Of course, our Chair in his own inimitable style has breezed through the entire report, touched on every recommendation, but nonetheless, Minister, I do think that it is really important that I rehearse again some of the points that he's made because we do have the highest rates of obesity, and unhealthy children usually grow up to be pretty unhealthy adults. It's a deeply concerning statistic and it means that as adults more people will have difficulty in getting appropriate employment. It's very hard to do some of the jobs that we have to do if you've got bad backs, if you're way too heavy to do that job that you need to do. More of us, especially those from severely disadvantaged backgrounds, are more likely to die up to 10 years earlier; that's 10 years of a glorious life that you could have had that you haven't got because of things like diabetes, heart and stroke and some cancers, just to name a few. 

And, of course, this whole report wasn't just about being heavy. Our general levels of fitness are vital if we are to enjoy not only a physically long and happy life, but a mentally long and happy life. I would remind Members that we should not underestimate the benefits of physical activity for our mental health. We're all only too aware that today's children and young adolescents are putting up with societal pressures that we did not have to put up with. There are horrendous things going on via the internet, bullying in schools, there's just a whole raft of things, let alone the pressure of performing, of examinations and of trying to move forward as people. If you're fit and you have that release, and you have those serotonin levels flowing through your body, you are so much more able to deal with some of the vicissitudes that come towards your way.     

Being healthy and active is something we can aspire to, but like all aspirations it's grounded in habit, in knowledge, in confidence and experience. So, we should start at the beginning, and that's why I was so pleased to be part of the committee report into physical activity among children and young people, because I believe we must act now to ensure that future generations take being active, being normal—walking, cycling, dancing, playing sport—. My goodness me, it doesn't have to be doing whatever minutes it is of football and rugby, and I'm not going to say which because I'm going to get it wrong, I know I will. We must ensure also that these children know when they grow up that smoking and drugs and eating too much and drinking too much is not actually the way to have that fit and healthy lifestyle.

We need to start with education, and that's why I'm so pleased to see the Minister for Education present, because a lot of this does come back down into the people who can most influence our children at that young age, and that is parents and that is teachers, and they are the keys and we need to use those keys. And this is why we made such a clear recommendation about the hours of physical activity being mandatory in schools, and we came to the 120 minutes as a basic requirement, having listened to a lot of expert witnesses. The Ministers present will know that I have raised this issue of the fact that we are dropping our numbers and dropping our numbers and dropping our numbers, and I have real concern about it.

So, dear reader, if you read our report, it does look like great news that the Government's accepted recommendations 5 and 7, but I'm not convinced, because in 5 we want that further action. Dai's talked a lot about the development of fundamental skills, motor skills, in young children. Yes, you know, the Government does wax lyrical about the foundation phase, and I am a great supporter of the foundation phase, but the Wales Institute for Physical Literacy is very clear: they've gone back to the research, they've gone back to the evidence and it is not evidenced. Their research shows that pupils are not developing those skills, and we need them to because they are the vital building blocks for healthy people. And I think that this response is blasé and it is assumptive.

With regard to recommendation 7, I have met many schoolchildren who've never been asked what they would like to do for physical sports. It's just taken that if you're a boy, you do rugby or football, and if you're a girl, like my daughter was told, 'You can just run around the football pitch while the boys are having fun in the middle playing a game.' That's great; that really turned her on to sport for the rest of her life. So, if you're going to truly engage with girls and young women and kids who live very disadvantaged lives, with carers, with children in rural environments who cannot get back in to play sport at the end of the day, you've got to really ask them and really listen to them. And I think that there are some good schools, and we visited a few, who do it; most schools don't, and that has to change.

Finally, I want to address the wholesale rejection of recommendation 8. There is only one area of learning and experience in the new curriculum, and our entire education system is going through a huge shake. It's got to bed down over a new curriculum; there are significant changes to methodology and practice; and while the teachers are working flat out to absorb this, while the Government's monitoring and reviewing, our children are not becoming physically active enough to benefit their lives and to benefit our fiscal life going ahead, because we know about the pressure. Our obesity, our health and our mental well-being crises will not improve until we tackle this issue, and I think that this report was a good step forward.