Public health
Preventing ill health: smoking, vaping and obesity, alcohol and drugs, vaccination and infectious disease, and the gap in health between richer and poorer areas.
In the Programme for Government this sits under the well-being objective Building a health and care service fit for the future, and cutting waiting lists.
Showing the theme Health inequalities. The Programme commitments are the brief's as a whole.
- Statements and debates
- 2
- Contributions
- 990
- Written questions
- 9
990 contributions in the Sixth Senedd touched on this. The busiest month was May 2022, with 278.
- Labour48%
- Conservative32%
- Plaid18%
- Lib Dem1%
- Independent0%
On this page
The debate so far
In the Seventh Senedd the main prevention debate has been the new Deputy Minister for Public and Preventative Health's plan for a cross-government approach and a public health strategy. Members have also debated the gap in healthy life expectancy between richer and poorer areas, youth vaping, vaccine uptake and substance misuse. Opposition Members have mostly asked how the approach will change outcomes in practice and what it will cost.
The main arguments
- Nerys Evans (Plaid Cymru), Deputy Minister, said prevention is a cross-government priority. She described a new public health strategy, ministerial and official governance groups, and work on a designated preventative expenditure limit within the Welsh budget.
- Nerys Evans, Zaynub Akbar and Matthew Jones (Plaid Cymru) and Anthony Slaughter (Wales Green Party) said healthy life expectancy is falling and the gap between deprived and affluent areas is wide, including 18 years for men and 19 for women.
