argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Environment
Margaret Beryl Jones (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I thank the Minister for his helpful response. We are all looking for the best way to stop wasteful discards. As he will know, that has been campaigned for over many years. We were very pleased when the discard ban was introduced because it felt as though it was finally beginning to address the issue. If we now move away from it, we need to be assured that anything that runs in parallel has equal advantages I suppose that I had not quite understood that the scheme would be voluntary, so I assume that it is all still underpinned by the current discard ban and the charging scheme will work only in certain areas and certain fisheries.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Agriculture
Margaret Beryl Jones (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, in moving Amendment 113 I shall also speak to Amendment 120. These amendments relate to the Secretary of State’s powers to grant financial assistance. Although amending different clauses, they work in tandem to allow for the collection of additional scientific data to influence future policy. Amendment 113 adds scientific data collection to the causes to which the Secretary of State can provide financial support. It also refers to support for remote electronic monitoring, the importance of which we have debated on a number of occasions. Amendment 120 would give the Secretary of State further powers to make provision relating to the collection of scientific data. It may be that other powers within the Bill would be sufficient to allow this; I hope the Minister can clarify that point. However, we believe that it is important to strengthen the requirement to fund and collate the best scientific data available. This is particularly important as we leave the EU and lose access to the mass of scientific work on fishing being carried out by other member states Much earlier in the withdrawal negotiations, there seemed to be a genuine desire to continue academic collaboration with our EU neighbours on a whole range of mutually beneficial research, but this desire seems to have withered. It no longer seems to be given any priority, so it is likely that we will have to rely on our own scientific community to provide the data which will form the basis of our sustainability agenda. If I am wrong, and the intention is still to seek some form of research collaboration, I am sure that the Minister will put me right. If I am right, our scientific community, however good it may be, will be stretched and will need all the financial support it can get We need the best available scientific data, produced in a timely manner. There are still enormous gaps in our knowledge. Data deficiency remains a real challenge. According to government data, the status of three of the UK’s 15 main fish stocks is unknown. As a result, much of the fish caught in UK waters cannot be marketed as sustainable. The catch, therefore, cannot be considered for Marine Stewardship Council certification. If we can address this deficit, it will help to improve sustainability, as well as potentially offering up more fishing opportunities and more economic stability for our fishers. I hope noble Lords will see the sense in these amendments.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Agriculture
Margaret Beryl Jones (Labour, Centre-left): The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, made that point extremely well, and I hope the Minister will take it away and reflect on it further. As he says, there are all sorts of sustainability activities that one can imagine the fishers being funded to carry out that are not just straight fishing. If we were being more imaginative in the Bill, we could be more imaginative on those sorts of issues as well I want to say something about funding, because the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, quoted the Secretary of State on long-term funding commitments and asked which budget they will come from. I know that the Minister mentioned the spending review, but that is not the same as the commitment that seems already to have been made. I think he said that he would write or give us further information. Perhaps he could do that in writing to say what that longer-term funding will be and how it will be funded in the future. That would be extremely helpful, because that question mark still hangs over this I was not convinced. I did not come to bang my drum for Amendment 113 in particular, but the more the Minister tried to rubbish it, the more I got quite defensive about it. For example, in the Bill we have this long list of reasons for funding to be given by the Secretary of State, some of which are quite major and others one might think are not so significant. We are trying to say that collecting the scientific data is as important as them. I am sure that it is. It must be on a par with that because it is at the heart of our sustainability measures. Given that we already have a long list, I cannot see why we cannot add a paragraph (j) to the bottom of that long list.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Agriculture
Christopher Suenson-Taylor (Labour, Centre-left): I rise to speak to Amendment 118 in my name, which is a probing amendment and seeks to upgrade the regulations on this matter from negative to affirmative. While the Bill’s negative procedure has not been commented on by your Lordships’ Delegated Powers Committee or Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, and may seem technical, it involves money. Under Clause 34(5), the MMO has considerable discretion. The initial charging structure becomes important as the UK sets up the fisheries framework outside the CFP. Some questions arise, to which it will be important to have answers. Will the MMO undertake this charging function on the basis of full cost recovery? That lies behind the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Teverson. Schedule 7 replicates that clause in relation to Scotland on page 74, Wales on page 75 and Northern Ireland on page 76. Is it expected that all