7. What further action will the Welsh Government take to prevent ill-health in south Wales? OAQ53544

Improving health for everyone is a central ambition of 'Prosperity for All' and 'A Healthier Wales'. Welsh Government, in partnership with Public Health Wales, health boards and local authorities, are working to deliver our priorities to improve population health. Central to this is support for targeted interventions to encourage healthier lifestyles.

Thank you for that, Minister. As we heard earlier, smoking is still the biggest cause of preventable death and health inequality in Wales. And, over the last few years, the rate of progress in reducing smoking prevalence has largely stalled. One effective way of driving down smoking rates, particularly perhaps in more deprived areas, is community-based actions to help people stop smoking. Will you consider incorporating those community-based actions into the £100 million health transformation plans?

People regularly ask how the transformation fund can be used to support a different range of activities. I think this is straightforward public health work, and how we support people to quit, how we have healthier messages about not taking up smoking in the first place, and then how we support people to reduce and then stop smoking as well. Our vision is to have a smoke-free society, and there are various stages to that point. I'm interested, as I said in answer to earlier questions, in the evidence base about what is the most effective smoking cessation service, and what is the most effective way to have the conversation about smoking, and the impact that has, not just on the person who is smoking, but people around them, to try to persuade more and more people to take action and to quit. Then it's about how we help people. And of course, it is entirely appropriate that your question is asked today, on what I recognised earlier is No Smoking Day.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

Thank you. And, finally, question 8—Mark Isherwood.