argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-02
Topic: Government Operations
Catherine Jane Smith (Labour, Centre-left): I thank my hon. Friend for that very sensible point. What he notes, of course, is that we see a spike in voter registration when we have a general or a local election. Of course, this year there are no elections because of the coronavirus crisis, but just six months ago we had a general election in this country and we know that the December 2019 register is incredibly accurate because we saw a spike in voter registration We are also aware that electoral registration officers are already expressing concern about the impacts that coronavirus will have on the December 2020 registers, and the prevailing opinion is that the annual canvass is likely to be impacted in some significant way. I urge the Minister to favour using the very recent general election data of December 2019. The Office for National Statistics released that data just last week, and we saw more than 1 million people register between December 2018 and December 2019, indicating that the December 2019 register is much more accurate than the December 2020 register will potentially be. The fact that the data was published last week demonstrates the lag in collating that data. So if, for example, the Government were to continue to use the December 2020 register, commissioners would probably be waiting until May 2021 before they had collected that data from EROs and could get on with their work. Let us help the boundary commissioners begin their important work as soon as possible by using the data published last week, which we already have, relating to December 2019 and the general election.
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-02
Topic: Government Operations
Catherine Jane Smith (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the hon. Member for giving me the opportunity to put on record my concerns about the overstretched nature of electoral returning officers in our councils right across the country. Cuts to local government have not protected electoral returning officers and the resources that they are working with Turning to the issue of the electoral quota, I know that Members across the House will want to highlight their concerns about the impact of this boundary review on communities in their constituencies. Community has never been stronger than during these troubling months. Right across the country, we are seeing communities come together to support vulnerable people, and now more than ever, community connections must be valued and respected. However, the restrictive 5% quota tolerance in the Bill flies in the face of protecting community ties. I know that many of my Welsh colleagues are planning to speak this afternoon, and they will highlight some of the geographical challenges the quota throws up—by which I mean mountains dividing constituencies. In Devon and Cornwall, the Government have repeatedly ignored the historic and proud identities of those counties. Boundaries based on strict numbers that ignore identities do not carry community support, as we have seen with the so-called Devonwall seats in the last review. Will the Minister ensure that there is no Devonwall seat in this Bill? I suspect that Cornish MPs might want to table an amendment to protect Cornish identity. If they were to do so, would the Minister back them As the Minister knows, there is consensus among respected experts such as Ron Johnston, David Rosser and Charles Pattie, who agree that the 5% rule causes significant disruption to community boundaries. Indeed, they concluded that the substantial disruption on the map of constituencies in the aborted sixth review was not entirely the result of the reduction of the number of MPs from 650 to 600; their report showed in detail that disruption was caused by the introduction of the uniform national quota and the 5% tolerance. I commend to the Minister the private Member’s Bill introduced by the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone), which suggests a 7.5% quota. Communities across the UK will be more representative if a wider quota is introduced. Why is the Minister refusing to accept the evidence and introduce a quota that would be better for everyone?
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-02
Topic: Government Operations
Catherine Jane Smith (Labour, Centre-left): I completely dispute the hon. Member’s argument; that is absolutely not the case. I am very keen that the Government should be able to get on with this boundary review. I want new boundaries to be in place ahead of the next general election, because at the moment we stand in this House representing constituencies based on data that is two decades old. We should absolutely move on from the status quo, but I am saying that we should ask for a quota of 7.5%, because we could then keep community ties together and represent constituencies that actually look like the communities we stand here and claim to represent.
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-02
Topic: Government Operations
Catherine Jane Smith (Labour, Centre-left): The Opposition recognise the need for constituencies to be broadly as equal as possible, but anyone who stands up in this House and says that they truly believe that all constituencies should be equal should look at the data from December 2019. If we were to take that data on how the electorate looked and say that every constituency had to be exactly equal, every constituency would have to have an electorate of 72,613. Not 72,614 or 72,612—those figures would be outside the quota. There will always need to be a variance, and it is a question of striking a balance between having constituencies that are broadly equal and constituencies that represent their community ties.
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-02
Topic: Government Operations
Catherine Jane Smith (Labour, Centre-left): The 7.5% I drew attention to is in the private Member’s Bill promoted by the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone), so if the hon. Member for Dartford (Gareth Johnson) wants to know where the figure comes from, I suggest he speaks to his hon. Friend I am conscious that you want to get all Back Benchers into this debate, Madam Deputy Speaker. There are many aspects of the Bill that make sense and that we welcome—for example, giving the boundary commissioners more flexibility to use local government and ward boundaries that are yet to come into force. We also welcome the move to hold reviews every eight years. The longer cycle will limit the disruption caused to parliamentary constituencies, potentially resulting in savings, but ensuring that MPs remain accountable to their constituents, so that we are not elected to this place and our constituents are never given a chance to hold us to account in a further election I look forward to hearing the contributions from all Members to this important debate. It is time for a democratic boundary review, and the Labour party will not stand in the way of that. However, the Bill must not strengthen the power of the Executive at the expense of Parliament. I hope the Minister will consider changing the numeration date, given the extraordinary circumstances of covid-19.
