Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. Despite recent advances in coronary care, heart disease remains one of the biggest killers in Wales. This month, around 750 people will lose their lives to cardiovascular disease; 720 will go to hospital with a heart attack; and, sadly, 340 of those will die. Also, this month, around 16 babies will be born with a heart defect. Therefore, Cabinet Secretary, the heart conditions delivery plan is most welcome.

As the plan highlights, we are at a point where we need to deliver not a gradual, sustainable improvement, but an immediate and fundamental change in pace. The delivery plan rightly places a lot of emphasis on prevention. To reduce the number of adults who smoke, the plan states we must ensure that every contact with health and care services is used to prevent smoking uptake and encourage cessation. Despite years of highlighting the dangers of smoking, the numbers of smokers remains stubbornly high. Cabinet Secretary, what consideration have you given to the utilisation of e-cigarettes as a way of reducing the harm of tobacco smoke amongst the 19 per cent of Welsh adults who continue to smoke?

With regard to the other main lifestyle factor in heart disease, the lack of physical activity, and poor diet, over half the adult population in Wales is either overweight or obese. Tackling this problem is much harder than reducing harm from smoking. So, what consideration has your Government given to ensuring that part of the new national curriculum focuses on teaching our young people how to eat healthily, and how to live healthily?

Of course, we will only prevent so much heart disease, and we therefore must ensure that we have timely and effective detection and treatment. The 95 per cent target to treat cardiac patients within 26 weeks of referral was last met in April 2012. We welcome the progress that has been made, and also the staff who work around the clock to ensure that we get the best service possible. Reducing the number of people waiting more than 26 weeks needs to be done and done urgently. Cabinet Secretary, what are the main factors in missing the referral-to-treatment target? Is it down to lack of manpower, or is it impacted by the reduction in the number of available beds?

Finally, Cabinet Secretary, the British Heart Foundation has highlighted that a large number of people in the UK are living with a faulty gene that puts them at risk of developing coronary heart disease, or even sudden death. Each week, around 12 apparently healthy people under the age of 35 die from sudden cardiac death. Cabinet Secretary, what is your Government doing to improve research into sudden cardiac death and are you looking to develop appropriate population-level screening for these heart conditions? I thank you, once again, for your statement and I look forward to working with you to improve cardiac care in Wales. Thank you.