argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Anne McInnes (Labour, Centre-left): President Trump’s biographer, Michael Wolff, has said that the President’s only interest in a state visit is the opportunity to "Trumpalize the Queen". I have literally no idea what that means, but will the Secretary of State please save Her Majesty from that unpleasant-sounding ordeal and cancel this wretched visit?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: The “Fire and Fury” book about the Trump presidency has reheated some debunked claims about the role of British intelligence. Although the ordinary stance of the British Government is neither to confirm nor deny, given the highly unusual facts of this case will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity, as the intelligence chiefs have, to slay those myths?; UK humanitarian workers have told us that 10 hospitals in Syria have been directly targeted by Russian and Syrian forces over the past few weeks. These attacks go against the Geneva convention, but they have also left hundreds of children starving and in need of urgent humanitarian help. Will the Foreign Secretary indicate whether he intends to follow through on his previous pledge to donate British troops to UN peacekeeping forces? Will he ask President Putin to desist from doing such things? Will the Minister also ensure that the Geneva process is re-energised?; Can my right hon. Friend update the House on what role the Foreign Office played in ensuring the opening of the Yemeni seaport of Hodeidah?; It has been nine months since my constituent Kirsty Maxwell tragically fell to her death from a balcony in Benidorm and still the family do not know what happened to the clothes on her body when she died or the circumstances of her death. The Minister has been very helpful in trying to assist, but we are no further forward. Will he put more pressure on the Spanish authorities, and will he do a full-scale review of the support that families who have lost loved ones get?; When he was Foreign Secretary, William Hague described the UN Human Rights Council’s universal periodic review as“a valuable mechanism for holding countries accountable for their human rights record.”—[Official Report, 15 April 2013; Vol. 561, c. 15WS.] Does the Foreign Secretary agree that the UN periodic review meeting on 23 January provides an opportunity to hold Israel to account for its treatment of Palestinian children held in Israeli military custody, and will he use the meeting to do so?; Following ministerial appointments since the general election, can the Foreign Secretary provide some reassurance to the House that the Department for International Development has not become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Foreign Office and that aid will continue to be the primary focus of DFID?; Research conducted by the International State Crime Initiative found examples of four of the six stages of genocide being carried out in Rakhine state against the Rohingya people. What assessment has the Foreign Secretary made of the potential for the other two stages—extermination and “symbolic enactment”—to occur?
Daniel Joseph Carden (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Foreign Secretary update the House on what discussions, if any, he has had with the Government of Mauritius following the overwhelming decision of the UN General Assembly last year to refer the question of decolonisation and self-determination of the Chagos islands?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: The “Fire and Fury” book about the Trump presidency has reheated some debunked claims about the role of British intelligence. Although the ordinary stance of the British Government is neither to confirm nor deny, given the highly unusual facts of this case will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity, as the intelligence chiefs have, to slay those myths?; UK humanitarian workers have told us that 10 hospitals in Syria have been directly targeted by Russian and Syrian forces over the past few weeks. These attacks go against the Geneva convention, but they have also left hundreds of children starving and in need of urgent humanitarian help. Will the Foreign Secretary indicate whether he intends to follow through on his previous pledge to donate British troops to UN peacekeeping forces? Will he ask President Putin to desist from doing such things? Will the Minister also ensure that the Geneva process is re-energised?; Can my right hon. Friend update the House on what role the Foreign Office played in ensuring the opening of the Yemeni seaport of Hodeidah?; It has been nine months since my constituent Kirsty Maxwell tragically fell to her death from a balcony in Benidorm and still the family do not know what happened to the clothes on her body when she died or the circumstances of her death. The Minister has been very helpful in trying to assist, but we are no further forward. Will he put more pressure on the Spanish authorities, and will he do a full-scale review of the support that families who have lost loved ones get?; When he was Foreign Secretary, William Hague described the UN Human Rights Council’s universal periodic review as“a valuable mechanism for holding countries accountable for their human rights record.”—[Official Report, 15 April 2013; Vol. 561, c. 15WS.] Does the Foreign Secretary agree that the UN periodic review meeting on 23 January provides an opportunity to hold Israel to account for its treatment of Palestinian children held in Israeli military custody, and will he use the meeting to do so?; Following ministerial appointments since the general election, can the Foreign Secretary provide some reassurance to the House that the Department for International Development has not become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Foreign Office and that aid will continue to be the primary focus of DFID?; Research conducted by the International State Crime Initiative found examples of four of the six stages of genocide being carried out in Rakhine state against the Rohingya people. What assessment has the Foreign Secretary made of the potential for the other two stages—extermination and “symbolic enactment”—to occur?
