argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Police Accessibility — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Christopher Laurie Malthouse (Conservative, Centre-right): It is important that the services that the police provide, whether digitally or face to face, are all accessible, so that everyone can come forward to report crime and interact with police officers in any way that suits their requirements. We are committed to giving the police the resources they need to fight crime and keep the public safe. That is why policing will receive up to £16,900 million in the coming financial year.
Police Accessibility — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Christopher Laurie Malthouse (Conservative, Centre-right): As I understand it, there is a consultation ongoing about how the Cheshire police should interact with the public they serve. I would hate to jump to any conclusion about what may or may not be decided, but, Mr Speaker, you will be aware that all police and crime commissioners should be reviewing their property strategy in the light of the massive expansion in police officer numbers that they are seeing at the moment, to the extent that, in the next 12 months or so, we expect to see the highest number of police officers that the country has ever seen.
Catalytic Converter Theft — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): In many areas of the country, crime is going down. It is going down in many areas in Bromley and Chislehurst, but one area where it is not is the explosion in catalytic converter thefts in my constituency. Ours has been identified by the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead as one of the highest areas for this crime. These are not opportunistic thefts. Does my right hon. Friend agree that these are thefts by organised crime gangs seeking valuable metals that are sold for considerable amounts of money—platinum and palladium—carried out by men armed with baseball bats, threatening violence? Will he ensure that much greater priority is given to this crime and that we clamp down on the handlers of these stolen goods by greater enforcement of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013?
Catalytic Converter Theft — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Christopher Laurie Malthouse (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend, with his usual acuity, has put his finger on the button of this issue. It is cause for significant concern in parts of the country, and he is right that it is a product of prices in the metal market. He will be pleased to hear that just this month the British Transport Police co-ordinated a national week of intensification on acquisitive crime, looking particularly at catalytic converters, and that the work we have done on scrap metal dealers will go some way to dealing with the problem. However, we need to work much more closely with manufacturers to ensure that they do as much as they can to design out the theft of converters. Let us hope that in the years to come, as we all convert to electric vehicles, it will become a problem of the past.
Hate Crime: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid the hon. Lady is completely wrong about the Bill. It is a vital Bill to keep the public safe and protect them from sex offenders, violent rapists and other criminals. The comments she refers to were horrible, and it is clearly unacceptable to mock victims of genocide. We are clear that all forms of hate speech are unacceptable.
Violence Against Women and Girls — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government. Our actions include publishing a cross-Government strategy on tackling VAWG, to be followed shortly by a complementary domestic abuse plan; bringing in world-class legislation to tackle stalking, forced marriage and female genital mutilation, as well as the landmark Domestic Abuse Act 2021; further increasing our funding for support services to £185 million a year by 2024-25; and making public spaces safer.
Violence Against Women and Girls — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): Our domestic abuse plan and all the work we have done sets out clearly how we are going to protect the most vulnerable victims of domestic abuse, including those who may find themselves in the immigration system. We have support schemes for those women, and we take this seriously; we work extremely sensitively with our policing partners, who have specialist trained officers to recognise such cases and get support to the victims.
Violence Against Women and Girls — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): With the greatest respect, I think the hon. Lady completely mischaracterises the Government’s comprehensive, sweeping, serious and well-funded response to violence against women and girls, which she has heard me and the Home Secretary refer to earlier in this session. On the specific issue she raises, I highlight the fact that the police are recording more crimes of violence against women and girls, and there is an increased willingness of victims to come forward because of the work we and the criminal justice system have done. There is always more to do, but crime reporting in the VAWG sector is up by 12% to September 2021 on the same period of the prior year.
Violence Against Women and Girls — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): My colleague the Policing Minister will be speaking to that amendment later, and we will be consulting on this specific issue. However, I want to highlight that there are already offences on the statute book to tackle this particular abhorrent form of behaviour.
English Language Tests — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: If she will take steps to resolve the immigration status of overseas students who have been falsely accused of cheating in English language tests.
