RADICAL and wide-ranging legislation designed to help people in Wales live healthier lives and protect them from harm, has become law after receiving Royal Assent.

The Public Health (Wales) Bill, which extends smoke-free areas to settings including the grounds of schools and hospitals, and introduces a licensing scheme for procedures such as tattooing, has become an Act of the Assembly after an official sealing ceremony.

The Act places a duty on councils to produce a toilets strategy and requires public bodies to consider how their decisions will affect people’s health. It also prohibits the intimate piercing of children, makes pharmacy services more responsive to their communities, and places a duty on the Welsh Government to produce a strategy on preventing and reducing obesity.

A Bill receives Royal Assent when Letters Patent under the Welsh Seal, signed by Her Majesty’s own hand, are notified to the clerk of the Assembly.

First minister, Carwyn Jones, said the Act “keeps pace with emerging public health concerns.”