the Administrations will set up identical charging structures to avoid any competitive imbalances I acknowledge that the MMO is an existing body with an excellent track record; its relationships with stakeholders are usually very positive and productive. However, if this legislation established a new public body, your Lordships’ House and the other place would have a strong interest in the exercise of this power and the procedure attached to it. When the Minister replies, I would be grateful if he could give as much detail as possible on the level of charges, the frequency of any changes envisaged and the relevant percentage of cost recovery that any sector of the industry will be required to cover This last point is of particular interest, as I have noted, and covered by Amendment 119 in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell. I am curious about the noble Lord’s use of "appropriate" in proposed new paragraph (b) in relation to his subsequent use of "must" in proposed new paragraph (c), in that there may be some implicit contradictions in the amendment. I ask the noble Lord: does the maximising of charges on the 10 metre-plus fleet mean that it could pay more pro rata and therefore be seen, in some way, as partly subsiding the under 10-metre fleet? This amendment also seems to mandate the MMO to make full cost recovery across all its responsibilities. I await the Minister’s reply.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Agriculture
Barbara Young (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 121 in my name, supported by the noble Lord, Lord Randall of Uxbridge. Better scrutiny of secondary legislation is a bit of a hobby-horse of mine. I hope that this is a good example of how we should look to improve methods of scrutiny of secondary legislation across the board but let us focus on this one for now When the various statutory instruments were going through the House, transposing European legislation into UK laws as part of the withdrawal process, we all bore the scars of quite restricted consultation and no publication of the statutory instruments in draft. The only real remedy available for those dissatisfied with the statutory instrument was to blow the whole thing out of the water, even under the affirmative procedure, a nuclear option that would have left us with no legislation in place at all The Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Gardiner, was excellent in talking to people about the statutory instruments he was responsible for. However, it still left us with the ability to talk about them but not to change them, because by that time they had been laid. This amendment reflects the fact that in this Bill a number of provisions give the Secretary of State powers to create secondary legislation, including for fishing industry or conservation purposes in Clause 36, and for aquatic animal disease purposes in Clause 38. These could be seminal and result in major changes to fisheries management measures. It is important that any changes are subject to a more extensive scrutiny process by stakeholders and the legislature Of course, the Bill requires the Secretary of State to consult before making new regulations, but this amendment provides an additional requirement for authorities to lay regulations before Parliament at the draft stage, while it is still possible to change them, and for the Secretary of State to have regard to any responses to consultations, including any parliamentary resolutions or recommendations. This reflects the super-affirmative requirements for scrutiny of secondary legislation in the Public Bodies Act 2011 and the existing consultation requirements for the joint fisheries statement, the Secretary of State fisheries statement and the fisheries management plans in Schedule 1, so it would not be out of line with other measures currently in the Bill. I beg to move.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Agriculture
Christopher Suenson-Taylor (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Young of Old Scone for moving Amendment 121, which allows the Committee to probe into the consultation process, the input consultation and from where it comes, in relation to the regulation-making process powers in the regulation concerning fisheries and aquaculture, and to the devolved Administrations and the joint fisheries statements. This proposed amendment to Clause 41 widens the consultation process to include Parliament in a quasi super-affirmative, as well as wider industry bodies under proposed subsection (1A)(d). The drafting of subsection (2) makes the resolution affirmative—that is, with the express approval of Parliament—in certain fundamental aspects only. Yet this does not include the wider industry. Can the Minister confirm whether the affirmative procedure necessitates a wider industry consultation in this respect only As my noble friend has said, this wider consultation allows for ideas and concerns to be fed into the system and duly considered before a final instrument is laid. I am also grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Randall, for his remarks. The Committee, over the past three sessions, has expressed disappointment at the lack of ambition in the Bill: it does not take UK fisheries much further than replicating the CFP. It is vital that forthcoming regulations have the full scrutiny that this wider consultation would demand Should the Minister consider that there are adequate opportunities for scrutiny and consultation in this clause—and the Bill in general—I hope she will provide additional assurances by specifying how this would work.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Government Operations
Barbara Young (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for her reply. I did not really hope or dare to dream that the Government would roll over on this one. I take the point that flexibility and improvements are important and that many of these pieces of secondary legislation will be about technical issues. But the question of ambition in this Bill comes into play here. The reality is that there could be instances where consultees would want to see more rather than less ambition in some of these technical solutions. When there is no ability to look at these statutory instruments in draft before they are laid, it becomes impossible to insert anything at that stage of the process. I am distraught and disappointed as usual when I talk about scrutiny of secondary legislation.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Agriculture