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said recently in the House in response to an urgent question, the Home Office is awaiting the findings of the upper tribunal presidential panel, who are currently considering the case known as RK/DK, which we hope will bring further clarity to the ETS TOEIC issue. Once we have received and digested the judgment we will announce our next steps.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sure the House would like to listen to the actual measures we are bringing in. The cyber-attacks and disinformation will be met with robust responses, and we have stepped up all international co-operation on that Finally, what is happening in Ukraine is utterly heartbreaking and profoundly wrong, but together with our international partners, we stand with the heroic Ukrainian people. Further work is taking place with diplomatic channels, and the Ukrainian Government have today requested that the Russian Government be suspended from their membership of Interpol, and we will be leading all international efforts to that effect.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: Will the Home Secretary listen to the 50 organisations, including Save the Children and Amnesty International, that wrote a joint letter in The Times last week calling for the Ukraine crisis to lead to a rethink on the Nationality and Borders Bill, which discriminates against refugees depending on how they reach our shores?; Our failure to stop tens of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the English channel in the last few years has resulted in them being accommodated in hotels, often in completely inappropriate locations, including a site in Blackpool, at a cost of millions of pounds per week to the UK taxpayer. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that the Home Office can process the claims of those crossing the channel as soon as possible and reduce the huge cost to the taxpayer?; Scunthorpe and Ukraine have deep ties rooted in our steelworks and we are horrified by what is happening to our Ukrainian friends. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the support that she has just described will stay in place for however long it is needed?
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a very sensible point, because, of course, there is a conflict taking place. The work of the Government is absolutely right now to support the people of Ukraine, and in particular to support those who need to come over to our country.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: Will the Home Secretary listen to the 50 organisations, including Save the Children and Amnesty International, that wrote a joint letter in The Times last week calling for the Ukraine crisis to lead to a rethink on the Nationality and Borders Bill, which discriminates against refugees depending on how they reach our shores?; Our failure to stop tens of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the English channel in the last few years has resulted in them being accommodated in hotels, often in completely inappropriate locations, including a site in Blackpool, at a cost of millions of pounds per week to the UK taxpayer. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that the Home Office can process the claims of those crossing the channel as soon as possible and reduce the huge cost to the taxpayer?; Scunthorpe and Ukraine have deep ties rooted in our steelworks and we are horrified by what is happening to our Ukrainian friends. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the support that she has just described will stay in place for however long it is needed?;   The Government should be rightly proud of the action taken to support our police officers, not least through the adoption of Harper’s law, which is due before this House later today. What more can my right hon. Friend do to ensure that police officers get all the mental health support they need, as advocated by the Green Ribbon Policing campaign?; I listened to the Home Secretary’s earlier statement with interest, but clarity is needed. I have constituents who have family members in Ukraine, some of them frail and elderly. Can she assure the House that those Ukrainians who wish to join their families in the UK can do so via a third country without being mired in delays and bureaucracy, and can she further guarantee that those refugees will not be ordered to leave the UK after the nominal 12 months have expired?; North Wales police in my constituency of Clwyd South does an exceptional job in keeping the public safe and tackling crime. Could my right hon. Friend comment on plans to recruit and retain the best and brightest to join our police force, and would he join me in praising our local policing initiatives?