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-02
Topic: Government Operations
Kim Marie Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill. However, I believe that basing the review on the number of registered electors as of 1 December 2020 will not provide an accurate or up-to-date picture of our current electorate and will have huge implications for cities such as mine with universities. The 1 December 2020 register is the enumeration date for the review, meaning that the size of the electorate on 1 December will be used throughout the new boundary review as the officially recognised size of the current electorate. I believe that that will cause many issues, as the electoral register is likely to be severely impacted by the current crisis. The coronavirus is likely to have a significant effect on the annual canvass, meaning that the registers will be less accurate and complete than other recent registers The constituency that I represent—Liverpool, Riverside —has an electorate of almost 73,500 and three universities, with an estimated 70,000 students living in the city. The data proposed is two decades old, but it is estimated that the electorate has increased by at least 2 million since the last boundary changes. There are also widespread concerns that, due to the coronavirus, many students will not return to their universities by December 2020, meaning that thousands of students from across the country will not be registered to vote. This will significantly skew the electoral size of university towns, where the student population is dense. As a result, constituency boundaries will not reflect the true size or make-up of the constituency under normal circumstances To conclude, I urge the Government to consider using the December 2019 electoral register as the enumeration date for the review. This would capture a highly representative snapshot of the electorate in the run-up to the 2019 general election. That date would also prevent any delay to the review, thereby allowing new boundaries to be in place for the next general election.
Low-Carbon Industries — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Energy
Seema Malhotra-Saluja (Labour, Centre-left): In 2018, investment in acquisitions in the UK’s solar dropped to just £0.3 billion, from £1.6 billion in 2015. Should the Government not be doing more to support renewable power, in the light of the net zero target—which the Secretary of State mentioned—and the closure of the feed-in tariff, especially given that German, Italian and Spanish companies are now investing over six times more than UK companies in low-carbon technologies?
Research and Development Investment — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Technology
Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the Secretary of State and the Science Minister to their places. Science is critical to our national prosperity, and it is important that it should be led by them, rather than by the misfit master of Downing Street, so can the Secretary of State clarify the confusing statement from No. 10 on the European research programme? International collaboration is the heartbeat of research and development. For every £1 we put into the European Union programme, we got £1.30 back, and such funding is essential if we are to retain our place as a global science superpower, so will the Secretary of State boost UK science by confirming that we will be going for full associate membership?
Research and Development Investment — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Environment
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): The Royal College of Physicians has found that something like 64,000 people a year die prematurely as a result of unclean air at a cost of some £20 billion. In addition to continuing the research and development into electric cars, will the Secretary of State lobby the Chancellor and the Environment Secretary to continue the grant of £3,500 for clean cars, so that we can have an enforceable regime for air quality and a platform for research and development and for exports in the green industries, particularly in relation to sustainable transport?
Aerospace Sector: Innovation — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Environment
Christian John Patrick Matheson (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. The UK leads the world in aerospace technology, but it faces the same pressures as other sectors with regard to environmental sustainability, so may I urge him to increase long-term funding for the industry so that we can retain our global lead while meeting the challenge of net zero?
Clean Growth Industries: New Jobs — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Energy
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): If the Government want to help clean growth, they can invest in the Mersey tidal power project. It is clean, entirely predictable, and could power 1 million homes. It offers high-quality jobs and has massive domestic and export potential. Steve Rotheram and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority have just committed a further £3.5 million to the project, so will the Government back the people of the north-west by supporting investment in this exciting new project? It is a chance to demonstrate that they are interested in and serious about tackling the climate crisis.
Clean Growth Industries: New Jobs — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Energy
Jessica Elizabeth Morden (Labour, Centre-left): As the Government rejected the opportunity to create new clean jobs when they scrapped the Swansea bay tidal lagoon, which had huge potential for communities along the Severn to kick-start further lagoons, may I, along with other hon. Members, urge them to look again at the huge potential of tidal power?
Energy-Intensive Industries: Decarbonisation — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Energy
Alexander Cunningham (Labour, Centre-left): Teesside is a major centre for high-carbon, energy-intensive industries, which are nervous about high energy costs, the future of the REACH regulations and carbon costs. It is good to have my near neighbour, the hon. Member for Stockton South (Matt Vickers), also supporting the CCUS campaign, but how can the Minister reassure the industry that the Government will address the high cost issues and, in particular, the REACH regulations that he is about to ditch?
Energy-Intensive Industries: Decarbonisation — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Environment
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Government help to decarbonise the Rhondda? I ask because following the flooding we have seen significant landslides on former coal sites. I do not want to overstate this, but there is some anxiety about what that might mean for the future and stability of some of these tips. Will the Minister make sure that the Secretary of State meets me and other MPs in affected areas to make sure that the Coal Authority is doing everything in its power to make sure everybody is safe?
COP26 — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Environment
Nadia Edith Whittome (Labour, Centre-left): COP26 will be the most critical talks since Paris, yet preparations so far have been beset by chaos. What response can the Minister provide to the former COP President who says that this Government are presiding over "a huge lack of leadership" on the issue. The Prime Minister has admitted to her that he does not even understand climate change. Does the Minister acknowledge the embarrassing lack of credibility and competence that the Prime Minister has shown on COP26 preparations?