Christopher Suenson-Taylor (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, for tabling Amendment 122 on producer organisations. It is right to say that the more someone learns about the fishing industry, the more they realise they know very little. This is certainly true of a key part of the fisheries industry: the boat fraternity, its ownership, quota and producer organisations. It is far from transparent, which makes for a difficult task when trying to appreciate the consequences and implications of Government policy. This amendment is one way to shed light into this opaque part of the industry. Whether it is the right or best way to bring transparency the Minister can help to determine. If there are other, better ways, perhaps he can bring them to our attention, which would be to the benefit of everyone.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Agriculture
Margaret Beryl Jones (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I will speak very briefly. I am grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Teverson and Lord Randall, for proposing these amendments As the noble Lord said, Amendment 123 seeks a consultation exercise on how fisheries regulation activities can be rationalised or better shared. The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, made a very good case for better co-ordination, particularly between the IFCAs and the MMO. Again, we all acknowledge his considerable experience in this regard. We would hope that this is something that the department is doing anyway, particularly as part of the repatriation of policy from the EU. However, I agree very much with the noble Lord that there is further work to be done on this and that this information should be made available to Parliament for further consideration and debate. Therefore, it would be helpful to have this as a requirement in the Bill The noble Lord, Lord Randall, has made a very simple proposal about changing the Short Title of the Bill to "Fisheries and Marine Conservation Bill". It is a simple idea, but we very much support the amendment. It encapsulates many of the preceding debates we have had. It is clear that we do not want to put an artificial divide, with marine conservation being dealt with in the Environment Bill rather than as part of the Fisheries Bill, as we think it should be. This is important and it is a central principle here. As the noble Lord, Lord Randall, made clear, this Bill is not just about the industry; the decisions we are making have all sorts of wider ramifications and knock-on effects We have so much more to do in delivering the rollout of the blue belt of marine conservation areas. The amendment underlines the importance of marine planning in the conservation of our fishing stocks. As the noble Lord said, changing the title of the Bill would send an important message in this regard, so we share the hope that the Minister will see that this simple and helpful suggestion is something that the Government could support. Therefore, we add our support to the noble Lord’s suggestion.
Finance Bill — House of Lords, 2020-07-17
Topic: Macroeconomics
Peter Hain (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, the OECD estimates that the fall in economic activity in 2020 in the UK will be the worst in any developed country. So we have both one of the worst Covid-19 death rates and the worst economic consequences In the United States, after the 1929 Wall Street crash, the economy sank into the great depression, with 25% unemployment. Recovery began only four years later, after President Roosevelt took office in March 1933 and launched his New Deal. In 2008, only bold Labour government action saved the UK financial system from complete collapse and stemmed the slide into slump. The British economy was growing again by the final quarter of 2009 and well on the way to recovery in 2010 when savage Tory austerity reversed it In both cases, it was the state, not the private sector, that got the economy moving again. Capitalism has no innate tendency to return to a full employment equilibrium state, as Keynes made clear. We must look to Government to stimulate recovery when a severe shock hits the economy hard. Waiting on the private sector to do the job would be like waiting for Godot The UK economy now faces its worst peacetime predicament for 300 years. British business is on life support. Industrial towns that used to brag about their bustling business centres now fear seeing them turned into shuttered trading estates or gone-out-of-business parks. Without massive state intervention, many of Britain’s businesses would already have gone bust, taking millions of families with them But 10 years of Tory austerity cast a long and bitter shadow. It took £150 billion of spending power out of the economy by 2020, 80% of it in public spending cuts. The Chancellor’s plan for jobs brings forward nearly £9 billion of public investment into 2020 and 2021. Alistair Darling—my noble friend Lord Darling—brought forward £29 billion of public investment into 2009 and 2010 No one has accused the present Government of excessive spending. No one says that their budget deficit is too big or their debt dangerously high. No one has mentioned the Cameron-Osborne mantra of "maxing out the national credit card". Today there is widespread acceptance that a national emergency warrants an extraordinary response, and that public finances must stand the strain. Even the Prime Minister concedes that, at a time of national crisis, big budget deficits and rising national debt are a sign of an effective corrective policy, not a mark of irresponsibility. In other words, all their attacks on the last Labour Government were false, and a decade of Tory austerity put Britain through years of pointless pain.