Christopher Laurie Malthouse (Conservative, Centre-right): I am more than happy to lavish praise on North Wales police, which does a fantastic job along the coast there, as do all our police officers up and down the country. I am pleased to say that we are making enormous progress on our recruitment programme. As I hope my hon. Friend knows, we are well over 11,000 now, and I expect to hit the 20,000 target shortly.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: Will the Home Secretary listen to the 50 organisations, including Save the Children and Amnesty International, that wrote a joint letter in The Times last week calling for the Ukraine crisis to lead to a rethink on the Nationality and Borders Bill, which discriminates against refugees depending on how they reach our shores?; Our failure to stop tens of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the English channel in the last few years has resulted in them being accommodated in hotels, often in completely inappropriate locations, including a site in Blackpool, at a cost of millions of pounds per week to the UK taxpayer. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that the Home Office can process the claims of those crossing the channel as soon as possible and reduce the huge cost to the taxpayer?; Scunthorpe and Ukraine have deep ties rooted in our steelworks and we are horrified by what is happening to our Ukrainian friends. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the support that she has just described will stay in place for however long it is needed?;   The Government should be rightly proud of the action taken to support our police officers, not least through the adoption of Harper’s law, which is due before this House later today. What more can my right hon. Friend do to ensure that police officers get all the mental health support they need, as advocated by the Green Ribbon Policing campaign?; I listened to the Home Secretary’s earlier statement with interest, but clarity is needed. I have constituents who have family members in Ukraine, some of them frail and elderly. Can she assure the House that those Ukrainians who wish to join their families in the UK can do so via a third country without being mired in delays and bureaucracy, and can she further guarantee that those refugees will not be ordered to leave the UK after the nominal 12 months have expired?; North Wales police in my constituency of Clwyd South does an exceptional job in keeping the public safe and tackling crime. Could my right hon. Friend comment on plans to recruit and retain the best and brightest to join our police force, and would he join me in praising our local policing initiatives?
Thomas Christopher John Pursglove (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her question. It is fair to say that casework inquiries on these matters are treated urgently, and it is one that will no doubt cross my desk within the coming hours. Of course, the flight in question later this week relates to individuals who have committed very serious criminality, but I will of course ensure that the individual case is looked at.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Technology
Questions: Will the Home Secretary listen to the 50 organisations, including Save the Children and Amnesty International, that wrote a joint letter in The Times last week calling for the Ukraine crisis to lead to a rethink on the Nationality and Borders Bill, which discriminates against refugees depending on how they reach our shores?; Our failure to stop tens of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the English channel in the last few years has resulted in them being accommodated in hotels, often in completely inappropriate locations, including a site in Blackpool, at a cost of millions of pounds per week to the UK taxpayer. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that the Home Office can process the claims of those crossing the channel as soon as possible and reduce the huge cost to the taxpayer?; Scunthorpe and Ukraine have deep ties rooted in our steelworks and we are horrified by what is happening to our Ukrainian friends. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the support that she has just described will stay in place for however long it is needed?;   The Government should be rightly proud of the action taken to support our police officers, not least through the adoption of Harper’s law, which is due before this House later today. What more can my right hon. Friend do to ensure that police officers get all the mental health support they need, as advocated by the Green Ribbon Policing campaign?; I listened to the Home Secretary’s earlier statement with interest, but clarity is needed. I have constituents who have family members in Ukraine, some of them frail and elderly. Can she assure the House that those Ukrainians who wish to join their families in the UK can do so via a third country without being mired in delays and bureaucracy, and can she further guarantee that those refugees will not be ordered to leave the UK after the nominal 12 months have expired?; North Wales police in my constituency of Clwyd South does an exceptional job in keeping the public safe and tackling crime. Could my right hon. Friend comment on plans to recruit and retain the best and brightest to join our police force, and would he join me in praising our local policing initiatives?; In the light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, does my right hon. Friend agree with me that now is the ideal time to review and reform the 32-year-old Computer Misuse Act 1990, as recommended by the Intelligence and Security Committee’s Russia report, and will he meet me and colleagues to discuss how reforming that legislation could not only help to tackle online crime, but unlock our national cyber-defence?
Damian Patrick George Hinds (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of the review of the Computer Misuse Act. Since my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary launched that review last year, a number of very good and important suggestions have come forward, which we are currently reviewing. Meanwhile, of course, we continue always to update our approach, including to the National Cyber Security Centre and, more immediately, to the online safety Bill.