Anthony Joseph Lloyd (Labour, Centre-left): The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is a human outrage on a regular basis, and the tension between Pakistan and India is threatening world peace. Will the Foreign Secretary use the opportunity of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to bring our good friends Pakistan and India together and move a peace process forward?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: The “Fire and Fury” book about the Trump presidency has reheated some debunked claims about the role of British intelligence. Although the ordinary stance of the British Government is neither to confirm nor deny, given the highly unusual facts of this case will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity, as the intelligence chiefs have, to slay those myths?; UK humanitarian workers have told us that 10 hospitals in Syria have been directly targeted by Russian and Syrian forces over the past few weeks. These attacks go against the Geneva convention, but they have also left hundreds of children starving and in need of urgent humanitarian help. Will the Foreign Secretary indicate whether he intends to follow through on his previous pledge to donate British troops to UN peacekeeping forces? Will he ask President Putin to desist from doing such things? Will the Minister also ensure that the Geneva process is re-energised?; Can my right hon. Friend update the House on what role the Foreign Office played in ensuring the opening of the Yemeni seaport of Hodeidah?; It has been nine months since my constituent Kirsty Maxwell tragically fell to her death from a balcony in Benidorm and still the family do not know what happened to the clothes on her body when she died or the circumstances of her death. The Minister has been very helpful in trying to assist, but we are no further forward. Will he put more pressure on the Spanish authorities, and will he do a full-scale review of the support that families who have lost loved ones get?; When he was Foreign Secretary, William Hague described the UN Human Rights Council’s universal periodic review as“a valuable mechanism for holding countries accountable for their human rights record.”—[Official Report, 15 April 2013; Vol. 561, c. 15WS.] Does the Foreign Secretary agree that the UN periodic review meeting on 23 January provides an opportunity to hold Israel to account for its treatment of Palestinian children held in Israeli military custody, and will he use the meeting to do so?; Following ministerial appointments since the general election, can the Foreign Secretary provide some reassurance to the House that the Department for International Development has not become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Foreign Office and that aid will continue to be the primary focus of DFID?; Research conducted by the International State Crime Initiative found examples of four of the six stages of genocide being carried out in Rakhine state against the Rohingya people. What assessment has the Foreign Secretary made of the potential for the other two stages—extermination and “symbolic enactment”—to occur?
John Woodcock (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Secretary of State place in the Commons Library details of the number of UK nationals who have been deported back to the UK on suspicion of terrorism in supporting Daesh in Iraq and Syria?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: The “Fire and Fury” book about the Trump presidency has reheated some debunked claims about the role of British intelligence. Although the ordinary stance of the British Government is neither to confirm nor deny, given the highly unusual facts of this case will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity, as the intelligence chiefs have, to slay those myths?; UK humanitarian workers have told us that 10 hospitals in Syria have been directly targeted by Russian and Syrian forces over the past few weeks. These attacks go against the Geneva convention, but they have also left hundreds of children starving and in need of urgent humanitarian help. Will the Foreign Secretary indicate whether he intends to follow through on his previous pledge to donate British troops to UN peacekeeping forces? Will he ask President Putin to desist from doing such things? Will the Minister also ensure that the Geneva process is re-energised?; Can my right hon. Friend update the House on what role the Foreign Office played in ensuring the opening of the Yemeni seaport of Hodeidah?; It has been nine months since my constituent Kirsty Maxwell tragically fell to her death from a balcony in Benidorm and still the family do not know what happened to the clothes on her body when she died or the circumstances of her death. The Minister has been very helpful in trying to assist, but we are no further forward. Will he put more pressure on the Spanish authorities, and will he do a full-scale review of the support that families who have lost loved ones get?; When he was Foreign Secretary, William Hague described the UN Human Rights Council’s universal periodic review as“a valuable mechanism for holding countries accountable for their human rights record.”—[Official Report, 15 April 2013; Vol. 561, c. 15WS.] Does the Foreign Secretary agree that the UN periodic review meeting on 23 January provides an opportunity to hold Israel to account for its treatment of Palestinian children held in Israeli military custody, and will he use the meeting to do so?; Following ministerial appointments since the general election, can the Foreign Secretary provide some reassurance to the House that the Department for International Development has not become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Foreign Office and that aid will continue to be the primary focus of DFID?; Research conducted by the International State Crime Initiative found examples of four of the six stages of genocide being carried out in Rakhine state against the Rohingya people. What assessment has the Foreign Secretary made of the potential for the other two stages—extermination and “symbolic enactment”—to occur?
