argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Housing
Questions: In my city of Plymouth, local campaigns seem to regularly mislead my constituents on the spare room subsidy, something that many people see as a fair way of bringing about parity between the social and private rental sectors. I commend the Government, therefore, for making funds available for specific cases where the spare room subsidy is not appropriate. However, will the Minister confirm that Plymouth City Council has chosen to return that discretionary housing payment to central Government every year, so no one should be struggling as a result of this policy?; What advice does my hon. Friend have for groups such as the Aireborough neighbourhood forum in my constituency, which finds itself in a constant fight with its local authority in trying to make progress? In this instance, Leeds City Council appears to be ignoring Government advice on brownfield sites, without any consequences.; Will my hon. Friend confirm that if the people of Redditch want to be a full member of the west midlands combined authority, they will also be able to take part in directly electing a mayor?; Aberdeen has supported oil, with our residents having to put up with the bad and the good that comes with this. The UK Government have tried to tell Aberdeen that their £125 million of investment will inspire hundreds of millions of pounds of investment from currently hard-pressed Aberdeen businesses. What will the UK Government be doing to encourage businesses in Aberdeen that are suffering, along with the rest of us, to stump up cash?; Under Mayor Livingstone, the number of new housing starts in London plummeted as a direct result of developers walking away from unaffordable sites, thanks to the 50% affordable housing target. What does my hon. Friend think would happen if the new Mayor were to introduce a 50% affordable housing target?; The Inverness city deal from Highland Council is based on the idea of a region for young people. The Highlands area has, over many decades, seen a drain of young people. Much work has been done to address this, including the opening of the Inverness campus, but more needs to be done to attract and retain young people. A plan such as the one put forward can help to rebalance the population demographic. Does the Minister agree that the aims of the plan and the statement of intent are worthy of support?; Only 94 of 1,600 asylum-seeking children and care leavers in Kent have been taken in by other areas under the voluntary dispersal scheme. With more refugee children coming, how will my hon. Friend’s Department get local authorities across the country to accept their share of the asylum-seeking children who are already here?
Brandon Kenneth Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): That is good news. My hon. Friend outlines another local plan that is in its later stages. I can confirm that, as a local plan gets to those later stages, it picks up more weight, so the local authority should be making planning decisions in line with the local plan. That is the right thing to do for local communities.
Junior Doctors’ Contract Negotiations — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sure that nobody who toddled into the Chamber after the urgent question started would expect to be called. That would be quite out of keeping with our parliamentary traditions. I think I need say no more.
Junior Doctors’ Contract Negotiations — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Other
Benedict Gummer (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, and I would add the 2,800 people who have had their operations cancelled. I wonder what answer they would get from the Opposition about whether they support or condemn those cancellations. As soon as we get an answer to that very simple question, it will be easier for us to know the official position of Her Majesty’s Opposition.
Junior Doctors’ Contract Negotiations — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Benedict Gummer (Conservative, Centre-right): Sir David Dalton has also made it clear that we have to reform all contracts. One can place the balance where one wishes, but it is important that we reform the juniors’ and the consultants’ contracts together, so that they can fit within the service of a piece. It is wrong, for instance, to have a junior on duty taking decisions at the weekend and not be covered by consultants supervising and helping with those decisions. We need to ensure that there is consistency of rostering through the week and at the weekend involving both juniors and seniors.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Pauline Elizabeth Latham (Conservative, Centre-right): May I commend my right hon. Friend for her calm and factual statement on the situation of the Syrian refugees, which contrasted with the rather emotive statement by the shadow Secretary of State, who is trying to whip up emotion about these things? Does my right hon. Friend agree that, actually, we do need peace in the region, we do need to talk to Russia about what it is doing, and somebody needs to tackle Assad? We should also be looking at keeping as many people as possible in the area where they have been brought up, where their culture is correct and where they understand the lifestyle, rather than encouraging them, as the Labour party might choose to do, to come to this country, when we are putting so much money—taxpayers’ money—into helping these people to settle there.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): These are two related issues. One, as I have said, is that we are, of course, playing our role close to home—here in Europe—in helping refugees who have finally arrived on our shores. However, my hon. Friend is right to recognise that, overwhelmingly, refugees basically want to stay close to home. I met a lady on my last trip to Jordan whose family were still in Homs, and she had intermittent contact with them. For her, the prospect of even considering leaving Jordan was totally not what she was looking at; what she desperately needed was to be able to work legally to support herself while she tried to get on with the life she suddenly found herself living As I said, at the beginning of this crisis, none of the refugees thought that they were leaving Syria for anything more than a few weeks or months, and we should all think about how we would cope with such situations. It is incumbent on the international community, though, to make sure that we now go beyond providing just day-to-day support, so that people are not just alive but able to have some kind of life. That is in their interests, but it is also in the interests of the host communities, which are so generously accommodating them.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Mark Christopher Field (Conservative, Centre-right): I wholeheartedly support what the Government are doing. A critical part of our strategy is to ensure that the two small nations nearby, Jordan and Lebanon, are able to cope. It must be incredibly difficult, given the huge number of refugees compared with their overall populations. Will the Secretary of State give some detail on the work we are doing to encourage those two nations, particularly in economic terms, through customs unions and the idea of economic co-operation—perhaps not just with the UK but within the EU as a whole—to try to ensure that they do their best in this regard? We must recognise that many hundreds of thousands of these Syrian refugees are likely to be in Jordan and Lebanon for many years to come.