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 challenges we face are constantly evolving and becoming increasingly complex. Tackling them requires a comprehensive and multi-faceted response. While legislation has an important and proven role, it cannot bring about all the improvements and protections we want to see on its own. Instead, it forms one intrinsic part of a broader agenda—an agenda which includes our work across the breadth of Government to address the causes of ill health, as well as our tailored public health services, programmes, policies and campaigns. Taken together, they all make a cumulative positive contribution, helping us to prevent avoidable harm and reach our aspirations for a healthy and active Wales, and all closely linked to the principles of prudent healthcare.

While a single piece of legislation cannot be a panacea to resolve all public health challenges, it can make a very positive and practical difference. That is what this Bill seeks to achieve. It takes action in a number of specific areas for the benefit of particular groups within society as well as for communities as a whole.

Apart from a small number of minor technical changes, the Bill contains the provisions originally considered by the previous Assembly, including those agreed at the amending stages. The only exception is the removal of the provisions that would have restricted the use of nicotine inhaling devices in some public places. This step has been taken in recognition of the need to build consensus across this Assembly and to ensure that the numerous benefits that the Bill seeks to deliver for Wales can be realised.

The Bill covers a number of important public health issues. It creates a distinct smoke-free regime for Wales, with the existing restrictions on smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces extended to cover school grounds, hospital grounds and public playgrounds—a change intended to benefit children, patients and visitors. It also allows for further settings to be made smoke-free in the future if certain conditions are satisfied and if supported by this Assembly.

The Bill supports the existing protections for children and young people, preventing them from getting hold of tobacco and nicotine products by the creation of a national register of retailers of these products, and a new offence of knowingly handing over tobacco or nicotine products to under-18s. These important measures will help enforcement authorities carry out their responsibilities more effectively and further protect children from harm. The Bill creates a mandatory licensing system for practitioners who carry out special procedures—acupuncture, body piercing, electrolysis and tattooing—helping to protect people who choose to have these procedures from the potential harm that can happen if they are poorly carried out. The Bill also prohibits the intimate body piercing of children under 16, providing another important protection for our young people.

While some actions in the Bill are intended to benefit specific groups, others will benefit whole communities. First, by requiring public bodies to carry out health impact assessments in certain circumstances, we will help ensure that, before key decisions are made, they are informed by a full consideration of their potential effects on physical and mental health and well-being. Second, communities will benefit from the proposed changes to the way pharmaceutical services are planned in Wales to better meet the needs of local communities. And third, communities will benefit from the improved planning of provision and access to toilets for use by the public—an issue that affects everyone but which has particular public health resonance for certain groups.

The Bill has of course already benefited from extensive consultation over a number of years and from detailed scrutiny during the fourth Assembly. The process of scrutiny has already directly strengthened the Bill in a number of ways. It led to extending the smoke-free regime to the new settings of school grounds, hospital grounds and public playgrounds. It strengthened the Bill by protecting children from the specific health harms that can be caused by tongue piercings, and it directly led to the inclusion of important provisions about health impact assessments. Nonetheless, I am sure that the Bill will benefit from further rigorous scrutiny on a range of issues and from discussion on points of detail. So, I look forward to the scrutiny process that will now follow and to the constructive engagement of the many organisations who will have an interest in making this Public Health (Wales) Bill a success, and in maximising the benefits of the legislation for the people of Wales.