Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. It’s a pleasure to move this amendment that notes that taxation of unhealthy products and rules over the advertising of such products are non-devolved matters, and regrets that successive UK Governments have failed to utilise these powers to tackle obesity. So, that’s what our amendment states. In the amendment we note the preventative agenda in this area by acknowledging National Obesity Awareness Week. Now, of course, we need to tackle that preventative agenda and, as we said in today’s health committee in the context of the public health Bill, there are things that can be done in terms of the nutritional standards of the food that we eat, and also with regard to the availability or accessibility of exercise. Now, it’s possible to tax sugar and sugary drinks, and there’s also room for taxation to realise a minimum alcohol price as well. All of these matters do contribute to obesity. Yes, there’s an education agenda, of course, naturally, but there is room to legislate to push this educational agenda forward.

Of course, the majority of these issues are outwith our powers at the Assembly, and where the powers do lie in Westminster there’s not much will to get to grips with that preventative agenda. Because there are no two ways about it: we need to recognise that the food and drink industry are very powerful in this regard, and can have a very heavy influence. We regret the dilution of the standards emanating from Westminster recently with regard to promoting the preventative work that is going on with this issue of obesity.

Diet is a vital part of this issue. I naturally accept the point that Bethan Jenkins made whilst sitting next to me. Fitness is also a part of this issue. But, we have to be sensible about that as well, and we have to make it easy for people to become fitter. You only need to walk 10,000 steps every day to reach the level of fitness that can have that beneficial influence on your health—10,000 steps. We can all do that—the majority of us—in this place just by using the stairs and not always taking the lifts. I’m not looking at anyone in particular here, but 10,000 steps are all it takes. I do understand what the Deputy Presiding Officer thinks about this every time I raise it, but if fitness were to be a tablet or a pill—. Fitness does mean reducing 30 per cent of your weight, and if you’re fit, your cholesterol level is 30 per cent lower and your blood pressure is also 30 per cent lower. So, if there was a pill that achieved that, then everyone would be calling on us as the GPs to prescribe it, but, unfortunately, fitness isn’t available in pill form, so it’s incumbent upon us to do something about that.

Also, ultimately, there are some people suffering from obesity and we can’t do much in terms of pills or fitness to assist them. There are some people who are very overweight and very obese and we need better provision for those people in terms of bariatric surgery here in Wales. I think the last estimate was that there are only three surgeons who have expertise in this area of specific surgery for the very obese. If you remember that over 50,000 of the residents of Wales have a BMI of over 40, which means that they are what is called ‘morbidly obese’, and there’s also a percentage who have a BMI that is over 50, which means that they are very, very obese, ultimately those people have failed to receive all sorts of advice and treatment, and a surgeon has to do something to get to grips with that issue for those people. The services aren’t available for them. As I’ve said, only three surgeons located in Wales are able to provide that service and the demand for it is significant and increasing.