Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. I move the motion in the name of Darren Millar. Obesity is one of the biggest health crises the world faces. For the first time in history, children are expected to live shorter lives than their parents, and most of this is due to obesity. COVID-19 has exposed the poor physical health of Wales. We have the highest death rate for COVID-19 per 100,000 of any of the UK nations, and currently, two thirds of the population is overweight or obese. It is clear that the physical health of the nation must be a priority for the Welsh Government, and for the Minister. Figures published by the Welsh Government's own StatsWales highlight that nearly two thirds, or 61 per cent, of those over the age of 16 in Wales reported in 2021 a body mass index of over 25. 

Being overweight substantially increases the risk of a number of chronic diseases. In particular, those who are overweight are at specific risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, strokes. It also causes kidney disease, certain types of cancer, sleep apnoea, gout, osteoarthritis and liver disease, just to name a few. So, the case for prioritising obesity is clear. Obesity is projected to cost our Welsh NHS £465 million a year by 2050, but almost £2.4 billion to the Welsh economy and society as a whole. These costs will potentially deny life-saving, life-prolonging treatments to the patients in our Welsh NHS who need them. 

Figures from Cancer Research UK show that being overweight is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK. More than one in 20 cancer cases are caused by excess weight. Cancer research also highlighted that keeping a healthy weight reduces the risk of 13 different types of cancer. We all need to work together on this. This is an important issue, and I think we should put politics aside. We all need to be rightly concerned that nearly two thirds of adults in Wales are currently overweight or obese. I'm sure everyone agrees that is a worrying statistic. 

In 2021, the Welsh Conservatives stood on pledges to improve the physical health and well-being of the nation by providing free access to local authority gyms and leisure centres for 16 to 24-year-olds. We said we'd invest more money in active transport, walking and cycling and that we would promote healthy lifestyles in schools. We did say we'd create a community sports bounce-back fund, and I'm really keen that Ministers have actually looked and put this in place. We all know the saying 'prevention is better than cure', but, sadly, we don't actually do what we preach. 

Maybe I'm just an overenthusiastic political newbie here, an idealist, someone who believes that things can change. I don't believe we should stick to the status quo. But what is the alternative here? For two decades, politicians and Ministers in this place have talked on this issue. They've created strategies, had public consultations, gone back and forth, back and forth, but we're getting nowhere, because things in Wales are getting worse. The world has changed, and we must understand that. People are living far more static lifestyles than before. In this place, we tend to sit down a lot of the time and don't live that active lifestyle. If you're overweight or obese, you need to do that because you are putting yourself at extremely high risk of becoming unwell. 

Lots of ideas have been tried, including sugar taxes and huge spending on public messaging, so why aren't we seeing the results? I think we need to move away from the current ideas and policies in place, and try and look at this from a strategic, objective standpoint. There's clearly a significant problem with the quality of food being consumed, not just here in Wales but around the world. But people aren't talking about obesity and taking it seriously. Being obese is as dangerous as being a chain smoker or an alcoholic, but it doesn't seem to have the same sort of public image as what those things do, about living a healthy lifestyle. We're all feeling the consequences, not just here in Wales but globally. Diabetes was virtually a non-existent disease in the nineteenth century. In the United States a bit ago, the percentage of diabetics was one in 10,000, and research now shows that's one in 11. That's a startling statistic. 

Diet has changed, though. We've gone from real wholesome foods to processed foods, low-fat processed foods to high-sugar processed foods. This, combined with the fact that people haven't got as active jobs as they used to have, that people are more stagnant, means we're seeing obesity get worse, because too many people in our schools and wider are just simply not educated about food and where it comes from. People do need to start living a healthy, balanced and active lifestyle, and that needs to be promoted by Government. This can be addressed by some of the points that I raised earlier around promoting healthy lifestyles in school, encouraging sport, free gym access for local youngsters and teaching people where their food comes from.

I believe we need to see a full-scale change of approach towards tackling this issue. The policy raised here by the Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru, who unfortunately are not here, the Liberal Democrats—. Everybody in this place has good ideas, and not one party has a monopoly on those. So, I welcome all ideas, and I welcome almost everything the Plaid Cymru amendment said. So, I hope, today, we can back the changes, and the Welsh Government will put the support into place to hold a full-scale review of obesity strategy, because doing nothing simply is not good enough. If we do nothing, this will become the biggest health crisis of a generation. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.