argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that, right across the United Kingdom, people have given up on events that they hold dear to them. That is a sacrifice, and tonight, we are asking the people of Leicester to take further difficult action. I appreciate that the decisions we have taken have led to people not being able to enjoy life in the normal way. I hope that, by cracking down on the disease in the way we have been able to across the country and then taking decisive action where there are local flare-ups, we will be able to get this country back to normal as much as possible, so that people can do the things they love.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Dehenna Sheridan Fareham (Conservative, Centre-right): My thoughts go out to the people of Leicester at what must be a very worrying time. I am grateful to the Health Secretary for taking such swift action to tackle this local outbreak. I know that many of my constituents will welcome being able to spend more time with family and friends and to visit restaurants and pubs like the Eden Arms in West Auckland for the first time in far too long. Will my right hon. Friend assure the House that some restrictions may be put back in place if local outbreaks are identified, in order to keep people safe?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes. Today’s action demonstrates that we are willing to take action to protect people. Local action, in concert with the local council, is sometimes what is needed. There have been local outbreaks thus far, for instance in Kirklees. Along with Kirklees Council, to which I pay tribute, we managed to tackle the problem in one particular factory effectively, and it did not lead to onward community spread. Likewise, in Weston-super-Mare, they closed admission to hospital and tackled the outbreak, and it did not lead to community spread. In the case of Leicester, unfortunately, the outbreak has led to community spread, which is why we have had to take the wider action that I have announced today.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): That data is available to directors of public health in local councils who have signed a data protection record. I am committing to the House to publish it at as local a level as possible, so that everybody will be able to see and analyse that data.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
James Sunderland (Conservative, Centre-right): It was right to ease lockdown, as we must get the economy breathing again, but it is also dispiriting to see packed beaches, passengers without face masks on public transport and other mass gatherings. Given that the Government will no doubt get blamed for any second spikes, how serious is the Secretary of State about imposing similar measures more widely beyond Leicester?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): People will have seen from the action we have taken today and announced tonight that although I do not want to take that sort of local action, we are perfectly prepared to take it if that is what is needed to control the virus. Throughout the lifting of the lockdown measures, our plan has been to lift the national measures and have a more targeted approach, whether that is at an individual case, whereby NHS test and trace contacts all those who have been in contact with the person who has tested positive, or whether at a cluster in one setting, for example, in the factory in Kirklees that was mentioned, which was addressed at that level, or at a wider outbreak, as demonstrated by tonight’s action.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Nusrat Munir Ul-Ghani (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend share what factors lie behind the infection rate being so high in Leicester? Will those factors be shared with local resilience forums, such as mine in the south-east, so that they can also prepare? Secondly, he said that children in Leicester were particularly vulnerable. That is not the norm for covid, so is this a separate strand of covid or can he say why the youngsters in Leicester are so vulnerable?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): To be clear, children have a very low risk of suffering from covid, but we have been looking at the proportion of children who have tested positive and therefore may be transmitting the disease. Thankfully, the disease poses a very low risk to any individual child in terms of their becoming ill or worse, but the challenge is that it still transmits through children. That is why we have taken the decision that we have on schools in Leicester. Of course, there are many reasons and potential reasons why the outbreak has occurred in the way it has in Leicester. We are still getting to the bottom of those, but I undertake to ensure that directors of public health in other areas understand those reasons. For instance, we are doing work specifically on food processing factories, which seem to have a higher rate of infection around the world, including in America, Germany and also in north Wales. Of course, there is a challenge in the community to ensure that we understand properly the origins and the spread of the outbreak in Leicester and then look at similar cities where the case rate is thankfully much lower, but ensure that we learn the lessons for similar cities, precisely as the shadow Secretary of State said.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Fay Alicia Jones (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend has mentioned the outbreaks in Wales. Does he agree that the Welsh and UK Governments working together would be beneficial for everyone, particularly on test, track and protect, but especially for my constituents in Brecon and Radnorshire, who share a border with England?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Andrew William Murrison (Conservative, Centre-right): I can get a routine blood test result on the same day with no problem, but a swab test typically takes days, not hours, severely limiting its usefulness as a public health tool, as the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Dr Whitford) described. Does my right hon. Friend believe that directors of public health should have access to comprehensive datasets in good time if they are to identify the clusters that he envisages in his statement?