Thank you, Presiding Officer, I'm happy to move the motion in front of us. Part 5 of the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017 regulates body piercings that can be performed on certain intimate body parts of a child, which is known as intimate piercing. Since 1 February 2018, it has been a criminal offence for a person in Wales to perform, or make arrangements to perform, an intimate piercing on any person aged under 18 years old, except where performed in the course of a medical procedure. This prohibition captures all intimate piercing procedures involving jewellery.

The regulations presented here today in this motion will bring within the scope of the criminal offence in Part 5 of the Act an intimate piercing involving any object that is not jewellery. The effect of these regulations will be to prohibit intimate piercings involving any object, whether jewellery or not. Extending the scope of the offence to capture intimate piercings using any object is necessary to fully protect children from intimate piercing procedures. The health risks of piercing with non-jewellery objects could, depending on the object, be more severe than piercing with jewellery. Non-jewellery objects can vary in size, proportion and shape and this can make them more difficult to sterilise and increase the risk of infection.

The safety issues around young people being placed in potentially vulnerable situations whilst undergoing an intimate piercing procedure apply equally to piercings using jewellery or another object. A common approach to intimate piercings for jewellery and any object that is not jewellery will simplify the position for both practitioners and clients. If these regulations are approved, they will come into force on 1 August 2019.