argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
EU Customs Union — House of Commons, 2016-11-02
Topic: Foreign Trade
Helen Catherine Goodman (Labour, Centre-left): I am listening with interest to what the Minister is saying, but according to my constituents, who do a great deal of exporting, exporting to Switzerland is a nightmare by comparison with exporting to the EU, because of all the bureaucracy. Does the Minister not agree that the UK is in a different position from Norway? Its major export is oil, and exporting oil is incredibly simple, but, as I said earlier, most of the goods that we export are manufactured goods, which have complex supply chains.
EU Customs Union — House of Commons, 2016-11-02
Topic: Foreign Trade
Helen Catherine Goodman (Labour, Centre-left): I am slightly nervous that the Minister might sit down before I ask him another question. He said his Department is looking at 50 sectors. My basic request tonight is that we should have more information and facts from the Department, so will he make a start by telling us which 50 sectors and how large they are, how much they export and how many people are employed in them?
Trading Relationships: Israel — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Joan Marie Ryan (Labour, Centre-left): A survey this year found that 89% of Israeli tech companies and 86% of Israeli investors are interested in business and tech co-operation with the UK. What steps will the Minister be taking to take advantage of that good will and ensure that Britain continues to be a leading destination for Israeli tech companies?
Bilateral Trade Deals — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Barry Strachan Gardiner (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Secretary of State see any irony or contradiction in his development of these new free trade and investment agreements, which involve the harmonisation of rules and standards with other countries—even obedience to supranational commercial courts—and the referendum instruction from the British people that we should leave membership of the largest free-trade agreement in the world so that we can set our own rules and take back our sovereignty?
Bilateral Trade Deals — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Government respect the ruling of the Court in this matter, and also respect Parliament? If they want to get on with these trade deals, should they not accept that Parliament should have its say, as the Court has ruled?
Trade Negotiations: Parliamentary Vote — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Questions: What discussions he has had with the Leader of the House on Parliament debating and voting on the outcome of trade negotiations before they are signed.
Thangam Elizabeth Rachel Debbonaire (Labour, Centre-left): Trade agreements need at least 50 negotiators per bilateral. The former Brexit Minister, the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin), said in July that the UK has "no trade negotiators". The Minister of State himself said last month that the number has "doubled since June". Zero doubled is still zero. Will the Minister come clean? Exactly how many trade negotiators do we have?
Trading Opportunities Abroad — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Christopher Michael Leslie (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Minister look at the trading opportunities we need for sectors that play to our comparative advantage already? As he knows, financial services amount to 12% of our output, yet the sector faces not a 10% or 20% tariff after April 2019 if we get this wrong, but a ban on selling and trading in many financial products altogether. What about some transitional arrangements? Will he talk to the Treasury about that?
Trading Opportunities Abroad — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): The Foreign Secretary forgot about the icebergs when he mentioned the Titanic last night. Uncertainty is the enemy of business. Businesses need certainty about our future trading arrangements so they can make investment decisions. As the president of the Japanese chamber of commerce has said, other EU states are talking to UK-based companies. Are the warnings not there for all to hear? If the Secretary of State for International Trade has a plan, he needs to share it, otherwise businesses that need certainty will go elsewhere to find it.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Barry Strachan Gardiner (Labour, Centre-left): The Government Front-Bench team has tried to suggest that the High Court decision that Parliament should have a vote before triggering article 50 is in some way antidemocratic or thwarts the referendum result. Will the Secretary of State acknowledge that the vast majority of Members in this House are now committed to honouring the decision to leave the EU, but that democracy demands that the terms of our leaving must be subject to the proper advance scrutiny and consent of this democratically elected House, and not negotiated in secret and smuggled through without the support of this sovereign Parliament?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Questions: Will the Secretary of State let us know whether, in his discussions with countries that have trade agreements with the EU, those countries have indicated their interest in continuing such arrangements with the UK when we leave?; The EU trade deal with South Korea has reduced the tariff on scotch whisky to zero, while whisky imported to Korea from elsewhere faces a tariff of 20%. Does the Minister agree with the Foreign Secretary’s new adviser, David Frost—a former chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association—who has said that we are much more likely to get such deals“with the weight of the whole of the EU behind us than we are in a negotiation nationally”?; Business in my constituency has praised the work of UK Export Finance but expressed some concerns about the bureaucracy and the length of documentation required to seal those deals. Will the Secretary of State please look into that?