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend speaks for Blackpool, and he has a clear voice that people should listen to. The message that people should take away is this: to defeat this virus, we need to stick together and follow the social distancing rules. That is as true on a beach in Blackpool as it is anywhere else in the country. If people do go out and enjoy the beach on a day of good weather, they should follow not just the social distancing rules, but basic decency, and take their rubbish home with them.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): We are publishing more data on where tests are done and where those positive test results are based in order to understand better the clusters. On the hon. Lady’s point about the number of people tested, there is a long-standing issue in terms of de-confliction, and understanding and making sure we get those data right. We are working with the UK stats agency on resolving the problem, and I hope to have it resolved as soon as possible.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Clearly, the measures that we have in place are there to bring the number of cases right down. We have been able to do that over the past few weeks, since the middle of April, when we saw the peak. That has been happening across the country. Where we see local outbreaks and that trend going into reverse, we can take action, whether that is at a highly localised level around a single cluster or, as demonstrated tonight, with an outbreak such as the one in Leicester.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Robert Alexander Courts (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the decisive action taken today and the statement from the Secretary of State. There will of course be some nervousness in the country at large, so will he reassure people that lessons are being learned in real time and passed on to other local areas as they happen, and also that if it is necessary for him to go further to control this virus, that is what he will do?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right and speaks with great wisdom. While we are able to lift some of the lockdown measures and while people will, across most of the country, be able to exercise some more freedoms, such as the freedom safely to go to the pub, from this weekend, we have got to be aware—all of us—that this virus still lives in our communities. We must continue to tackle it and we must continue to stay alert, and so control the virus, because that saves lives.
Covid-19: Import of Essential Medical Products — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Health
Gregory William Hands (Conservative, Centre-right): We continue to work tirelessly across Government to secure vital equipment and PPE from overseas partners, including from the US, Malaysia, China, Turkey and South Africa. We have sourced more than 18 billion items from across the globe to be shipped and delivered to the frontline to our NHS.
UK Tech Sector — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Health
Alan Mak (Conservative, Centre-right): British entrepreneurs are at the cutting edge of developing technology medicines—from apps to medical devices—in the fight against coronavirus. What support is my hon. Friend giving to our health tech start-ups to access overseas markets where British innovation can help to save lives?
UK Tech Sector — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Health
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right: companies such as Cambridge-based C2-Ai, which last week won the CogX award for covid-19 health innovation, are leading the way in the UK’s cutting-edge health tech sector. C2-Ai saves lives by predicting avoidable harm and mortality to free up capacity in intensive care units for covid-19 patients. My Department is supporting dozens of firms just like C2-Ai that are looking to provide covid-19-related treatments. We have also produced a directory of those British digital health companies that provide covid-19 solutions and shared that with our international network, in response to inquiries from Governments around the world.
UK Exports of Arms and Equipment — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Defense
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): We assess all export licence applications on a case-by-case basis against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria. We draw on all available information, including reports from NGOs and our own overseas network. I can assure the hon. Lady that we will not license the export of equipment where to do so would be inconsistent with the consolidated criteria.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Defense
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course we are all extremely concerned about what has happened in the US—in particular, the killing of George Floyd. We are very, very concerned about that. However, we have one of the strictest arms licensing regimes in the world and we are absolutely clear—I have made this clear to the team—that we always comply with the consolidated criteria.
DFID-FCO Merger — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Health
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman, and welcome the opportunity to debate this issue with him. He asked a number of questions, including on timing. The covid crisis has required the Government to act and operate in ways that we have not done before—
DFID-FCO Merger — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Health
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question. He is one of those Members of this House I always listen to with great care and interest, and he has a track record on these issues as well as on financial issues and many others. I made this point in my opening remarks that we have to be careful about this artificial dividing line between what serves our moral sense of duty and what serves a harder, grittier perception of the national interest. I think that that is an artificial dividing line. I believe in a sense of moral self-interest, an enlightened self-interest, and if he looks at what we are doing on vaccines at the Gavi summit, he will see that that will crystallise the opportunity for us to do things that serve the people of this country, by securing a vaccine, while helping the most vulnerable in the world.
