Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:14 pm on 1 March 2022.
Thank you to James Evans for that range of points, and also for your acknowledgement of the scale of the problem that we face and for your acknowledgement that that problem has become much worse due to the pandemic. And I entirely agree with you that prevention is better than cure, and this is a delivery plan, as part of our 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' strategy, that is very much rooted in prevention.
I'm very grateful for your welcome for the legislative proposals that we will be bringing forward, and I will look forward to working with you and across party on those. Of course, there are not just our legislative proposals; we are also working closely with the UK Government around the changes that they are making around things like calorie labelling, restricting advertising, changes to the composition of infant food et cetera. So, there is a lot of work going on in that space.
You mentioned the targeted media campaign, and clearly this is an incredibly important area of work, but it is also a very complex area. So, there's a huge amount of work going on to make sure that we have the right type of behavioural campaign, because influencing behaviour, particularly behaviour that is so entrenched for many of us, is very, very challenging, but that is a priority for us along with developing this NHS resource, and further down the line we'll be in a position to say more about the funding of that, but we're absolutely committed to delivering on that agenda.
You mentioned the free school meal provision, and obviously that is a costed commitment as part of our co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, but it's not just about giving children free school meals; we also want to make sure that what they have is nutritionally high quality, and that's why we've committed to reviewing the nutritional standards. So, I'm working in partnership and we're working across Government on this whole plan, with the education Minister on that, and in addition to that we're also introducing national buying standards, which will help with procuring more healthy food in the first place. So, we'll be able to look at the quantities of protein, et cetera, as part of what we're doing, so that will also help drive that work.
You referred to the need for us to all be more active, which is obviously correct. We are continuing to invest in making sure that people can be more active. We have the healthy and active fund, which is £5.9 million, which has been available over four years, which is aiming to improve mental and physical health by enabling healthy and active lifestyles. I've been very lucky to go and see some of those projects and to see the way that they are working with people's physical and mental health to improve their quality of life. In addition to that, in this year, we've invested £4.5 million in community sports facilities, and there's a further £24 million being introduced over the next three years.
You referred to the British Heart Foundation report, and obviously the British Heart Foundation are a key stakeholder for us and we very much accept the recommendations that they're making. The idea with our all-Wales weight management plan is that those services will be available for everyone, but I do very much take on board what you're saying and I think we don't always understand the wide range of impacts that can come from having cardiac health problems. It's not just heart attacks; it's things like dementia, which is a risk that we all want to mitigate. So, we're very committed to continuing to work with the British Heart Foundation and key stakeholders on that work. Thank you.