SENEDD Members have questioned the Welsh Government over a new £8 million obesity strategy, tightening restrictions on youth vaping, and regional inequalities in cancer screening.

Deputy Minister for Public and Preventative Health, Nerys Evans, confirmed Public Health Wales has secured the funding through the obesity pathway innovation programme.

The funding will be used to develop new NHS treatment models for obesity, viewing it as a chronic condition rather than a short-term issue.

The announcement on Tuesday July 14 followed a speech to the Senedd, where Ms Evans outlined her preventative healthcare priorities and drew on the words of Aneurin Bevan: “The victories won by preventive medicine are much the most important for mankind.”

Emphasising the importance of prevention in healthcare, Ms Evans said: “The need to make this change is not new. What has been missing is the determination to deliver it.

“For too long, our models, processes and ways of working have been built around responding to crises, rather than preventing them and helping people to live healthier and happier lives.

“This changes now. Under this government, success will be measured not by the number of hospital admissions, but by the number of people who stay healthy enough to avoid hospital altogether.”

Ms Evans told Senedd colleagues that providing healthy environments, better access to sustainable and nutritious food, and addressing vaping amongst young people were among her top priorities as minister.

Concluding her speech she said: “We firmly believe that building a healthier population is not only a moral imperative, particularly in tackling deep-rooted inequalities, but is also fundamental to improving the wider prosperity and resilience of our nation.”

Facing questions from the opposition benches, Ms Evans took questions on funding for weight loss jabs, screening and vaccinations, and vaping and smoking.

Reform’s James Evans pressed the deputy minister on the longer term impacts of weight loss medication.

He said: “I think one thing we have to be careful with, with weight-loss medication, is that, yes, it is changing lives, but it’s not changing lifestyles.

“It cannot be seen as a silver bullet to losing weight long term, because we do know about the longer term health impacts, with osteoporosis in women, with people with cardiovascular problems emerging from these jabs”.

Mr Evans asked his opposite number if she will be working with primary care, gyms, and leisure providers to ensure people on weight loss medication are also making lifestyle changes.

“If you don’t, it’s just a vicious circle,” Mr Evans explained. “You’ll come off it, you’ll put weight back on again, and you’re back on the jabs and then end up in A&E with longer term problems, and that’s no way to help our health service.”

The deputy minister agreed, adding that it is about “creating that system of support around individuals for those lifestyle choices”.

Ms Evans revealed Public Health Wales has recently been successful in co-ordinating a Wales-wide bid for funding through the obesity pathway innovation programme.

She said: “That’s £8 million of funding in order to look at these issues, to develop and test approaches that could form part of that delivery model going forward.

“We want to be looking at treating obesity as a chronic condition, and, obviously, the changes that would mean in terms of how the NHS would respond to that would be key.”

Drawing attention to the national lung cancer screening programme that was introduced by Welsh Labour, Jayne Bryant quizzed Ms Evans on her plans to encourage participation in screenings and vaccination programmes.

Ms Bryant – who is Labour’s spokesperson for public and preventative health – also acknowledged the HPV vaccine, noting that since its introduction in 2008 the vaccine has “reduced cervical cancer rates by almost 90% in women in their 20s”.

She also highlighted the importance of cervical screenings, but said work needs to be done to make them more accessible Wales-wide.

The Labour spokesperson called for Ms Evans to share how the Welsh Government will encourage participation in vaccines and screenings.

The deputy minister said: “One of the things that worries me is the differences within our deprived communities in terms of screening and vaccine uptake.”

She spoke of making sure Public Health Wales, in its efforts to boost screening and vaccinations, understands what the barriers are to uptake.

Ms Evans also faced questions on her plans for preventing smoking and vaping among children and young people by Conservative MS Natasha Asghar.

Ms Asghar, of Casnewydd Islwyn, told the Siambr that Wales sees almost 4,000 preventable deaths each year because of smoking.

She acknowledged the deputy minister has already launched a consultation on vaping as part of the four-nation approach to prevent children from smoking, but called for clarity on what other actions will be taken.

Ms Evans said that tackling the increasing number of children vaping is a “key priority” for her as minister.

She urged the public to take part in a consultation into vaping, which is looking at changing vape product packaging to be more like tobacco packaging – and less attractive to young people.

Ms Evans also confirmed she has asked officials to provide an outline of what other powers the Welsh Government has to tackle tobacco and vaping.

Six of Wales’ seven health boards failed to balance their books as funding fell in real terms

NHS WALES recorded an annual deficit of £199 million last year, despite receiving what Audit Wales described as record investment in the health service.

The watchdog’s audit of NHS bodies’ accounts for 2025-26 found that six of Wales’ seven health boards again failed to meet their legal duty to break even over a rolling three-year period.

The combined three-year deficit across NHS Wales increased to £506 million, up from £457 million the previous year.

NHS Wales received £11.76 billion in revenue funding during 2025-26, an increase of £198 million compared with 2024-25 and around £2 billion more than it received in 2021-22.