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): Some 80% of the fish caught around our coastline in the south-west goes straight for export to the rest of the European Union, and there is huge concern in the industry about the impact of tariffs if we leave the single market. Given that concern, and the excellent news from the High Court, would it not be wise of the Government not to invoke article 50 as early as March?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Environment
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): Up to 50,000 people die prematurely each year in the UK as a direct result of air pollution, and many more suffer from respiratory disease. This is a crisis and a national scandal—deaths that would have been avoidable if the Government had taken action, and suffering on a mass scale, most prevalent in the most deprived communities. Nitrogen dioxide is a silent killer, but Labour Members will not be silent about this Yesterday’s damning judgment in the High Court shamed this Government, who were told to put an air quality plan in place in 2010. Six and a half years later and following two further judgments in the High Court, the Government have been found wanting. The World Health Organisation and the European Union recognise how serious air pollution is. That is why yesterday Justice Garnham condemned the Government’s poor estimates on emission levels—even after the Volkswagen scandal—and their slow response to addressing high emissions. Urgency is needed I thank ClientEarth for taking the action as there is no time to waste on tackling this issue, as Labour would have done. We cannot afford to allow this to continue or to shift the blame on to councils. This is negligence I therefore ask: will the Government guarantee that, instead of creating just five clean air zones, they will now put in place a network of zones across all 37 out of the 43 areas with high emission levels? Why have they wasted time and resources fighting court cases, instead of fighting air pollution? The High Court judge condemned the Government’s delay in reducing ambient nitrogen dioxide levels. How soon will the Government have in place a comprehensive plan on air quality? How will fuel emission measurements now proceed? Will the Government guarantee that, in leaving the EU, they will not water down air quality standards, and how will this be policed? Will the Government introduce a clean air Act, which Labour has done in the past and will do in the future? Will the Government now clean up their act and clean up our air?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Environment
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Mary Helen Creagh (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister rightly says that this is not straightforward, but documents revealed to the court showed that the Treasury is blocking measures proposed by her Department and the Department for Transport that would actually tackle air pollution. The Environmental Audit Committee published a report on sustainability in the Department for Transport, in which we concluded that we had no confidence that the Department would meet either its 2020 or its 2030 target on low-emission vehicles. Given that the autumn statement is imminent, will the Minister now go back and work with the Department for Transport, and, critically, the Treasury, to unblock the pipeline and ensure that we stop dirty diesel?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Environment
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): May I gently suggest to the Minister that talking about sledgehammers and nuts is not really appropriate in this context? Air pollution is the biggest avoidable killer apart from smoking. The Minister needs a sledgehammer, and she needs to take the sledgehammer to the Treasury Given that this is the second humiliating defeat that the Government have suffered in the courts, surely there was a plan to announce some action here, today, in response to that defeat. Where is it? Where are the new measures?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister talked about nuts and sledgehammers and there being no need for a comprehensive plan, but does she not agree that she needs a proper fiscal strategy to incentivise consumers and producers so that we have a sustainable future, with an infrastructure of hydrogen and electric and a commitment to EU air quality standards, yet she has given us none of those things?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Environment
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Kerry Gillian McCarthy (Labour, Centre-left): A Sunday Times investigation last year revealed that 3,000 schools were in areas affected by toxic air pollution, and we know that childhood asthma is massively on the increase. What are the Government doing specifically to ensure that schoolchildren are protected from air pollution?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Environment
