Agenda and minutes

1.1 There were no apologies or substitutions.

1.2 In accordance with Standing Order 17.49, the Chair welcomed Joyce Watson AM to the meeting, who was attending item 2 on the agenda on behalf of the Enterprise and Business Committee.

HSC(4)-04-12 paper 1

David Worthington, Senior Responsible Officer for the Bill

Chris Brereton, Deputy Chief Environmental Health Adviser

Rob Wilkins, Foods Standards Agency

Chris Humphreys, Lawyer

Break 10.15 – 10.25

2.1 The officials responded to questions from members of the Committee on the Draft Food Hygiene Ratings (Wales) Bill.

2.2 The officials agreed to provide the following additional information, as requested by the Committee:

·         figures for the number of ‘hits’ on the FSA’s food hygiene ratings webpages;

·         a breakdown of the number of hospitals in Wales in each food hygiene rating category;

·         the number of hospitals in Wales currently displaying their food hygiene rating; and

·         an accurate figure of the number of food businesses in Wales that have been rated since October 2010, broken down to Local Authority level, and a breakdown of the number of businesses in each rating. 

2.3 The Committee agreed to hold a similar session once the consultation on the Draft Bill has closed.

HSC(4)-04-12 paper 2

3.1 The Committee discussed its external engagement for the inquiry into residential care for older people.

3.2 The Committee agreed the proposed engagement activity proposed and agreed to appoint Age Cymru and Crossroads Care to work collaboratively to facilitate this work.

HSC(4)-04-12 paper 3

4.1 The Committee discussed topics for four ‘one-off’ evidence sessions for the spring and summer terms.

4.2 The Committee agreed to pursue one-day inquiries in relation to the following topics:

·         Wheelchair waiting times in Wales: follow-up work on the recommendations made by the Third Assembly’s Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee’s Report on Wheelchair Services in Wales;

·         Venous thrombo-embolism prevention; and

·         Reduced fetal movements and still births in Wales.

4.3 The Committee agreed:

·         to re-visit the topic for their fourth session at a later date, deciding between co-responder services, access to medicines or orthopaedic waiting times;

·         to await the report of the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee’s on-going inquiry into post-traumatic stress disorder before undertaking work on this topic; and

·         that the subject of health inequalities would require longer than one day for consideration and, as such, should be placed on the list of possible future inquiry topics.

Minutes of the meeting held on 19 January

          HSC(4)-02-12 minutes

5.1 The Committee noted the minutes of the meeting held on 19 January.

HSC(4)-04-12 paper 4

5.2 The Committee noted the letter from the Chair of the Petitions Committee in relation to P-04-318 Cross-border maternity services and agreed to keep the issue under review, as requested.

7.1 The Committee considered the key issues on its inquiry into the contribution of community pharmacy to health services in Wales and agreed to return to consider its key conclusions and recommendations at its next meeting on 8 February.

View the meeting transcript.

6.1 The Committee agreed the motion to resolve to exclude the public from the meeting for item 7.

6.2 The Committee also agreed to exclude the public from the meeting on 8 February, with the exception of taking oral evidence from Jean-Pierre Girard on the residential care inquiry, which will take place in public.