Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m very pleased to contribute to this debate today as Chair of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I’d like to start by thanking my fellow members of the committee. The collegiate way in which we work has enabled robust scrutiny and, I believe, has led us to develop clear conclusions and recommendations for the Minister. I should also take this opportunity to say that we are extremely grateful to everyone who took the time to write to us and present evidence to us at one of our formal meetings, and there were many of those.

Now, naturally, public health is crucially important, and we’re all aware of the appalling statistics in terms of the population’s health—19 per cent of the population in Wales still smoke, 40 per cent drink more alcohol than they should, and over half of the population are overweight and don’t exercise regularly. As we’ve heard, this is the second time a Public Health (Wales) Bill has come before the Assembly. We all know that the motion to approve the previous Bill was not agreed by the fourth Assembly, and therefore it did not become an Act. The Bill before us now contains the original proposals considered by the previous Assembly, without the provisions restricting the use of nicotine inhaling devices—more commonly known as e-cigarettes—in some public places. The health committee has heard disappointment from some that these provisions have been removed. However, the overwhelming view of witnesses was that this Bill will help those working in the field to drive forward the public health agenda in Wales, and it must be allowed to proceed this time.

Turning now to the conclusions and recommendations of the committee, we’ve made a number that will strengthen the legislation, in our view, as we’ve already heard, and I will focus my comments on just a few of those, because of time restrictions. We welcome the proposed restrictions on smoking in school grounds, hospital grounds and public playgrounds. We believe that this will play an important part in protecting people from the harm of second-hand smoke, as well as providing fewer opportunities to see people smoking. It’s not a normal activity. However, we believe that the opportunities to offer this level of protection should be maximised, and so we recommend that the Minister, as a matter of priority, undertake the necessary work to enable the smoking restrictions to be extended to early years childcare and education settings—and we’ve heard that that has been agreed—school gates and the perimeter areas of public playgrounds. I would urge the Minister particularly. That is our recommendation 3.

The next comments relate to the issue of intimate piercing. The Bill, as currently drafted, proposes that the age of consent for an intimate piercing should be 16. We listened to the rationale for setting the age limit at 16, and we know it is the age of consent for sexual activity, and, as a committee, we acknowledge that children and young people have the right to decide what to do with their own bodies. However, we then considered this against the weight of evidence from medical and environmental health professionals who have seen at first hand the impact that an intimate piercing can have on a still developing body. We were told that ‘significant damage’ can be caused as a result of such piercings.

We also heard suggestions of a potential link between the intimate piercing of a 16 to 17-year-old and child sexual exploitation. We also learned during the course of our evidence gathering that genital piercing in under 18-year-olds could be considered to be a type of female genital mutilation under the World Health Organization’s definition, and is therefore a criminally reportable event.

On this basis, we do not believe that the correct balance has been struck between young people’s right to have a say and the rights that every young person under 18 in Wales should have to be protected by the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We are therefore absolutely convinced as a committee that the age of consent should be set at 18, and we have made a recommendation that section 92 of the Bill be amended to prohibit performing, or making arrangements to perform, an intimate piercing on a person who is under the age of 18. That’s recommendation 14.

We were also surprised and concerned to learn that the offences listed in section 63(3) of the Bill that would prevent a practitioner from being granted a licence to undertake special procedures, which includes intimate piercings, do not include sexual offences. I’ve heard the Minister’s comments today. This is, in our view, a very significant and a relevant concern, given that any one of the procedures named in the Bill are capable of being performed on an intimate part of the body. We as a committee do not accept that this is solely a ‘public health Bill’ rather than a ‘safeguarding’ Bill. Indeed, the explanatory memorandum that accompanies the Bill talks about the need to avoid circumstances where children and young people are placed in a potentially vulnerable situation. We are therefore firmly of the view that the offences listed in section 63(3) should be amended to include ‘sexual offences’. That is recommendation 13.

Finally, we can’t talk about public health without mentioning what is probably the single biggest problem facing public health, namely obesity. The latest Welsh health survey showed that 59 per cent of adults in Wales are classified as overweight or obese, including 21 per cent as obese. Obesity is such a serious threat to population health that it must not be shied away from, no matter how difficult or complex a challenge it is.

We agree with the Minister that no one piece of legislation can address all the determinants of obesity—it will require a multi-faceted approach—but we share the concerns of stakeholders that the Bill lacks any explicit measures to tackle the issue. In fact, it came to our attention as we gathered evidence that there are already steps that the Welsh Government could take, but that the powers in this area aren’t being used to their full advantage. We have therefore urged the Minister to consider our recommendation 2 and examine the potential, through this legislation and under existing powers, to introduce measures to tackle obesity and other priority public health issues, such as extending nutrition standards that are already in existence in our schools to residential care homes and hospitals. But, overall, we welcome the proposals in the Bill and believe that it will have a positive impact on public health. For this reason, we recommend, as a committee, that the Assembly agrees the general principles today. Thank you very much.