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): The M1 motorway runs right next to the Tinsley area of my constituency, and NO2 levels there are so dangerously high that Sheffield Council has acted to move two local schools away from the motorway and rebuild a school elsewhere. In the end, however, the council can only do so much, and it cannot prevent pollution from the M1. That needs a national plan from the Government to reduce NO2 emissions from diesel vehicles. When are we going to get one?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Madeleine Moon (Labour, Centre-left): I feel some sympathy for the Minister, who is having to deal with this issue today, because the problem lies with the Treasury rather than with her Department. I have to say, however, that it is a little rich to place this responsibility on local authorities when they are already so cash-starved and struggling to provide education and social care services. Is it not time for the Treasury to stand up and tackle this issue by providing the funds that are so desperately needed?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Education
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Thangam Elizabeth Rachel Debbonaire (Labour, Centre-left): In my constituency, there are four primary schools within 100 yards of the M32 motorway, and another that is bang in the middle of the city. It is not enough for the Government to blame local councils. Will the Minister meet me, the other Bristol MPs and the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, to discuss exactly what funding she will be providing to tackle this problem?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Environment
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Paul Phillip Flynn (Labour, Centre-left): There are two possible routes for the M4 relief road in south Wales. One, the blue route, would concentrate and increase pollution in the heavily populated heart of Newport, where air pollution accounts for 70 deaths a year. The other scheme would disperse pollution over a wider, less-inhabited area. Will the Minister assure me that she will give her wholehearted support to the black route in order to reduce pollution?
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Environment
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): I have great sympathy for the Minister this morning because we are all responsible for the mess we are in, and I say that as chairman of my party’s Back-Bench DEFRA committee. Does the Minister realise that the public are far ahead of us on this issue? No one in their right mind would now buy a diesel car. The fact of the matter is that we need a scrappage scheme to get these filthy, belching diesel buses and cars out of our towns and cities. We are choking and poisoning children. That is why we need action now.
Air Quality — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Transportation
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department will take to improve air quality after her defeat in the High Court on 2 November.
Joan Marie Ryan (Labour, Centre-left): My constituency and the borough of Enfield are bound by the M25, the A10 and the north circular A406, so we have much more than our fair share of dirty diesels powering down our roads. Some of our roads, such as Bullsmoor Lane, are practically an extension of the M25. I do not think my constituents are going to feel reassured by what they have heard today; there has been no specific plan and no money identified from the Treasury. We have had nothing to stop the fact that we have kiddies in pushchairs sucking in this poisonous NOx.
Prison Safety and Reform — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Richard Haines Burden (Labour, Centre-left): What concerns me is that the Secretary of State appears to think it is a brilliant new idea to establish no-fly zones for drones near prisons—apparently with a taskforce of eagles to be called in at the time, although I suspect the drone will have got in and out by the time the eagle is untethered. Does she not know that drone manufacturers have for some time had the technology to establish these zones? Why have they not been given the GPS co-ordinates of prisons by now, and why is she not meeting them until December?
Prison Safety and Reform — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Karl Turner (Labour, Centre-left): Is not the truth that we have 3,500 fewer prison officers in our prisons than in 2010? At the same time deaths and suicides in prisons are dramatically up, and assaults on prison officers are up as well. Will the right hon. Lady just come to that Dispatch Box and say, "I admit it: too little, too late"?
Prison Safety and Reform — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Paul Phillip Flynn (Labour, Centre-left): Will the right hon. Lady have a word with the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke) in order to reduce her naive optimism and to recall that no party in the last 45 years has reduced recidivism? On this Government’s watch, a recent report said the number of prisoners who first took drugs in, for example, Bedford jail had risen from 4% to 14%, meaning people were going in as shoplifters and coming out as heroin addicts. What is she going to do about that?
