I’m a member of the committee and I found the scrutiny process productive and collegiate, as other members of the committee have said today. I’d like to concentrate my remarks on two areas: smoking and the provision of public toilets. I welcome the extension of protection from smoking, particularly for children, that is in the Bill. I think those are absolutely crucial steps forward, and other Members have already referred to recommendation 3, which is absolutely key to enable smoking restrictions to be extended to early years childcare educational settings. It’s very pleasing that the Minister has said that that is something that she intends to do.

I’d also like to draw attention to recommendation 5, which recommends

‘that the Minister works with Local Health Boards to ensure smoking cessation support and advice is promoted extensively in healthcare settings’ and, this should be particularly emphasised, in

‘external smoking areas where these are provided.’

I do think that that is the opportunity, when people are in health service settings, to very strongly promote advice and help for smoking cessation. I think that we felt in the discussions in the committee that this is something that could be done to a much greater extent.

There is also the issue, of course, of staff who are in healthcare settings, because we do know a considerable number of healthcare staff do smoke, and so I think every effort should be made to offer opportunities to them.

I think that, in the Bill, it leaves it up to the local health boards to decide, or the local hospitals to decide, whether they do have smoking shelters on their grounds, and it is quite a difficult decision, this, for the hospitals to make. Certainly, in my own constituency, Velindre hospital has no smoking at all in the hospital or in the grounds and doesn’t have a shelter. I understand absolutely why that is the case, because it is a cancer hospital, it sees the terrible danger that smoking causes and it is saying ‘no’ to smoking on its grounds.

But it does cause a problem for people who are living beyond the hospital grounds. For example, a constituent has contacted me saying,

‘On a daily basis, as a result of the smoking ban there is a steady and continuous stream of hospital staff, visitors and patients who congregate outside our house…to smoke.

‘Cigarette butts are consistently discarded in our garden which is distressing. There is also a fire risk….On a number of occasions…patients and visitors have even sat on the wall of my garden and smoked. For my children therefore, smoking is very much a ‘normal’ part of everyday life.’

So, although I do support the decision of Velindre hospital, which has tried very hard to stop patients, visitors and staff from going outside and smoking on people’s grounds, we have to look at the consequences of this. Where hospitals do provide an area for people to smoke in the grounds, I think the committee felt that we should make absolutely every effort to give advice in those shelters about where help can be obtained and that it is a place where people are there as a captive audience. So, I think this is something we’ve got to look at very carefully.

I also want to raise concerns about the provision of public toilets. I’ve recently campaigned on this issue with an 82 year-old constituent after the last public toilet in Whitchurch was closed. I think we’ve already heard how important public toilets are for the public. But I do feel that this is a step forward, and I do think that there are suggestions in this public health Bill that will improve the situation for access to public toilets for the general public. Obviously, if money was no object, we could go a lot further, we could build public toilets and we could make sure that they were well maintained. I think that would be the ideal, but we’re just not in that situation.

So, I think it’s a bit churlish, really, to say that there’s absolute disappointment that this Bill is not doing anything, because I do think it is making some very sensible suggestions. For example, the proposal that public toilets in all public buildings could be accessible for the public—I think that is a very positive step forward, because, in most areas, there is one public building or another. I went, at lunchtime, to the opening of the new Llandaff North hub, which is the old library and the day centre coming together to provide a hub of facilities for the area, and they’ve got toilets in the hub, and I think that we need to have a notice on the door, which I’m sure we will have, to say these toilets are available for the public, regardless of whether you’re going in to use the hub in any other way or not.