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Rather than erupting, is it in order for me to say to correct the record that I have never thought it was a good idea to invite the President of the United States to the United Kingdom? I thought the invitation was issued with undue haste. Once it has been issued on behalf of Her Majesty, it is very difficult to withdraw it.
BBC Pay — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Technology
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): I warmly congratulate the Minister on assuming his new job, but I did not like the tone he adopted when he said that he was delighted that this issue was going to be "aired". There is no point in airing it, because we have been airing it for decades now. The point is actually to bring about change. Perhaps Carrie Gracie should be made chair of the BBC; perhaps she should be given a role specifically to bring about change in the organisation. In the end though, are not some of the men, such as John Humphrys, going to have to say, "You know what? I am paid too much. I should take a 50% pay cut."?
BBC Pay — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Government Operations
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): Why does the Secretary of State think that it will take Lord Hall until 2020 to sort this out? It is an injustice. Surely the Secretary of State should tell Lord Hall to sort it out now.
BBC Pay — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Government Operations
Michael Joseph Patrick Kane (Labour, Centre-left): Sky News did some research in the summer that showed that the vast bulk of the best-paid BBC journalists went to a private or selective school and that we can count on the fingers of one hand those who did not. Does the Secretary of State agree that while there is much merit in pursuing this case, we have to end the self-serving, self-selecting elite bias in the appointments to some of the best-paid public sector jobs in this country?
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Yvette Cooper (Labour, Centre-left): I also welcome the Lord Chancellor to his post. He will note that some of the victims have still heard nothing from victim liaison officers and still do not know what the Parole Board terms are and whether this man may end up living near them. Given that Worboys had their addresses, will the Lord Chancellor urgently ensure that all the victims are contacted by victim liaison officers before this man is released? Given that some of them had no opportunity to put statements to the Parole Board, is he confident that due process has been followed in making this decision? Further to the Justice Committee’s point about greater transparency in Parole Board decisions, will the Lord Chancellor introduce changes to the statutory rules that would allow the board to make open the decision in this case, not just in future cases, so that people can see what the reasons were?
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Eleanor Claire Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on his appointment. It is right that the Parole Board carry out its work to continue to review the backlog of prisoners serving IPP sentences. However, the public must have confidence that IPP prisoners are being released safely and responsibly. The decision to release John Worboys has undermined that confidence, and given that 3,000 IPP prisoners have been released since their sentences were abolished, what assurances can the Secretary of State give that public safety has not been and will not be compromised?
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Stella Judith Creasy (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the Lord Chancellor to his new job. He may be aware that on Friday, a cross-party group of 58 MPs wrote to his predecessor, to express our concerns not so much about transparency in decision making but about the right of victims to be heard by the Parole Board and for their information to influence decisions. His successor wrote back to us, stating that the victim support people had tried to make contact in October, for a hearing in November, with people with whom they had not had contact since 2009 Will the Lord Chancellor, in his review, look explicitly, not at the transparency of how decisions were made, but at how victims’ voices were heard as part of that process? If he is not satisfied, as it seems that many of these victims were not told how they could have their say, will he use his powers to instigate a judicial review of the decision?
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Helen Catherine Goodman (Labour, Centre-left): My constituent, who was raped repeatedly in childhood, came to see me in considerable distress before Christmas because the first she knew that her perpetrator had been released was when he visited the pub next to her place of work. I have raised the matter with the Department, but the letter I received from the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee), blamed her for not giving the victim contact scheme her change of address. I would like the Secretary of State to commit to looking again at her case and to apologising to my constituent.
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
David George Hanson (Labour, Centre-left): There is a third aspect to this, which is post-release supervision. Given that Dame Glenys Stacey, the chief inspector of probation, says that there is a fractured system, will the Secretary of State, as one of his first tasks, consider strengthening that post-release supervision system?
