argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Before we proceed, let me gently say to the Secretary of State that although on a one-to-one basis I always think him a very civil fellow, it is a considerable discourtesy or incompetence—or both—for a Secretary of State to take twice the length of time allocated for answering an urgent question. If the right hon. Gentleman judges that he has more material that he wishes to share with the House, which of itself could be very helpful, that is fine—but the implication of that is blindingly obvious: the right hon. Gentleman should offer to deliver an oral statement of up to 10 minutes. What he should not do is fail to communicate with me in advance, ignore the convention and greatly exceed his allotted time. It is, I am afraid, discourteous and incompetent—and it must not happen again.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is exactly the kind of response that can help with the impact on the ground in the affected areas. Part of the support package for Redcar is about ensuring that there are funds available to help local businesses that come forward with plans to create jobs.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alan Mak (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Secretary of State confirm that although restrictive EU state aid rules prevent the Government from intervening directly in the steel industry, the Government’s efforts to support communities such as Redcar at this difficult time represent strong and decisive action?
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is quite right to mention Caparo Industries and the news that came out in the past 24 hours about its administration. That could clearly have a significant impact on communities in West Bromwich, Wolverhampton and elsewhere. As for having a longer term focus, the metals strategy—I believe that the hon. Gentleman was at the launch yesterday—is just one of our responses. We are ensuring that we listen to industry, work with the relevant sector councils and get full support not only for the large companies but for companies all the way down the supply chain as regards steel and other British manufactured products.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Other
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I will speak to my colleagues and push for an early decision, as my hon. Friend has suggested. On the taskforce, as he will appreciate, it has just been set up. The chair has been appointed. I want to make sure we listen to the taskforce and local leaders about what is required and how we can help. I understand that the first taskforce meeting is taking place tomorrow, so no time is being lost. We will be represented on that taskforce and listening carefully.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Mark Steven Spencer (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Secretary of State for the efforts he is making along with the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise. Can he give us an idea of the size and scale of Government procurement of UK steel over the coming months and how rapidly that will be rolled out?
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): I really do not think that this is a party political issue, as illustrated by the fact that we have had a Backbench Business Committee debate on the matter, which led to the steel summit in Rotherham. Will the Secretary of State answer the question put to him by my hon. Friend the Member for Corby (Tom Pursglove)? He urged him to shoot first and ask questions later. Let us put in place what we think is right, and worry about whether the EU agrees with it afterwards. We need to do this now; otherwise, there might not be a steel industry left to worry about.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jeremy John Elton Lefroy (Conservative, Centre-right): The steel industry is a vital national interest. It is also vital for many of our communities around the country, and I encourage the Secretary of State to maintain a laser-like focus on it throughout the coming years. Will he also look at another issue that the steel industry has raised—namely, the quality of the steel, particularly structural steel? There is no point in buying cheap steel and putting it into buildings, only for them to develop problems in 20 years’ time. Let us buy British steel of the right quality.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise that point. I agree with him wholeheartedly about the importance of the steel industry to the economy as a whole and to our manufacturing base. It is without question a vital national asset, as he says. The important issue of quality must be considered alongside the question of markings and of ensuring that the quality is properly tested. Those issues came up in the taskforce, and we will be looking at them very closely.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for joining the steel summit on Friday. We collectively discussed the issue of strategies, procurement and pipeline, and the whole supply chain. I hope she will be reassured that since that meeting we have already, for example, set out a metal strategy, which has steel as a very important part of it.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): On this issue, a number of very good suggestions were made by the industry, trade unions and others at the taskforce. One related to certain industries that are now, thankfully, going through a huge growth phase, such as the automotive industry, which is a big user of British metals, including steel. We will be working closely with each of those industries to see how we can hard-wire the requirement for British products and British steel into their products.
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): On capacity for the British steel industry, we have, unfortunately, seen a steady decline under successive Governments. What we need now is to provide more certainty to steel producers, be it in relation to energy costs, their concerns about unfair trade or the supply chain, so that they can build their plans for the future. That is what we will be helping them to do.
Paramilitary Groups (Northern Ireland) — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Theresa Anne Villiers (Conservative, Centre-right): I can give the right hon. Gentleman that commitment. I think it is vital that we find a way to end all forms of paramilitarism in Northern Ireland. I also agree that it is crucial that the talks currently underway succeed. All the parties need to engage intensively on this matter and on the Stormont House agreement, because without resolution of those questions it is difficult to see how we can have an effective and functioning Executive delivering on their priorities. It was very important that the assessment was produced and that we have further facts in the public domain, but I acknowledge his point that the scale of the task is great. We must not underestimate that, which is another reason why all the parties need to engage in the talks with determination to find a way forward.
Paramilitary Groups (Northern Ireland) — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrew George Stephenson (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome what my right hon. Friend has said and the work of the panel. Given the information we now have, does she believe that there should be a continuing role for such assessments going into the future?
Paramilitary Groups (Northern Ireland) — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Theresa Anne Villiers (Conservative, Centre-right): Almost all the parties have made it clear that part of the solution on paramilitary organisations is an ongoing process of verification that is demonstrably independent, so that is likely to be part of a successful outcome to cross-party talks.
