5. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services: The Chief Medical Officer's Annual Report 2016-17

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:05 pm on 6 February 2018.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 5:05, 6 February 2018

(Translated)

I also welcome this report, particularly the section dealing with gambling. Without rehearsing what's already been said, I do note that the report states that the cost of addictive gambling to public services in Wales is around the £40 million to £70 million mark per annum, because of the impact on the health service and care services particularly. I share the concerns clearly expressed by many Members on the way that gambling and gambling advertising have permeated into the normality of everyday life, so that it's appeared recently on children's sports shirts, emulating some well-known football teams.

One thing I particularly wanted to ask the Government on is the comment made that research into this area is done, to all intents and purposes, by the industry itself, by GambleAware. But, GambleAware has been under the influence of the industry. They have tried, I think, to re-establish themselves to be more independent, but it strikes me that what we need is something similar to a levy on the industry, where you could have complete independence and funding could be provided, not only for research into gambling, but also to mitigate some of the unfortunate and detrimental impacts of gambling. That's not a power in the hands of the Cabinet Secretary, but I wanted to ask, is that the view of the Welsh Government: that they would want to see a levy of that kind, and that they would work and put pressure on the Westminster Government to introduce such a levy.

And the second element of the report, which I believe is important, is the fact that, once again, the chief medical officer has outlined the impact of air pollution on society and the impacts of that—2,700 premature deaths because of air pollution. I would like to know exactly where air pollution sits now within the range of causes of premature deaths in Wales. It's around third, or even second, in terms of the reasons now. I know that the Government is doing some things to tackle the issue, but the problem is that this is disseminated between Government and local authorities. The local authorities are specifically responsible for monitoring and tracking and then putting particular zones in place, and this Government is facing a court case because some of those steps have failed recently. So, specifically, and in looking at the costs and health impacts of air pollution, will the Welsh Government be taking a further step on a national level now to ensure that all schools have an air pollution monitoring unit outside the school, so that we have a better understanding of the true impact of air pollution, and that we have a national strategy to tackle the health problems emerging from air pollution?