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): I am pleased that my right hon. Friend has mentioned this historic step forward in getting agreement to start creating jobs for refugees. For many years, they had been unable to work legally, and that forced many into working illegally to try to support themselves. They might have left Syria with some assets, but over the weeks, months and years those assets were depleted, and reaching the end of them led many to decide that they had no alternative but to try find a life somewhere else. This therefore matters. In essence, countries such as Jordan and Lebanon decided to allow work permits so that greater numbers of Syrian refugees can work legally. These were big decisions for them to take, but they were right to do so as they cope, and indeed often struggle to cope, with the refugees who are temporarily, but in large numbers, within their countries What are we doing? On the Jordanian and Lebanese side, particularly with Jordan, we are setting up economic zones with advantageous tax rates to encourage investment. Some of this will be, in effect, the Syrian economy in exile. I have met business leaders who are re-establishing their Syrian companies, but in Jordan. That is not just good for Syrians who can get back into work; it is also providing work for local people who are unemployed. This is complemented by the investment coming from the World Bank and the European Investment Bank; and crucially, as my right hon. Friend mentioned, by reform at the European Union level and making our own trade barriers that much more flexible so that countries such as Jordan can more easily sell their goods into the huge market that is the European market We should be really proud of the work achieved with both Jordan and Lebanon at the conference. It was home-grown UK ideas that were put on the table and they got international support. Most importantly, they gave us the chance to work directly with the Governments of Jordan and Lebanon to help with the long-term provision of jobs and growth that will be there long after their generous hosting of refugees temporarily.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): The lucidity and comprehensiveness of the Secretary of State’s replies cannot be disputed, but I would gently point out that we have got through two Back-Bench questions in seven minutes, so we shall now strive for improvement in productivity.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): The conference was, indeed, about making sure that we are responding, in the region, to Syrian refugees and host communities affected by the crisis. The right hon. Lady asks about the response in Europe. We are talking about European countries that have the resources to respond to and help refugees who are currently in their own countries, but, as I have said, the UK has played its role in helping refugees who have arrived.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Alan Redwood (Conservative, Centre-right): I strongly support the Government’s approach of giving maximum help to refugees near their homeland, as well as the Government’s participation in crucial initiatives for political progress and peace. What impact is the intensification of Russian-supported Assad military intervention having on British Government policy?
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend, and I have read reports of her visit. I reassure her that we are playing as much of a role as we can in working with Greece. The UK has worked with the UNHCR, which has registered many of the refugees who have arrived in Greece. In the end, we have to accept that Greece has sovereign control, and it will want to organise how it deals with refugees. Yes, it needs resourcing. The European community is discussing how it can effectively do that, and the UK has been part of that. In the meantime, our focus has rightly been on dealing with the root causes of why those people lost any hope that there was a future for them in the region where they lived and had grown up. That surely has to be the main focus.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Andrew William Murrison (Conservative, Centre-right): Tragically, whole generations of children have grown up in refugee camps, such as those in Tindouf in Algeria, with all that that means in terms of education and radicalisation. What can be done to prevent something similar from happening near Syria?
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): Once people cease to be internally displaced persons and cross an international border, in their minds and in reality they become refugees or economic migrants and it is very difficult—much more difficult—for them to go back to their own country. It would be great if the international community, which has so far failed to stop the war, came to an agreement to set up safe areas close to or on the borders of other countries. We would be able to reach into those safe areas and look after people there so that when the time comes—and politics works—they can go home to their own country.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): Following last Thursday’s conference, the hope is that we can better help countries on the border with Syria that are safe for refugees to flee to and that are better able to cope with the refugees who are now there. We all hope that, in time, refugees will be able to go back to their countries. The reality, however, is that the typical time somebody spends as a refugee is now 17 years. That is why the work on getting children into school and on jobs is so important.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said earlier, we have provided key support to refugees arriving in Europe. Most recently, we announced a £10 million fund that will enable us to provide very practical support to refugees who are having to cope with the difficult conditions the hon. Gentleman describes.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend will be aware that there is already a substantial number of refugees in Turkey— 2 million in total. The plan is really about helping Turkey to continue to provide the food, water, shelter, education and, more latterly, jobs programmes that enable refugees to cope with the circumstances they find themselves in.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): The UK is obviously not part of the Schengen area, but it has played its own role in helping Syrian refugees who need to be resettled out of the region—the Prime Minister has pledged to resettle Syrians over the course of this Parliament, and I pay tribute to the work of the Under-Secretary of State for Refugees, who has overseen that process to date. We met our first timeline of resettling 1,000 Syrian refugees prior to Christmas, and I think we should be proud of that.