DFID-FCO Merger — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Health
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman raises exactly the point at issue. We want to maximise our focus and funding, but also our political effort, on those key priorities and ensure that we are delivering with the very highest impact. HIV and some of the other ground-breaking areas where we have helped to reduce disease, malnourishment and poverty are absolutely a top priority in the new administrative structures.
DFID-FCO Merger — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Defense
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): We have of course taken this merger decision now because we can see that we need to be as effective as we possibly can be during this coronavirus challenge. Equally, it will help to galvanise the integrated view that will bring into play all the wider security factors that my hon. Friend mentioned.
Covid-19: BAME Communities — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Health
Nusrat Munir Ul-Ghani (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a pleasure to follow the passionate speech of the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi). I first want to thank all NHS workers, who have done a tremendous job during this covid period. My speech will not be so friendly, so I want to start by thanking the Minister, who has been tremendous in supporting me in Wealden, where we have a particularly large care home system—I have a lot of older constituents. Regardless of the day of the week and the time of day, she has been incredibly responsive. Unfortunately, the rest of my speech will not be so flattering, so I will just crack on. Like so many people in this country, I have lost loved ones to covid. I also have loved ones working on the frontline dealing with covid. We had the experience and network to highlight quite early on that we saw a pattern forming, but we were met with, "We don’t have the data"—it is 2020, and we do not have the data. I understand the argument that this is an unusual situation, and that we did not have the statistics to deal with this particular pandemic, but we do have data about how viruses spread. We also understand the long-standing institutional biases of NHS England and Public Health England, which have failed in their leadership, are unaccountable, and hide behind the catch-all, "We just don’t have the data." It is shameful.
Covid-19: BAME Communities — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Health
Felicity Christiana Buchan (Conservative, Centre-right): I would agree with the hon. Lady that language is incredibly important in these sensitive times, and it is not language I personally would have used I want to talk about levelling up. We talk a lot about levelling up, and normally it is exclusively in the context of the north versus the south, but clearly there are huge disparities in our inner cities. We have already heard that our cities have been worse affected by covid, often due to overcrowding and deprivation. I therefore urge my hon. Friend the Minister to ensure that, when we focus on levelling up, we focus on our cities just as much as our regions. I also want to talk about prevention and screening, which are critical, not necessarily in the context of coronavirus but in the context of mitigating health inequalities. Only if we have proper prevention and screening can we extend people’s lives. I am glad that the NHS has a diabetes prevention programme, for instance; clearly, that has a comorbidity with coronavirus In summary, I thank the hon. Member for Brent Central (Dawn Butler) for securing the debate, and I urge the Minister, on behalf of my constituents, to proceed with pace with this review and to ensure that its recommendations are implemented with a sense of urgency.
Import of Medical Products — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Health
Gregory William Hands (Conservative, Centre-right): We continue to work tirelessly to secure vital supplies of medical equipment from overseas partners to meet UK demand. Hundreds of millions of units of PPE have been procured and over 2,000 ventilators have arrived in the UK thanks to our trade and FCO networks.
South China Sea Operations — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Defense
Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (Conservative, Centre-right): May I just pay tribute to the men and women of the armed forces who have risen to the challenge of helping to deal with covid? We will find them up and down this country, and indeed in Whitehall, embedded right across the system helping to deliver the response. May I also welcome to his place the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey)? I look forward to working with him to tackle the issues around defence The Royal Navy, along with other NATO allies, will continue to uphold the right of navigation across the globe. This is an inviolable right, and, where it is threatened, the UK will always be at the forefront of defending it.
