I'm grateful to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for their report into hepatitis C elimination in Wales. As the report highlights, around 14,000 people in Wales are chronically infected with this blood-borne virus that can lead to liver failure and cancer of the liver. It is also estimated that around 12,000 people in Wales have the disease but are unaware of it or are not actively seeking treatment.

I am pleased to see the Welsh Government actively working to achieve the World Health Organisation's target of eliminating both hepatitis B and C by the end of this decade. As the Hepatitis C Trust told the committee, Wales has the opportunity to become the first UK nation to eliminate the disease, but in order to achieve this we need a more strategic approach. The trust called for a comprehensive national elimination strategy, and the health committee agrees.

The committee’s first recommendation calls for such a strategy backed up by clear targets, workforce planning and sufficient funding. While the Minister has accepted this in principle, his response states that Welsh Government policy does not favour disease strategies because of the administrative burden. We need this strategy; guidance notes simply won't cut it. Only one health board met their treatment target in 2017-18.

Public Health Wales said that the WHO target can still be met if we have an all-Wales strategy that encompasses key interventions, relevant stakeholders and local delivery plans. This is clearly the kind of strategy envisioned by the health committee and endorsed by the Hepatitis C Trust. Therefore, I urge Members to send a clear message to the Welsh Government: Wales needs a comprehensive national elimination strategy, backed by hard targets and the money to deliver it, and nothing else will do.