Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome the contributions from across the floor on this very important subject. We can split hairs on the totality of the numbers, whether it's 1,400 or 2,000; I think what we all accept is that there's an unacceptable number of premature deaths in Wales. The figure that is in our motion is taken from Public Health Wales, which as I understand it is the Government's own body that advises it on public health matters. To put that into a quantifiable number, that's in excess of 40 deaths a week. Now, if anyone came to this Chamber or came to this legislature and said that there was this number of premature deaths in any other facet of our lives, there would be rapid action in this particular area.

I draw on what Llyr Gruffydd said about Dai Lloyd's short debate, where he highlighted the legislation that came forward to clean up dirty water. One hundred and fifty years ago, it was seen as the norm for people just to draw out of polluted wells et cetera, and that's what society accepted. It cannot be acceptable for us, as Angela Burns in her opening remarks said, to put up with something that is a right. It is a right that we should have clean air. And wherever you live, in whatever community you live in, you should have that right, and Mohammad Asghar touched on what President John F. Kennedy said: we should have it as nature intended. And we have the means to do that. We know the mechanics around pollution, as many speakers have spoken about, in particular in the field of transport, but also in the field of planning. 

Jenny Rathbone, the Member for Cardiff Central, highlighted an arterial road in Cardiff that I know very well—Newport Rd, for example. And for huge tracts of the day, that is just bumper to bumper, and it's bumper to bumper because, for many people, they don't have alternatives. They do have to use the car. And unless we as policy makers, working with other levers of government, local government and at a national UK level, make these changes, then we're going to continue seeing this level of premature deaths.

And, of course, what people are reflecting on as well are obviously the critical illnesses that lead up to those premature deaths. Many, many tens of thousands of people, as Nick Ramsay touched on in his remarks, talking about Margaret Barnard, are suffocating to death. Can you imagine watching a loved one suffocating to death slowly over months and years, knowing that the people who are in charge of our environment and in charge of our legislatures and our policy positions could, if they wanted to, make dramatic improvements across the board? And that's why this motion does call for a clean air Act to be brought forward in the legislative programme.

Regrettably, the Government have chosen not to do that, and I do not accept the Minister's rebuttal that, ultimately, it's because of Brexit that this can't be done. The Government have proven time and time again, when they have a pressing issue, they can bring the legislation forward, as the agricultural wages Bill proved, which was brought forward in record time. Is 2,000 people dying a year not a national emergency, Minister, which you have the levers to deal with? Why won't you as a Government deal with that? Surely this is something that should be on your radar and dealt with in a timely manner, rather than blaming Brexit for not bringing the legislative process forward.

And likewise, subscribing to the World Health Organization recommendations around clean air, which is what our motion is calling for—you can go further. The UK Government have subscribed to the World Health Organization's recommendations, why is the Welsh Government not doing that? Why aren't you using that as the benchmark, rather than saying about the so-called UK Government rowing back on workers' rights, et cetera? That is not the case? The Prime Minister and other leaders up in Westminster have said that they will enshrine in law those rights that have been hard earned over many decades. That is a fact. You can shrug your shoulders there, Minister, as much as you want, but that is a fact. On your watch, people are dying because of poor air quality and this Government is not using the levers that are available to it.