<p>Child Health</p>

Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 4 April 2017.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 1:41, 4 April 2017

(Translated)

May I also refer to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in Wales? There are 39 recommendations contained here, and the First Minister would do well to consider the report and to reflect on the recommendations as an agenda to tackle the issue of child and adolescent health in Wales. Among the recommendations on one key area in this context, of course, is the additional risk to a child’s health when someone smokes during pregnancy. We know of the impact that that has, in a number of ways, on the development and growth of a child, the risk of stillbirth and the risk of low birth weight, and so on. There are data on the numbers that smoke during pregnancy in England and Scotland, but, for Wales, the data aren’t perhaps as robust as they should be, because we rely on self-reporting from pregnant mothers when it comes to gathering the data. Can I ask you, therefore, what intention the Government has to look at the need to gather more robust data in that area, because how can we know what needs to be done unless we can be sure of the scale of the problem?