Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:58 pm on 13 March 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:58, 13 March 2019

Actually, there's significant work already under way on trying to help women to quit before and during pregnancy. That work is being undertaken together with midwives and health visitors. You may have missed that, last year, I actually launched part of our campaign on this in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. And that's together working with the midwives who are actually undertaking that care in the community as well as on hospital sites, and actually trying to change some attitudes around smoking as well, because if you go outside almost every maternity unit in the country, you'll find a bunch of fag butts outside. Now, there's a challenge there for us about changing people's perception of what they're doing, not just for themselves, not just when they happen to be pregnant, but actually for other people going in and out of those particular units. So, we already have a range of actions that we're undertaking. It's being led by evidence developed by midwives themselves working together with families, because actually it's about the support that a woman has from her partner that often makes a big difference as to whether they will take up the opportunity to stop smoking. 

On the challenge about whether we describe e-cigarettes as safer or less harmful, actually the language really does matter. If you describe in advice something as being 'safe', then you're giving an impression about it. And I do think it matters. That's why, if we're going to have e-cigarettes used, we need to be clear about the language and the terms on which healthcare professionals in whatever part of healthcare engage with the public on them. You may have missed my answer to the last point about smoking cessation. We are drawing together people in Wales to have a consensus statement on the use or otherwise of e-cigarettes in smoking cessation services. That will be specific and targeted. There won't be a blanket position that e-cigarettes are safe. It will be about whether they're a useful tool or not and, of course, we'll look at the evidence provided by both England and Scotland when we're making a decision here in Wales.