8. What further steps will the Welsh Government take towards a more preventative approach to ill-health in Wales? OAQ51891

Prevention will continue to be central to our approach for improving and protecting population health. What does that mean? Well, looking at programmes such as smoking cessation, immunisation programmes and healthy schools and workplace programmes.

First Minister, a few weeks ago, Sophie Howe as Future Generations Commissioner for Wales gave evidence in facing scrutiny to the committee I chair, the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee. She mentioned that she's proposing to Welsh Government that new money for health should be earmarked for the preventative agenda, and subject to joint work between health and non-health bodies in an attempt to get the health service in Wales onto a more preventative and proactive footing, in accordance with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. There seems to be a consensus that we do need to get onto the front foot in preventing ill health, while also, of course, meeting day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month health pressures that people rightly expect to be met. Would you support that proposal to use new moneys in that way?   

I don't think we can use all new money that way because, of course, there are pressures elsewhere in the NHS. Sensibly, of course, I don't disagree with what he's saying. Prevention, as they say, is better than cure, but we do also have to deal with the pressures that are put on the NHS, particularly pressures in acute services, and look to fund them. That said, £88 million has been allocated in the last financial year to Public Health Wales to provide—this financial year, I beg your pardon—a range of measures aimed at preventing ill health. That means smoking cessation—we know that smoking is a significant factor in ill health, particularly as people get older, and quite often where people stop smoking the effects are still there; it depends how long they've been smoking and on them as individuals. Screening—we've already mentioned screening in the Chamber, and how important screening is to prevent and detect the early stages of serious illnesses. Vaccination, childhood immunisation—that's hugely important. And also active travel—being able to give people the easiest opportunities to be able to walk, to be able to cycle. It's good to see authorities—if I can put in a plug for Bridgend here—investing in cycle routes, to make sure that people are able to cycle from the town centre in Bridgend all the way up the Ogmore valley and the Garw valley on the cycle routes that exist, without ever having to go on a busy road. And being able to encourage people to be active and to maintain that habit of being active is hugely important in terms of prevention. And I know that with him, I'm preaching to the converted. 

Finally, Mohammad Asghar. 

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. First Minister, the number of people living with diabetes in Wales has almost doubled in the last 10 years. Gwent has the highest prevalence in Wales, with research showing that 8 per cent of the population of the Aneurin Bevan health board area is living with diabetes. Can the First Minister confirm that the national obesity strategy covers both prevention and treatment, and will he commit his Government to particularly target funds at diabetes hotspots such as South Wales East?  

The Member will know, of course, that the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017 does give clear legislative focus to action to address the priority public health issue of obesity, which, of course, is such a cause of type 1 diabetes. The obesity strategy will—. Type 2 diabetes, I think I'm right in saying. I'll be corrected by the medics in the Chamber, or, indeed, fellow lawyers. Our obesity strategy will bring together all the work the Welsh Government supports to tackle what is a major public health challenge and put it on a statutory footing. A strategy development board, chaired by the chief medical officer, is overseeing delivery, and a consultation will be launched in the early summer.  

Thank you, First Minister.