Paramilitary Groups (Northern Ireland) — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Civil Rights
Theresa Anne Villiers (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an important point. There is a tendency among some to try to rewrite history. That is something that this Government will never support and will always firmly oppose. There is no possible means by which one could romanticise a campaign that saw thousands of people murdered. That is at the heart of our approach to the institutions on the past to be created under the Stormont House agreement. They must be balanced, objective, fair and impartial to make sure that we establish all the facts about the history of the troubles, and do not enable anyone to seek to rewrite the history of the troubles and to draw some wholly unacceptable form of equivalence between terrorism and police officers.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I cannot hear the hon. Lady, so I assume that nobody else can hear her. This is a debate and we must be able to hear the opening speeches. Everyone will have a chance to shout in their own four or five minutes.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Damian Patrick George Hinds (Conservative, Centre-right): I hesitate to use a double negative, but I cannot say they will not be better off. Many, many people will be better off. On the specific point of the eight in 10, that refers first to financial year 2017-18, and, as the right hon. Gentleman will know, to all working families. Obviously, the precise impact of the different measures—tax credits, national living wage, income tax personal allowance, childcare, social rents and all the other different elements—will vary with precise circumstances, but many, many families will be considerably better off. The hon. Member for Feltham and Heston herself was good enough to cite one such example of one particular type of family being £2,440 better off by 2020.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Damian Patrick George Hinds (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid I could not put it better than my hon. Friend, and I will not try Under these reforms, fully half of families will still be eligible for tax credits, and the total cost will come down only to what it was as recently as 2008. They will focus support on the lowest incomes, while taking those on higher incomes off tax credits altogether.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. The Minister has just said he intends to make progress. Many people wish to make speeches today. If they continue to jump up and interrupt him and still wish to make a speech later, they will be disappointed.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Damian Patrick George Hinds (Conservative, Centre-right): We are making these necessary changes for the future of all sorts of families, but more than anybody for the sake of our children. The hon. Lady will know that the best way to address poverty is through work, and that is what we have been doing. She will also know the statistics—that where a child is in poverty and a parent moves into work, in 75% of cases they move out of poverty as a result, and that where a parent moves from part-time to full-time work, 75% of children also move out of poverty From next April, we will have the national living wage, which by 2020, when it will be worth more than £9 an hour, will mean over £5,000 more in gross full-time pay for someone on the minimum wage today.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Before the hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber responds to that intervention, I must tell him that he has been talking quite a lot about "you". I am sure that he does not mean the Chair. Perhaps it would work rather better if he addressed the Minister.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I am not having this any more. I have let a lot of people get away with it today, but this is an important debate, and we must observe the rules of the House. Just say "the honourable Gentleman"!
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman (Conservative, Centre-right): I applaud the hon. Lady’s passion but she is missing the context. The changes are part of a package that include a national minimum wage, 30 hours of free childcare, and a lock on tax rises. Taking that into account, wages and personal income will rise—does she not see that?
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Graham Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): What I will say is that employers must step up to the plate. They must pay higher rises—rising salaries. The living wage will rise to £9 during the term of the present Parliament, and because the Government have increased the personal allowance, people will earn £12,500 before paying any tax whatsoever The combination of those changes will make eight out of 10 working families better off. A typical family in which someone is working full time on the minimum wage will be £2,400 a year better off by the end of this Parliament. By 2020, the annual income of a single parent with one child working 35 hours a week and receiving the current national minimum wage will have increased by more than £1,500 Poverty can be left behind only through work. The reforms of tax credits focus support on the families on the lowest incomes, while favouring support for working families through the tax system and earnings growth rather than through benefits. They will move Britain from a high welfare, high tax, low wage economy to a lower welfare, lower tax and higher wage economy.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert Edward Jenrick (Conservative, Centre-right): I will not give way, because time is pressing The second question we must ask is: are we willing to put this back in the box labelled "too difficult", or is this generation of Members of Parliament willing to take the matter on? Do we want to kick this can down the road for future MPs and constituents to deal with, or do we have the guts to take it on? Of course it is not easy. No welfare reform is painless, and any boondoggles given away before general elections are, by their nature, the most difficult things to retract, as my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke) has said. This matter is important, because it cuts to the core of what we are here for. Are we, as Members of Parliament, elected here to leave our children and grandchildren a state that is in worse repair, less competitive and more dependent on China? I have just been to hear the President of China speak a few moments ago. I want a country that can stand on its own in the world, pay its way and ensure that work pays, where millions of working people, including 4,000 or 5,000 of my constituents—
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I gently remind the House that there is no shame on my part in these matters. Members should not keep using the word "you" as though it is somehow my policy. Neither is it my policy, nor is it not my policy; it is the Government’s policy.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
Richard Michael John Ogilvie Graham (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is quite right to mention that the changes are part of a package, which includes higher tax-free allowances, lower social housing rents and wage rises that are significantly higher than inflation. Does he agree that we still have not seen a full assessment of the impact of all those changes or of the tax credit changes in research by either Parliament or the IFS?