Finance Bill — House of Lords, 2020-07-17
Topic: Macroeconomics
Simon Haskel (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister has talked about the digital services tax. That is a small step on the long road to properly taxing the digital economy, as called for by the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra. The noble Lord, Lord Bruce, told us that in this financial year, the digital services tax will raise £279 million. That is a small but welcome step in the right direction. In directing this tax at large companies, the Government are rightly aiming it at those which have long practised so-called "tax optimisation", which, translated, means choosing where you pay tax. The IMF is constantly pointing out the revenues lost through these activities, so the Government are right to separate out these multinationals from domestic companies which have much less opportunity to optimise their tax The 2% tax will be paid by businesses that provide online marketplaces, search facilities or social media services in the UK to residents and other users. The definitions are fairly detailed, but some companies operate both online and offline. Are the Government satisfied that these can be properly identified? Part of tax optimisation can mean that digital and non-digital activities are separated, and the digital element located outside the UK. A study by Oxford University in 2019 showed that more than 50% of the subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies active here reported no taxable profits in the UK. Yet a third of the companies that received coronavirus loans under England’s largest scheme are substantially owned in a tax haven. Some of these companies have also been in receipt of job retention funds, grants and emergency loans. This is perceived by the public as unfair and is yet another example of the unfairness brought to our attention by the pandemic. Surely the quid pro quo must be a commitment to better behaviour in matters regarding tax I do see a glimmer of hope. There has been quite a shift—companies are acknowledging that public opinion requires them to recognise that they also have a social purpose. Indeed, only last week, HSBC reported some evidence to show that companies which focus on these strategies are weathering the consequences of the pandemic better. I welcome the digital services tax, but it is only an early step. Do the Government have further steps in mind?
Finance Bill — House of Lords, 2020-07-17
Topic: Macroeconomics
Thomas Lyttelton (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, never can economic conditions have changed so much in the time between the publication of a Finance Bill and its consideration by your Lordships’ House. As the Minister has outlined, the Chancellor has, quite rightly, announced a wide range of emergency measures in response to the Covid crisis—even if, in many cases, they fall short of what these Benches would wish to see In macroeconomic terms, it was indeed a Budget and hence a Finance Bill from a different era, as my noble friend Lord Livermore described it in his forensic remarks from the Front Bench. But the Chancellor, basking in the current personal popularity that must cause such anxiety to his neighbour—no wonder the Prime Minister’s senior adviser is an advocate of Andy Grove’s dictum "only the paranoid survive"—has shown himself reluctant to move on fully. Yesterday, the Institute for Fiscal Studies published an analysis of the Chancellor’s recent £30 billion package, suggesting that a third of this supposed new spending is actually recycled or reallocated spending already announced in the Budget or otherwise. This "makes scrutiny of plans more difficult and is corrosive to trust", commented the IFS dryly. More importantly, it means that support for the economy and employment is falling even further short of what is needed "The Finance Bill is a series of tweaks and corrections",—[Official Report, Commons, 2/7/20; col. 625.] said my honourable friend the shadow Chief Financial Secretary in another place, rather than implementing the vision necessary to address this devastating economic shock. Even these "tweaks and corrections" are under- whelming. Although the proposed delay to IR35 reform is welcome, the powerful report by the Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee highlights the extent to which the Government are as much at sea in micro as in macro waters The Office of Tax Simplification reported on inheritance tax in two stages, between November 2018 and July 2019, with 11 recommendations. Could the Minister say how many of these have been adopted in the Bill? The Chancellor has just announced a further inquiry by the OTS, into capital gains tax. This prompted speculation that CGT changes would be used to fund some of the necessary public spending measures, which the Treasury quickly denied. O that in fact they might be! The Chancellor "must change a tax system that was designed before returns to capital (and especially property) greatly outstripped returns to labour", wrote not a Marxist economist but the FT columnist Janan Ganesh. Although he was writing in 2015 about George Osborne, of whom he was the biographer, his analysis is even more valid today than it was then.