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his statement of unity; a strong message is going out to Putin and around the world that the United Kingdom is united in our support for Ukraine. We can see that from the demonstrations and from the public concern and interest in this appalling act of aggression and invasion that has taken place Yesterday, I joined a call with the G7 Foreign Ministers. We agreed that the sanctions that we had put in place so far are having an impact, but we need to do more. We need to work in unison and act in unity. We also agreed to increase the supply of defensive weapons in Ukraine The right hon. Gentleman is correct: Germany has taken courageous steps. It has transformed its energy policy and its defence policy, and we have seen a huge rising of public opinion right across Europe. I also want to praise Japan, South Korea and Singapore, which have put sanctions on for the first time I and my Foreign Office colleagues are putting in calls to Foreign Ministries around the world. We are encouraging more countries to put on sanctions and to speak out at the UN. The right hon. Gentleman is right that there are some countries that are democracies which should be standing up against the invasion of a sovereign democracy, and we are making that point to them day and night. What we are seeing is that Putin is completely isolated. There is nobody else backing him up in international forums and there is a growing group of countries prepared to put sanctions on and to supply defensive weapons. We are leading the charge in bringing those countries on board On the specific issues that the right hon. Gentleman mentioned, we have a hit list of oligarchs and Duma members that we are working through to sanction as soon as we can. Foreign Office officials are working through the night. We have extra lawyers and have tripled the amount of people in our sanctions department to make that happen. We are looking at more sanctions on the energy industry and the technology industry. We want to see a total ban on SWIFT transactions. We are encouraging our allies across the world to back that. We also want to see a full bank freeze in the coming days It is vitally important that we maintain unity with our allies. There are many countries that are heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas. The UK gets only 3% of its energy from Russian oil and gas. The figure for some countries is as high as 90% or 100%; we have to reduce that over time, and that is what we are working on through the G7 I am very pleased that the right hon. Gentleman has backed the approach we are taking. I want to continue to work cross-party to do all we can to support the brave people of Ukraine and to make sure that Putin loses.
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat (Conservative, Centre-right): I very much welcome my right hon. Friend’s commitment. She has been working literally through the weekend, night and day, to get these sanctions right and to get them in place. Will she join me in assuring the Russian people that the moneys frozen—the moneys seized—which are, let us face it, very often stolen from them in the first instance, will be held and returned to the Russian people when this criminal conspiracy that laughably calls itself a Government falls and they actually have a proper Administration to which it can be returned? Will she also join me in urging many other countries around the world to join together and create a single fund from which a repayment mechanism can be created for the damage done to Ukraine and the rebuilding of Russia in due course?
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right. Our issue is not with the Russian people, many of whom are now protesting against this appalling regime; it is with Putin and his cronies. That is who we are targeting with our hit on oligarchs. My hon. Friend is right that that money should be protected. I will look into the idea that he puts forward.
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree that we need to continue to do more on sanctions. We are working night and day, including with our allies, to get tougher sanctions, the full ban on SWIFT payments and the full asset freeze on banks, which we want to introduce in the next few days, as well as targeting the oil industry and the gas industry, which is ultimately the most important thing because it is funding Putin’s war machine As my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said at Home Office questions, we are creating a new Ukrainian humanitarian route to enable families of British nationals to come to the United Kingdom. It will mean that an additional 100,000 Ukrainians can seek sanctuary in the United Kingdom Through the export support service, the Department for International Trade will be helping businesses. The Secretary of State for International Trade will lay out more details in due course.
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Felicia Jane Beatrix Drummond (Conservative, Centre-right): Further to the latest announcement that Switzerland, Japan and other democracies are joining to impose sanctions, what more can we do to convince other democracies that have not condemned this atrocity or implemented sanctions to do so?
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right. There is nobody in the world lining up with Vladimir Putin and his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, but we need more democracies and more sovereign nations to stand up, because we cannot have a world where might is right and international law can just be ridden roughshod over We in the Foreign Office and Ministers across Government are making those points to our counterparts around the world, but this is where I think parliamentarians can help: many people in this House have good contacts with overseas Governments. We need to encourage those Governments to stand up and put sanctions in place. I had a call this morning with some Foreign Ministers who had never put sanctions in place before but are now considering it. There are many more who are on the verge of imposing sanctions. I strongly encourage Members across the House to get on the phone to those Ministers and those Governments, because this has created global outrage and we need to see that reflected in complete degradation of the Russian economy.