COP26 — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Environment
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): Every country has to submit its contribution to climate action before COP26 meets. Why is the Secretary of State preparing the UK’s contribution statement on the basis of the fifth carbon budget, which works towards a target of only 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, when this House has determined that the target to be met should be net zero by 2050?
COP26 — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Environment
Rachel Jane Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the Secretary of State and his new ministerial team to their places. The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee looks forward to taking evidence from them, and I am sure that they look forward to that as well May I follow up on the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Test (Dr Whitehead) about our fourth and fifth carbon budgets? Those carbon budgets are premised on achieving an 80% reduction in carbon emissions, yet this House has unanimously passed legislation to achieve net zero. It is neither coherent, nor showing leadership, for our fourth and fifth carbon budgets to be based on an outdated objective that this House has rejected. Can the Secretary of State confirm that we will be updating our fourth and fifth carbon budgets—and, crucially, that we will meet them?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Labor
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): Coronavirus is impacting on every aspect of work, from the cost to employers to the cost to workers. The Health Secretary has said that employers should view isolation as sick leave, but the law does not state that. Even if that was so, those on zero-hours contracts and in insecure work are unlikely to have sickness cover, and statutory sick pay does not pay for the first three days, meaning that those with little means have to choose between health and hardship—an issue I raised with the Health Minister a month ago. So what discussions has the Business Secretary had with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that workers are financially protected to stop the risk of spreading coronavirus?
Recent Violence in India — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: International Affairs
Alexander James Jorden Norris (Labour, Centre-left): Recently, delegates from Nottingham’s Indian diaspora came to see me and challenged me—quite legitimately—over our special connection and relationship with India, which they said gave us a responsibility to speak out against what we have seen in Kashmir and with the CAA. The Minister has talked about the contact between our Government and the Government of India, but he has not said what impact that has had. He has detailed his strategy. What evidence does he have that it is working?
Coronavirus — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Education
Mathew Richard Allen Rodda (Labour, Centre-left): Following the outbreak at Willow Bank Infant School, will the Secretary of State update the House on the work he is undertaking with the Department for Education, local authorities and schools to help contain the outbreak?
Coronavirus — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Labor
Alexander James Jorden Norris (Labour, Centre-left): Sick pay and statutory sick pay can be complex, but there is one simple truth within that system: the poorer someone is, the poorer their protections are. Those very worst-off at work want clarity from us that doing the right thing and following the Secretary of State’s guidance will not put them at a detriment. Nothing in the public conversation and, frankly, nothing we have heard today gives me confidence to say that to people in my community, so will he take this opportunity to say, from the Dispatch Box, that not one single person in this country who is following his advice will suffer a detriment to their terms and conditions?
Coronavirus — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Labor
Victoria Jane Foxcroft (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State has been asked about this several times, and I am slightly worried that he just does not get it. Some working people do not get sick pay. We really need to know what his plans are for them.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2020-03-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Rosalie Winterton (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point of order. There are hand sanitisers in various places around the estate but, again, that is something that is kept under review on a daily basis Bills Presented Domestic Abuse Bill Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57) Secretary Priti Patel, supported by the Prime Minister, Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary Robert Buckland, Secretary Elizabeth Truss, Secretary Robert Jenrick, the Attorney General, Victoria Atkins and Alex Chalk, presented a Bill to make provision in relation to domestic abuse; to make provision for and in connection with the establishment of a Domestic Abuse Commissioner; to prohibit cross-examination in person in family proceedings in certain circumstances; to make provision about certain violent or sexual offences, and offences involving other abusive behaviour, committed outside the United Kingdom; and for connected purposes Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time tomorrow, and to be printed (Bill 96), with explanatory notes (Bill 96-EN). Sentencing (Women) Bill Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57) Daisy Cooper, supported by Sarah Olney, Christine Jardine, Layla Moran, Munira Wilson, Wendy Chamberlain, Wera Hobhouse, Rosie Duffield and Liz Saville Roberts, presented a Bill to require courts to impose community sentences on women offenders unless they have committed a serious or violent offence and pose a threat to the public; and for connected purposes Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 10 July, and to be printed (Bill 97). School Toilets (Access During Lessons) Bill Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57) Layla Moran, supported by Sarah Olney, Munira Wilson, Wendy Chamberlain, Jamie Stone, Daisy Cooper, Christine Jardine, Wera Hobhouse, Caroline Lucas, and Alison Thewliss, presented a Bill to require the Secretary of State to publish guidance for state-funded schools on allowing pupil access to toilets during lessons; and for connected purposes Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 13 March, and to be printed (Bill 98). High Speed Rail (West Midlands - Crewe) Bill Presentation and all stages (Standing Order No. 57 and Order, 2 March) Andrew Stephenson, supported by the Prime Minister, Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary George Eustice, Secretary Grant Shapps, presented a Bill to make provision for a railway between a junction with Phase One of High Speed 2, near Fradley Wood in Staffordshire, and a junction with the west coast main line near Crewe in Cheshire; and for connected purposes Deemed to have been read the First, Second and Third time, and passed (Order, 2 March).