I, too, think this is a really excellent report, because it sets out so clearly the challenges that we face in Wales, not just within the health service, but across all public services. So, I really would like to congratulate the authors on it, as I think it provides loads of food for thought.

It's perfectly clear from this report that the NHS can't tackle health inequality on its own, and the future generations Act requires all public bodies to operate together to tackle these issues. I suppose one of the most interesting graphs is the one around the outcomes for cognition in children with high and low socioeconomic status and how they diverge over time. It's clear from that graph that dim rich kids overtake the bright poor child by the age of five, and the only way in which we can counter that tendency is by having really good quality comprehensive childcare and early education, because it has been shown in other studies that that is the way in which we beat that particular aspect of deprivation.

But I think that, looking at the obesity figures quoted, you know, one in seven children in Merthyr is overweight or obese, compared with one in 14 in the Vale of Glamorgan. Clearly, there is a link with deprivation, but we have to also look at the converse presentation of the facts, which is that six in seven children in Merthyr are not overweight or obese, and that’s to be celebrated. It indicates that it isn't a given that those who live on lower incomes are necessarily going to be obese. It is absolutely incorrect that good food costs more money than food that is low in nutritional content. One of the most important points in the report is the correlation between fast food outlets and areas of deprivation, and it refers to an English report that says that you're twice as likely to be obese if you live close to a fast food outlet. I don't think this applies just to England, because I attended an Asian caterers’ event recently at the Cardiff City Stadium, and it was made perfectly clear there that if you live or work close to a fast food outlet, you are twice as likely to be obese. It is that stark. So, it is not the fact that you are living on low incomes; it is the behaviours that lead you to go to a fast food outlet, rather than to make food from scratch, which is obviously the way in which you avoid the harmful things that are added to processed food in order to make a profit. So, I would be keen to hear the Cabinet Secretary for health’s views on the importance of the food that we give our children in school and whether he thinks that this is an aspect where we can ensure that all children, regardless of the habits of their parents, can taste and experience good, plain food, to enable them to grow up having a healthy diet.

I recently visited one of the schools in Flintshire, which are all following the Food for Life programme, and they have doubled the number of children taking up school meals, which the headteacher said most definitely reduced the number of children bringing in inappropriate food in packed lunches, which means that those children were not actually getting any nutrition during the school day. So, I would be keen to find out what the health Secretary thinks is the role of local authorities in promoting not just the ‘Appetite for Life’ guidance, but the ‘Good Food for All’ guidelines, which ensure that freshly prepared, locally sourced food is served on a daily basis for all our children. So, I think this is a really excellent report, and I think we should listen to the words of Dr Mair Parry, who’s from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, who says that Wales continues to have the worst rates for childhood obesity in the UK and that clearly more needs to be done to address these shortfalls. Concerns still remain over the number of children who eat fruit and vegetables every day and who do exercise, and there’s clearly something very important going on here.

I’ve run out of time, but I suppose the other really stark thing is how little poor communities use dentists and opticians. Of course, these are the two health services—compared with GPs, which they’re using much more in deprived areas—these are the two services where you actually have to pay for it. This is obviously one of the things we need to reflect on. What it tells us is that poor people are not able to access dentists or get glasses when they need them, and that is a very significant matter that—it would be useful to know what the Cabinet Secretary thinks.