Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 3 November 2021.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 2:39, 3 November 2021

Diolch yn fawr, Peredur. I can assure you that sometimes in recent weeks I've been dying to bury my head in the sand, but that is not the case. In terms of air pollution, certainly, we are very aware—and you'd have heard me responding in the debate yesterday on climate change—of how air pollution is something that we see as being linked to climate change. Therefore, it is important that we address that issue. We have to understand that climate change is not just something, in relation to the NHS, where we have to change the way we build our hospitals and renew our hospitals, make sure they're insulated, put in new LED light bulbs, and all of those other things that we are intending to do. Also, we have to recognise that there is a consequence, a health consequence, to climate change, and you rightly point to air pollution being one of those. I can assure you that, when it comes to a clean air Bill, this is something that the Welsh Government is taking very seriously. We're in the process currently of determining which Bills go as priorities, and I'm sure there will be an announcement on that in the very near future.