Health Inequalities

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 3 July 2019.

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Photo of John Griffiths John Griffiths Labour 2:41, 3 July 2019

Minister, one major issue that we have to make further progress in tackling is smoking prevalence in Wales. Thankfully, we have made substantial progress, but, as always, there is more work to do, and it's particularly relevant, I think, to some of our more deprived communities. The recent student health and well-being in Wales survey showed that, of year 11 school pupils, 15 to 16-year-olds, 9 per cent smoke regularly, which has remained more or less static since 2013-14. And in the least affluent areas, in the last four years, smoking prevalence in that age group has risen from 4 per cent to 6 per cent. I know that ASH Wales believes that we need to target action more effectively in our poorer communities and measure progress in terms of those targeted measures on a regular basis. Would you agree that that's one part of the way forward in dealing with these very important issues around health inequalities in Wales?