Consultation on the Public Health (Wales) Bill

Purpose of the consultation

The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee is undertaking an inquiry into the general principles of the Public Health (Wales) Bill. Further details about the Bill and the accompanying Explanatory Memorandum can be found on the Bill page.

Terms of reference

To consider—

1. the general principles of the Public Health (Wales) Bill to improve and protect the health and well-being of the population of Wales, specifically to:

§ re-state restrictions on smoking in enclosed and substantially enclosed public and work places, and give Welsh Ministers a regulation-making power to extend the restrictions on smoking to additional premises or vehicles;

§ place restrictions on smoking in school grounds, hospital grounds and public playgrounds;

§ provide for the creation of a national register of retailers of tobacco and nicotine products;

§ provide Welsh Ministers with a regulation-making power to add to the offences which contribute to a Restricted Premises Order (RPO) in Wales;

§ prohibit the handing over of tobacco and/or nicotine products to a person under the age of 18;

§ provide for the creation of a mandatory licensing scheme for practitioners and businesses carrying out ’special procedures’, namely acupuncture, body piercing, electrolysis and tattooing;

§ introduce a prohibition on the intimate piercing of persons under the age of 16 years;

§ require Welsh Ministers to make regulations to require public bodies to carry out health impact assessments in specified circumstances;

§ change the arrangements for determining applications for entry onto the pharmaceutical list of health boards (LHBs), to a system based on the pharmaceutical needs of local communities;

§ require local authorities to prepare a local strategy to plan how they will meet the needs of their communities for accessing toilet facilities for public use; and

§ enable a ‘food authority’ under the Food Hygiene Rating (Wales) Act 2013 to retain fixed penalty receipts resulting from offences under that Act, for the purpose of enforcing the food hygiene rating scheme.

2. any potential barriers to the implementation of these provisions and whether the Bill takes account of them;

3. whether there are any unintended consequences arising from the Bill;

4. the financial implications of the Bill (as set out in Part 2 of the Explanatory Memorandum;

5. the appropriateness of the powers in the Bill for Welsh Ministers to make subordinate legislation (as set out in Chapter 5 of Part 1 of the Explanatory Memorandum).

Invitation to contribute to the inquiry

The Committee welcomes evidence on the terms of reference and the extent to which the Bill reflects priorities for improving and protecting public health in Wales.

Submissions should arrive by 16 December 2016.

If you wish to submit evidence, please send an electronic copy of your submission to: seneddhealth@assembly.wales

If you responded to our predecessor Committee’s consultation on the previous Public Health (Wales) Bill (2015) and wish for this Committee to consider your earlier response (or an updated version of that response) as part of its scrutiny of this Bill, please let us know.

Guidance

Submissions should be no longer than five sides of A4, with numbered paragraphs, and should focus on the terms of reference.

If you are responding on behalf of an organisation, please provide a brief description of the role of your organisation.

Please see the guidance for those providing evidence for committees.

Bilingual Policy

The Committee welcomes contributions in English or Welsh and we ask organisations with Welsh Language policies/schemes to provide bilingual submissions, in line with their public information policies.

Disclosure of Information

You can find further details about how we will use your information at www.assembly.wales/InquiryPrivacy. Please ensure that you have considered these details carefully before submitting information to the Committee.

Contact details

If you wish to speak to someone regarding this consultation, please use the following contact details:

Committee Clerk

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

National Assembly for Wales

Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA.

Email: SeneddHealth@Assembly.Wales
Telephone: 0300 200 6565