However, once inflation was taken into account, funding was 1.5% lower in real terms than in the previous financial year.

Audit Wales said increasing demand, rising pay and other day-to-day costs meant financial pressures were not being brought under control.

The annual deficit was £75 million higher than the £124 million shortfall recorded in 2024-25.

The accounts of all 12 NHS bodies were found to present their financial positions fairly. However, the Auditor General qualified his regularity opinion for the six health boards that failed to break even because they had exceeded their legal authority to spend.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board was the only health board to meet its three-year break-even duty.

However, the Auditor General issued a separate qualified regularity opinion for the health board because one senior officer had been paid above remuneration levels set by the Welsh Government.

All three NHS trusts met their three-year break-even duty.

The two special health authorities, Health Education and Improvement Wales and Digital Health and Care Wales, are required to break even annually and both did so.

Agency spending falls sharply

Audit Wales highlighted a significant reduction in spending on agency staff.

Agency expenditure fell to £128 million in 2025-26, representing a 61% reduction compared with its peak in 2022-23.

Around 73% of agency spending was used to cover staff vacancies, while approximately 15% supported additional activity aimed at meeting demand for services.

NHS bodies reported making £256 million in savings during the year, just £3 million more than in 2024-25.

However, Audit Wales warned that recurring savings had fallen and had been outweighed by increased reliance on one-off measures.

One-off savings can include delaying projects or expenditure, while recurring savings result from permanent changes such as more efficient working practices or securing goods and services at lower prices.

The watchdog said the NHS remained too dependent on savings that could not be repeated in future years.

It warned that the current savings profile was not enough to stem the tide of rising demand and other cost pressures, including staff pay.

Most health boards unable to produce balanced plans

Health boards and NHS trusts are also required to prepare Welsh Government-approved three-year plans setting out how they will deliver services within the funding available.

Only one health board, Cwm Taf Morgannwg, had its plan approved, doing so for the second consecutive year.

All three NHS trusts also secured approval for their plans.

Audit Wales said the inability of most health boards to produce financially balanced plans meant the overall NHS deficit was unlikely to improve in the near future.

It warned that continuing financial pressure could push NHS organisations towards short-term decisions aimed at managing the immediate annual position rather than delivering longer-term reform.

The watchdog called for greater emphasis on prevention, whole-system change and long-term planning to safeguard the financial future of the health service.

Auditor General Adrian Crompton said the accounts showed financial pressure within the NHS was continuing despite repeated increases in cash funding.

He said: “The picture painted by those accounts is of financial pressure on the NHS that is not being contained, let alone reversed.

“That has been a persistent pattern during my eight-year term, compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising demand.

“As I have pointed out previously, this is despite the Senedd passing the NHS Finance (Wales) Act 2014, more than a decade ago, to set the financial and planning duties that NHS bodies are expected to meet.

“Turning the tide on NHS spending will not be easy, but turn it must.

“For the NHS, as for public services in general, a much sharper and relentless focus on the delivery of value for money is needed, alongside a mindset shift to one focused on prevention and the longer term.”

Audit Wales has also published an updated NHS Wales Finances Data Tool containing further details about the financial performance of individual NHS organisations.

THE FIRST Minister has been challenged to provide a clear date for when two-year NHS waiting lists will be eliminated in Wales.

During the final Senedd plenary session before the eight-week summer recess, opposition leader Dan Thomas accused Rhun ap Iorwerth of failing to “do the detail” on health, transport, and childcare.

Reform’s Mr Thomas questioned why different cabinet ministers had provided conflicting timescales for tackling the backlog.

He said: “During the election campaign, the First Minister said that two-year waits would be eradicated within a matter of months, and then his new health minister said that they would be eradicated by the end of the four-year term. I then asked the First Minister who was right, and in a very long-winded answer, he said that he was.

“But then, just a couple of weeks ago, his finance minister, on BBC Walescast, said that two-year waits would be gone in 12 months – so, in other words, a year. Now, a year is a lot longer than a matter of months.

“So, can the First Minister finally give us some more detail: by which month will two-year waits be finally eradicated in Wales, as they are in England?”

Mr ap Iorwerth dismissed the row over the timeline as a “philosophical debate” and insisted his administration was actively delivering results.

He said: “The actions that government is taking are aligned with bringing down those two-year waits as quickly as we can. We want to do it in months.

“That is precisely what we set out to do before coming in to government, and what we are actively delivering now in government.”

Mr Thomas also pressed the Mr ap Iorwerth on the cost of Plaid Cymru’s flagship childcare policy – and accused the First Minister of failing to “do the detail”.

“We know this figure is somewhere in Plaid Cymru HQ,” said Mr Thomas. “What are the initial costings of Plaid Cymru’s childcare offer?”

Mr ap Iorwerth clarified that £55 million had been allocated in the supplementary budget to fund the first phase of the rollout, which will complete the 12.5 hours offer for two-year-olds within this financial year.

“Now, that is what is being done. I literally cannot give you more detail than that. It’s the money, it’s the timescale, and it’s going to be done within this financial year.”