Prison Safety and Reform — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Andrew Francis Slaughter (Labour, Centre-left): I think I heard the Secretary of State admit that cutting 25% of prison officers had been a mistake, but restoring just over a third of that number might not be enough. Will she keep this under review, and can she tell me whether particularly troubled prisons such as Wormwood Scrubs, which have had a temporary uplift in staff numbers, will be able to keep those staff? Will the numbers there go up rather than down?
Prison Safety and Reform — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Susan Elan Jones (Labour, Centre-left): I hope that the Secretary of State will be able to give a similarly warm and positive answer to my question. Many charities work with reformed ex-offenders, and they are transforming people’s lives. Those charities have a problem, however, in that some of the ex-offenders are unable to become trustees of a charity. I accept the importance of having safeguarding arrangements in place, but will she look into this?
Counter-Daesh Campaign: Iraq and Syria — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Alison McGovern (Labour, Centre-left): This statement is about Daesh, but the Foreign Secretary has quite rightly not held back his words condemning Assad’s brutality to his own people. In line with the campaign by the Daily Mirror to save Aleppo, which I am sure the right hon. Gentleman supports, will he come back to this House as soon as possible with a comprehensive British-led strategy to protect civilians in Syria?
Counter-Daesh Campaign: Iraq and Syria — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): Nevertheless, that relationship would be a lot better if President Clinton wins, as I am sure most people in this House agree. Does the Foreign Secretary see any prospect in that of then not giving up on his desire to see a more robust response to the Russians and to Assad in Aleppo?
Counter-Daesh Campaign: Iraq and Syria — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Michael John Gapes (Labour, Centre-left): The Foreign Secretary referred to Russia’s vetoes, or potential vetoes, in the Security Council. There have been five in five years, most recently on 8 October on war crimes. Given the Russian vetoes in the UN, does he believe that the Security Council is failing? Is it not time to consider using the other possible mechanism within the United Nations—the General Assembly’s Uniting for Peace process? Would the British Government support that?
Counter-Daesh Campaign: Iraq and Syria — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Katherine Anne Green (Labour, Centre-left): The Foreign Secretary will be aware of the appalling persecution suffered by Christians and other religious minorities at the hands of Daesh, and the role that those religious communities can play in helping with the relief effort and the reconstruction of Mosul and other cities after the conflict. Can the right hon. Gentleman say what he is doing to support the idea in the Iraqi Government in particular of the positive role that Christians and other minorities can play during and after the conflict?
Leaving the EU: Financial Services — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Louise Kendall (Labour, Centre-left): The businesses in my constituency and those that I have talked about so far are deeply concerned about losing their membership of the single market and their passporting rights. I care about those jobs and the contribution that those companies make to our economy. It is right for us to raise questions, and it would be wrong to suggest that leaving the European Union does not give rise to serious concerns.
Leaving the EU: Financial Services — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend agree that today’s excellent ruling in the High Court gives the Government a chance to reflect on the invocation of article 50 and the impact that it is already having on the financial services employers to which she refers, particularly with regard to the uncertainty about our future membership of the single market?
Leaving the EU: Financial Services — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Louise Kendall (Labour, Centre-left): My right hon. Friend is right. Many companies have been planning for months, even before the referendum, to try to mitigate the risks of Brexit. There is a mandate to leave the European Union, but there is no mandate about the terms. The Court’s decision today should allow this House to have its say, to raise the important issues and to hold the Government to account, and I hope that the Government listen.
Leaving the EU: Financial Services — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Macroeconomics
Elizabeth Louise Kendall (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend puts that point extremely well. There are a huge number of risks on the issue he raised as well as on access to services, but the Government have so far had virtually nothing to say. Businesses cannot wait to get that certainty. Their regulators, their boards, their customers and their clients want to know what will happen. This will have a huge knock-on effect on the rest of the economy.
Leaving the EU: Financial Services — House of Commons, 2016-11-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Elizabeth Louise Kendall (Labour, Centre-left): It absolutely does. The right hon. Gentleman raises an extremely important point. This growing and developing sector is driven by skilled people from across the globe, and we do not want to miss out on those possibilities.