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Jessica Rose Phillips (Labour, Centre-left): When I did the job of victim liaison, working with probation to keep victims informed, in the west midlands, where I worked, there were many people in probation working in that area. Since the privatisation of probation, in the west midlands, there is one victims officer—for an area with 3 million people. In this review, will the very welcome new Justice Secretary look at what was taken away and potentially why an email to a victim is not enough, when a relationship is what we used to have?
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Anthony Joseph Lloyd (Labour, Centre-left): Both the Worboys case and the case raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman) are examples of cases in which the victim is treated as an adjunct to the criminal justice process, and, as we have seen, that can apply throughout the process. Will the Secretary of State think carefully about the request from my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon) for an end-to-end review? We must get the victim’s journey right when it comes to such harrowing crimes.
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Thangam Elizabeth Rachel Debbonaire (Labour, Centre-left): The best predictor of future offending behaviour is, unfortunately, past offending behaviour. Victim impact statements also contain information that is important to a thorough and evidence-based risk assessment. Will the Secretary of State please consider in his review whether the risk assessment tools that the Parole Board is using are adequate and whether the intervention programmes are evidence-based and properly evaluated?
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Conor Patrick McGinn (Labour, Centre-left): The appalling release of this dangerous man has heightened the anxiety of my constituent Marie McCourt that her daughter Helen’s killer might be released in similar circumstances. Can the Secretary of State assure me that the review will look at parole guidelines and criteria on the release of convicted murderers who refuse to disclose the location of their victims’ remains? Incidentally, his Department promised to do that two years ago.
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Elizabeth Anne McInnes (Labour, Centre-left): In the interests of transparency, will the review reveal which sex offender treatment programme Worboys underwent that satisfied the Parole Board? As my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon) pointed out, the main programme used in England and Wales was found to increase the reoffending rate and was scrapped last year.
Parole Board and Victim Support — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Christian John Patrick Matheson (Labour, Centre-left): My question will not be quite as pithy, I am afraid Much as I support the idea of redemption and rehabilitation, my own view is that a sentence of nine years in prison for 19 rapes is simply derisory, especially given that, as was pointed out by the right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), this was a predatory attacker. The Secretary of State said that IPP sentences were no longer in use. Is he satisfied that the current sentencing guidelines meet the need for decent sentences in shocking cases such as this?
Trade Bill — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Foreign Trade
Catharine Letitia Hoey (Labour, Centre-left): One of the real problems with the EU in trade agreements was the lack of transparency and openness. Does the Secretary of State believe that we will be able to be much more open and transparent when we become involved in getting trade deals going between this country and other parts of the world?
Trade Bill — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: International Affairs
Frank Field (Labour, Centre-left): This House voted overwhelmingly to begin the process of implementing the referendum decision. Since then, we have had two major Bills—this being the second—where the Order Paper looks as though the main aim is to interrupt the Government’s carrying out that intention to follow through on the referendum decision. In the Secretary of State’s opinion, what image does that give to people outside, given that 75% of the electorate now want the Government to get on with the job of taking us out of the EU?
Trade Bill — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Foreign Trade
Graham Eric Stringer (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State mentioned increasing trade with the developing world. Does he agree that the European Union has been the greatest single mechanism for exporting poverty to the third world, with its high tariffs on foodstuffs, and that when we leave the European Union we will be able to give our own consumers the benefit of cheaper citrus fruits, as well as helping poorer farmers in Africa and elsewhere?
Trade Bill — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Foreign Trade
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): This Bill is a consequence of the Government’s decision to leave the customs union. Will the Secretary of State explain why, as we learned from his colleague the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, the decision was taken without any economic assessment of the consequences of leaving the customs union? Will he now set out why he thinks the gains will outweigh any potential losses?
Trade Bill — House of Commons, 2018-01-09
Topic: Foreign Trade
Gareth Craig Snell (Labour, Centre-left): I am sure, when the Secretary of State visited Stoke-on-Trent, he heard from Wade Ceramics about the importance of a proper trade remedy body. May I press him regarding the report in today’s Daily Telegraph that when trade remedies are considered, they will be weighed against any potential negative impact on a broader free trade deal? In the case of ceramics, we need protection from Chinese tiles and Chinese tableware. Can the Minister assure me that if that has an impact on a larger trade deal with China, British industry will be protected before trade deals are put in place?