I am indeed really grateful to Lee Waters AM for instigating this debate, to put on record, actually, some acknowledgement of the work you’ve done previously over many years in fighting through, you know, with enthusiasm and passion to implement a real focus for the main aims and purpose of the active travel Act.

You know, it’s been said here, hasn’t it, that the health and well-being effects and benefits of regular physical activity are well documented and even more proven. Regular exercise can reduce mortality by 39 per cent, increase life expectancy, reduce the risk of having a stroke by 27 per cent, of developing type 2 diabetes by 60 per cent, of developing cancer of the colon, breast or womb by 20 per cent, and can avoid brain shrinkage to help prevent dementia. Endorphins and serotonin are boosted as a natural therapy for those experiencing feelings of low self-esteem, isolation, stress and depression—a key contributory factor in terms of feeding into our prevention intervention and prudent healthcare agenda. Just 35 per cent of Welsh children undertake an hour of activity each day. Of those living within less than half a mile of their primary school, 30 per cent are driven daily, just 2 per cent cycle to primary school—and even fewer, at 1 per cent, to secondary.

Inactivity is an issue affecting adults also—34 per cent of people haven’t undertaken any form of active travel in the previous seven days, and more startlingly, 35 per cent had walked infrequently or not at all in the past three months. That is really a very poor statistic. Speak to anybody who has actually lost their own mobility now through a fall or an accident, and how their lives have changed significantly to the detriment, and they haven’t got the opportunity now, having lost their mobility, to be able to actively take part in anything going forward.

Professor Stuart Cole noted in his report to the previous Minister last year that funding levels for active travel are low, at just £5 per head, compared to other areas of the UK, which spend twice as much. Cycling England found that just £10 a head resulted in an increase of 27 per cent in cycling in their cycling demonstration towns over three years. In the Netherlands, they spend around £25 per head, and almost a third of people list cycling as their main form of transport. In Sydney—an 82 per cent increase in cycling in just two years as a result of a five-year investment in the city’s cycling strategy, including the construction of 55 km of cycle tracks to be completed this year. Compare that to us here in Wales.

Compliance by local authorities as regards the adult active travel Act design guidance is essential. They’ve undertaken the technical training, but concerns around effective monitoring of active travel grant funding must be flagged up here today, and I would ask the Cabinet Secretary to advise on how this is actually being implemented. Furthermore, wide and early engagement by local authorities in the next stage of the active travel Act is essential. The online tool launched by Cycling UK, Sustrans Cymru, Living Streets and Welsh Cycling to enable people to connect with their local authorities has seen over 600 people engaged in this way, more than double the number engaged in the first phase. However, we now look to improve that engagement with local sensory deprivation groups to ensure the voices of those who are blind, partially sighted or suffer hearing loss are not left behind.

The Welsh Government’s 2015 annual report on the Active Travel (Wales) Act fails to consider increased usage of active travel routes and how this is going to be considered when the integrated network maps are in place. I would therefore like to call on the Welsh Government for an externally commissioned review into how progress is going to be recorded under the Act, for example, using the experience of the active travel board with an academic partner. Sustrans and other stakeholders on the active travel board have called for meaningful targets for an increase in active travel to be introduced. It’s effective in Scotland, where the set of indicators in the cycling action plan are linked to a 1 per cent per annum increase in transport funding, resulting in a much higher quality of reporting. Cabinet Secretary, can you advise as to whether you will seek to introduce such targets?

Llywydd, the ambitions of the active travel Act are to be commended, but far more now needs to be done by Welsh Government to see these ambitions through. Thank you.