Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to have the opportunity to bring this debate to the Assembly today, during what is National Obesity Week. Whilst many of us—and I’m one of them, definitely—are worried about the extra pounds they may have put on after a bit of over-indulgence during the festive period, obesity is becoming an ever-increasing problem within the UK as a whole and in Wales in this particular instance.

Obesity levels are rising in Wales. According to the latest public health survey, nearly 59 per cent of adults are classed as ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’, 25 per cent of whom are classed as ‘very obese’ and 27 per cent of children are classed as ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’. Our motion today calls on the Welsh Government to look again at its public health initiatives—the Minister and I have been talking about the public health Bill only this morning and cuts to the local government budget—to help increase uptake in public health programmes.

I will begin by looking at a couple of key facts. One in four adults are labelled as ‘very obese’ and it’s the highest in the UK. The reason why such concerns exist about the carrying around of such excess weight is the link it has to both chronic and severe medical conditions and the resulting reduction in life expectancy by as much as 10 years. It is a preventable condition and the Welsh NHS spends close to £1 million per week treating obesity, with obese individuals most likely to incur health expenditure.

The problem is that whilst initiatives are in place across Wales, inconsistent results are being delivered. Just two out of seven of Wales’s health boards offer level 3 obesity services and none offer the level 4 bariatric services, resulting in the fact that those in most need of support to lose weight are unable to do so, or have to go to England for that help. It is for these reasons we’re calling for more of a cross-portfolio approach from the Welsh Government to tackle this growing challenge.

We’re supported by the British Medical Association, who have called for the principles of the much-vaunted Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to be built on. The BMA have highlighted that the Act has failed to include indicators that would measure the prevalence of obesity amongst the Welsh population. Deputy Minister, we would be very interested to know of your views on whether or not you think that that could be changed—forgive me, ‘Minister’, not ‘Deputy Minister’.

Nor does the Government reference obesity in its well-being objective, which accompanied the ‘Taking Wales Forward’ programme. Minister, if you were to rectify those two major failings, it could help to focus more attention on the problems we are currently experiencing. I won’t talk too much about the Public Health (Wales) Bill because you and I have explored that in great detail today, but what I would like to do is focus the rest of my contribution on children.

The Education Development Trust have highlighted how schools can play a role in tackling obesity through school-based interventions. It notes the following interventions have had a positive effect: lengthening the existing time of PE lessons, something I must have raised in this Chamber dozens of times—it seems ridiculous that at primary school we are slashing the amount of time that young children are spending outside, in halls, running around; changing the markings on playgrounds to encourage increased movement and increasing the availability of skipping ropes and other sports equipment; walking school buses; highlighting the harm of carbonated drinks and removing unhealthy vending machines; incorporating nutritional elements into lessons, building on the healthy eating Measure—