Preventing Ill Health

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:23 pm on 31 January 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:23, 31 January 2018

I think we should think again about some of the language that the Member has used: you said that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than tobacco. That does not mean that they're not, themselves, harmful; it's about the balance in harm. And it's also about a recognition that we don't always understand what goes into an e-cigarette. We had this debate in this term with the public health Bill, and in the last term as well there was a change of position about our ability to regulate this area. There's something about being able to regulate the products, because, actually, if you don't know what's in an e-cigarette, that's rather difficult, and I think there's something there for us to continue to consider. The Government has no intention of promoting e-cigarettes. There are choices for people to make themselves, as citizens of the country. I think that we have to, as I said earlier, continue to be led by evidence on what we could and should do, what we could and should promote.