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): That flow of people is happening because action by the Syrian regime is driving them out of their homes, and we have seen that persistently over the past few years. We have talked directly with our partners on the ground to ensure that humanitarian support is getting through to those Syrian refugees, and more broadly we understand that the Turkish authorities are putting in place the necessary measures to ensure that people are able to cross the border.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): I am delighted to hear about the hon. Gentleman’s reading material and to learn that it is through "ConservativeHome" that he seeks to educate himself these days. That makes a change from the red book that is the preferred choice of the shadow Chancellor. I encourage him to continue. He will know from looking at that very good website that there is constant praise for the efficiency of Conservative councils, which have a record of economy and good service for their residents As for increases in council tax, the hon. Gentleman will know all about that, because the Labour Government doubled council tax. According to projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility, at the end of this Parliament, it will be lower in real terms than it was at the beginning of the last Parliament, so we will take no lessons from the hon. Gentleman about council tax I detected a half-hearted welcome for the transitional funding, which is just as well, because some Labour council leaders called for precisely that, and I think they might have been disappointed if the hon. Gentleman had not supported them. He asked where the money would come from. I can confirm that it will not come from the local government financial settlement. We have been able to find resources outside the settlement, and, thanks to the generosity of the Chancellor, we are able to add them to it. I can also confirm that the social care precept was requested by local councils, which recognised, in a cross-party consensus, that as the population grows more elderly, there are more elderly people to be looked after in each council area. That is not a reflection on the efficiency or otherwise of councils; it is a demographic fact of life. It is right for us to provide for our elderly people in their retirement The hon. Gentleman mentions anonymous people and important figures in Conservative local government. My experience of my colleagues in every part of the House is that they are not anonymous, and they are not shrinking. They know that they can come and talk to me any time and that I will listen and respond when they make a good case. As for our leaders in local government, including the head of the Local Government Association, I could not help noticing the presence in the Chamber today of the gentleman concerned, and he seemed to have a happy smile on his face. I do not know whether that says anything to the hon. Gentleman.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I remind the House that Members who came into the Chamber after the statement began cannot expect to be called. Our convention on that matter is very clear and people need to abide by it.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): The Secretary of State is to be congratulated on having negotiated a difficult minefield with considerable skill. I particularly thank him for his thoughtful approach and for the time that he gave to me, my fellow MPs and my council leader from Bromley when we came to see him. I welcome the fact that he has picked up on the importance of transitional relief in so far as it affects the London boroughs, given the risk that outer London’s particular circumstances can sometimes be lost in the equation. Can he give me details of the timeframe for the operation of the transitional relief? Can he also tell me more about the review of the needs element, which many of us welcome? I regret that we were unable to do that in coalition, but there were many other pressing matters at that time. It is important that the comparatively low unit costs incurred by historically efficient local authorities should be picked up when setting the baseline for retained business rates.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I recall spending a very pleasant evening with the Cabinet of his council in Bromley and having a more recent meeting there. It is right to think of the demographic pressures in the outer London boroughs. Those boroughs, and many other places across the country, have made the case that the population has aged and more people tend to retire to those places than to others. They also contend that the formula, which has not changed for 10 years, has not kept up with that. I can confirm that the transitional funding will be available immediately, from the next financial year, so that my hon. Friend’s council and others will be able to apply those extra funds straight away.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): Indeed it is, which is exactly why we are making the transition to business rate retention, where it is not the representations that councils make to central Government for grants, but their ability to attract businesses and to grow those businesses that will be the determinant of the resources they have available. Councils and Conservatives have long wanted that, and I am confident that both my right hon. Friend’s county council in West Sussex and his excellent district council, the membership of which I know very well, will respond with great alacrity to the opportunities available to them.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): I will indeed. I was grateful for the meeting I had with my hon. Friend, and I am looking forward to the discussions of further devolution to Suffolk for the East Anglian powerhouse or motor—we will coin an apt description for that very high-performing part of the country. The funds will be available right from the beginning of the next financial year and, in the usual way, they will be confirmed to councils following this statement.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): I am always happy to meet the hon. Gentleman. He will know that the funding allocation took into account the different resources of different areas—and Halton was a beneficiary of that—but I am happy to meet him to take him through the figures so that he can better understand.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Usually the complaint is that others are told first. In this case, I fear some people are complaining that the House is being told first. I cannot see what is wrong with that. It seems a highly desirable state of affairs. I might have misunderstood, but I think I have understood.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Housing
Alexander Jesse Norman (Conservative, Centre-right): I warmly congratulate the Secretary of State on his announcement. As he will be aware from our representations, Herefordshire was looking at a 34% reduction in the rural services grant next year, against a uniform reduction of 25%. Any support will be much appreciated. Is there not a danger that low-economic-activity areas—I am afraid that my own county has historically been such an area—might be penalised by the transition to council tax being supplemented by rural rates, unless there is a transitional fund to stimulate economic growth alongside it?
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a good point. I think that Herefordshire has great potential in terms of attracting and growing businesses. For example, he has been a doughty campaigner for a university in Hereford. He is right that the transition to a world in which local resources fund councils has to take account of the needs of each area and its potential to raise revenue. That is why I announced the review today. Several colleagues from across the Chamber have contributed to, and have great expertise in, this matter, and I hope, in the spirit of this statement, that they will contribute personally to that review.