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Other
James Gerald Douglas Howarth (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend has the capacity for perspicacity and anticipates a point I shall make shortly. I agree with him entirely. My Bill seeks to follow, almost slavishly, the principle set by the 2015 Act. I did that intentionally, to encourage the Government to give this Bill, promoted by a Conservative, the same strength of support they gave to a Liberal Democrat Bill.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Immigration
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): I was in Cyprus at Dhekelia and at Akrotiri a few months ago. The 17 refugees to whom my hon. Friend refers are in Dhekelia, the eastern sovereign base area, and they have been there as long as he says.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on securing the chairmanship of the Select Committee. I have no doubt that he will press Ministers on many programmatic issues. What I am afraid I cannot be tempted into doing is to pre-empt the conclusion from the SDSR, which will reach its conclusions, as I have said, before the end of the year. What I can tell my right hon. Friend about the approach to the SDSR is that any programmes not committed before the start of the process are on the table for review and consideration of allocation of spending in accordance with other programmes. I am not going to be drawn on what that means for Type 26 in particular, but as I have said, this is going to be one of the biggest programmes we have for the rest of this Parliament.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Immigration
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for giving me the opportunity to explain what we know thus far about the arrival by boat yesterday of migrants on the shore of RAF Akrotiri. I understand that 114 migrants arrived and have been accommodated overnight within the sovereign air base, where military personnel have provided them with food, water and bedding. There are 67 men, 19 women and 28 children, and they are being assessed by medical personnel. I am sure everyone will welcome the fact that they have already been found to be fit and well. We are grateful to the Republic of Cyprus for agreeing to process all asylum claims through its system. That process began yesterday morning and will be continued as rapidly as possible. Further details will be provided when appropriate. The nationalities of those in the group will be confirmed only as they are processed by Republic of Cyprus officials, but we believe them to be a mix of Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese nationals I cannot give my hon. Friend any specific information on what naval intervention took place. I do not believe that the operations of HMS Richmond or HMS Enterprise were affected by the arrival of those people in Cyprus, but I will confirm that to him in writing.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Other
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): I have not heard most of the Minister’s speech because it has gone on for more than 1 hour and 20 minutes, but the thrust of it is that the Bill is a waste of time because what it proposes is already happening, and we do not want to take up valuable parliamentary time. If we do not want to take up valuable parliamentary time, why is he still wittering on?
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Other
James Gerald Douglas Howarth (Conservative, Centre-right): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I heard the Minister say a few moments ago that the Government were opposed to my Bill. I therefore find it slightly surprising that no members of the Government were in the No Lobby. I wondered whether I should take it as a good omen that between my calling for a vote and your calling the Division, the Government had a change of heart and really wish to support my Bill, but were a little reluctant to say so. I hope that means that my Bill can be brought back in a suitable form, and that the Government will accept it in due course.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Other
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Of course I absolutely understand your ruling. I normally sit behind the Treasury Bench. Is it not extraordinary for a whole row of people in front of me—I think they are collectively called Whips in this House—to scream "No" at the top of their voices but then not go into the No Lobby? That does not seem to be following the convention of the House.
Local Flooding — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Public Lands
Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful for this opportunity to raise this important issue today. The floods during the winter of 2013-14 had an immeasurable impact on my constituency, and resulted in many cases of hardship and, I regret to say, a tragic fatality. Seven-year-old Zane Gbangbola died during the floods in February 2014, in tragic circumstances that have still not been explained. It is important to remember that those tragic events took place not in another country but here in Britain, very close to home Today, I want to raise the issue of local flooding and the wider question of responsibility for the maintenance of key parts of the infrastructure. I also want to talk about the frustration of many residents at the fact that none of the various bodies involved—local government, borough councils, the Environment Agency, the water companies—seems to be able to take full responsibility for the damage that has been caused by a lack of maintenance and a lack of care towards key bits of infrastructure Anyone in my constituency who lives near the river will have to deal with the bewildering array of bodies, in the public and private sectors, that claim some share of authority in the maintenance of key bits of infrastructure relating to water and the environment. I want to stress how confusing it was for the private residents who were facing appalling circumstances in their own homes during those winter floods.
Local Flooding — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Public Lands
Tania Mathias (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this incredibly important debate. I have the greatest sympathy for the family of his constituent who died as a consequence of the flood. I agree with him when he says that those bodies do not communicate with each other, and that our residents are utterly confused. I appreciate that Spelthorne suffered a lot of flooding. I live almost in the river in Teddington, and as I walked through the flood water, the level was right up to thigh level on my boots. The problem for Teddington is a lack of communication between the Environment Agency and the Port of London Authority. The Thames barrier could go up to protect the tidal area of London, but on the upper reaches of the Thames, the weirs and locks could be opened—
Local Flooding — House of Commons, 2015-10-23
Topic: Public Lands
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): To clarify, I think there is a question of correlation and causation in relation to the statement that my hon. Friend has made. This is a very serious issue, and it is of course true that the floodgate was closed just after midnight on 12 February and that the waters then receded, but I am afraid that we do not have evidence that there is a direct causative relationship between those two things.