South China Sea Operations — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Defense
Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (Conservative, Centre-right): The Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy collaborate across the globe on a near daily basis. Only this morning, I had an hour-long conversation with my counterpart in Australia. The Type 26 Hunter-class frigate partnership has flourished through the Global Combat Ship user group. Operationally, we have worked closely on the management and challenges of covid-19 in the maritime sector, as well as in the Strait of Hormuz, providing security to global shipping.
South China Sea Operations — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Defense
Tobias Martin Ellwood (Conservative, Centre-right): I echo the comments of the Defence Secretary and say thank you to our armed forces for what they are doing to tackle the coronavirus. The British people may have come together as one nation, but the same cannot be said on an international level, which is a very different picture. Our world order was already in a fragile state, but now, under the fog of covid-19, countries such as China and Russia are exploiting this global distraction to further their own geopolitical agendas. May I ask him to call for an urgent meeting of the National Security Council to review our competitors’ activities, which, left unchecked, could lead to serious conflict in the future?
South China Sea Operations — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Defense
Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend makes an important point that there are adversaries and competitors around the world seeking to use this horrendous outbreak not only to exploit our differences, but to further their ambitions. I urge them to focus on the matter at hand, which is tackling covid collectively around the world, rather than taking advantage of that. On the point about the NSC, the decision to call an NSC meeting is a matter for the Government Security Directorate in the Cabinet Office, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister. It is not the case that, by not having such a meeting, we have no agenda on security. We meet the threat every single day and, indeed, many of the decisions made at NSC are enduring and do not need to be refreshed unless there is a major turn of events. We will keep the situation under review, as will, I know, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister.
Covid-19: Departmental Support — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Defense
Jamie Hamilton Wallis (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that, in times of crisis such as the current covid-19 pandemic, our best approach is a united one? Can he therefore describe how the military has helped the people of Wales in dealing with covid-19?
Covid-19: Departmental Support — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Defense
Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (Conservative, Centre-right): Joint Military Command Wales has provided mobile decontamination teams and drivers to support the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust. It has also provided general duties personnel to unload PPE from aircraft at Cardiff Airport and transfer it to civilian trucks for onward distribution to Bridgend. As of 10 May, there are 30 military planners also embedded with the Welsh Government.
Covid-19: Departmental Support — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Health
David James Duguid (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the intervention of the Ministry of Defence in supporting the covid-19 testing capacity across the whole UK, but can my right hon. Friend tell me what discussions he has had with the Department of Health and Social Care and the devolved Administrations on the effectiveness of those MOD testing facilities, and will he meet me, at least virtually, to discuss specific issues that we have had recently in Peterhead in my own constituency?
Covid-19: Departmental Support — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Health
Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (Conservative, Centre-right): Mobile testing is a capability developed between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Defence under DHSC direction. NHS Scotland decides on the location to which each mobile testing unit will be deployed in Scotland. Peterhead, to which my hon. Friend refers, was an isolated incident in which the opening of the site was delayed due to capacity issues with central laboratories. Unfortunately, the site incorrectly remained open on the digital booking portal for a few hours longer. Such bookings were accepted when the site opened on 4 May. I am happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss further the use and deployment of mobile facilities throughout Scotland.
Covid-19: Departmental Support — House of Commons, 2020-05-12
Topic: Defense
Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the right hon. Member. May I place on record a tribute to his predecessor, the hon. Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith), who did a great job as shadow Defence Secretary, sometimes in difficult circumstances? We have done it slightly differently from the United States with testing our personnel. We have no problems whatsoever testing whoever we want, when we want. The best example I can give is that, before embarkation, we tested all 799 of the crew of the Queen Elizabeth carrier. We will test them again throughout their period of sailing and when they return We have a strategy around protecting the national security-vital parts of our forces, which involves testing and quarantine. That is also being carried out in areas that I will not particularly comment on; nevertheless, the right hon. Member mentioned what the Americans view as strategically important. We do not have a mass programme; we have testing that is available—we do not have any problems acquiring it—and, as we bring forces up to either readiness or deployment, there is an opportunity if required, if quarantine has not done the job, to test them as well.