for boys would be 22 per cent and 7 per cent. I think it’s really positive that smoking is declining amongst young people, particularly, but also the number of young people who have never smoked is growing and I think that that is to be welcomed as well.
The restrictions that you mentioned certainly play an important role in that. We had, just last Saturday, the opportunity to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the regulations on no smoking in cars. I think that it’s fair to say that there has been a high level of compliance with that, and we are seeing a change in behaviour and a change of culture there. So, looking forward, we’ll be re-introducing the public health Bill, as it was at Stage 3, with the e-cigarette sections removed from it. That public health Bill does contain provisions to cover smoking in school grounds, hospital grounds and public playgrounds. It also provides that Welsh Ministers will be able to add additional spaces, using regulations, and that such regulations would be subject to consultation in future. So, there would be scope to extend that in the future, too.