argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Xinjiang Internment Camps: Shoot-to-Kill Policy — House of Lords, 2022-05-25
Topic: International Affairs
David Alton (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Uyghurs. It was the Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, who said that a genocide is under way in Xinjiang: the ultimate human rights violation, the crime above all crimes. At a meeting with her and the Prime Minister, held with sanctioned parliamentarians, we were promised that government policy on genocide determination would be reformed. Will the noble Lord tell us how this can be expedited, and whether he will arrange a follow-up meeting with the Foreign Secretary? Will he urgently draw John Sudworth’s admirable BBC documentary to the attention of the UN’s Michelle Bachelet during her current visit to the region?
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Environment
Simon McDonald (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I too have put my name to Amendment 4, and I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, that it is the most elegant in this group. At Second Reading, the Minister acknowledged that expanding the objectives of the bank to include biodiversity and the protection, enhancement and restoration of natural capital was the area that most parts of the House were most interested in promoting. More than that, the Minister said that everything that could be launched in the area of biodiversity was completely compatible with the climate change objective of the bank. But as the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, has reminded us today, this Bill decides the DNA of the bank. So if it is not included on the face of the Bill, biodiversity and the natural environment will be essentially down-prioritised. As the noble Lord, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, reminded us, if it is not there, people will think that it is not important. If it is as easily incorporated as the Minister suggested at Second Reading, could we please have this explicitly on the face of the Bill?
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Environment
Julia King (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I rise briefly to give general support to the amendments in this group and specifically to support Amendment 4 in the name of my noble friend Lady Hayman and other noble Lords. I declare my interest as chair of the Adaptation Committee of the Climate Change Committee I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, that it is absolutely critical to include adaptation in the bank’s remit in the Bill. It is only too easy to forget about adaptation, as so much recent, important government policy has done—so much so that in the Adaptation Committee’s advice to government last year on the third climate change risk assessment, we included a table of recent policy and legislation, showing just how frequently opportunities to include adaptation had been missed. It is crucial that we remind everybody to think about this and putting it in the Bill will help make that difference The most obvious example I have pointed to recently has been support for such things as the Green Deal as well as for net-zero homes. We are asking people to rip their homes apart to make them net zero but not at the same time supporting them to make the changes that would make them resilient to the future hotter summers that we are going to experience. It would be stupid to do those things separately—to have to refurbish your home twice. We must make sure that adaptation is flagged up in the Bill We also need to keep reminding people that, in dealing with climate change, net zero is not enough. Even if we are on a global pathway to net zero by 2050, the temperature will go on rising up to 2050, and we will look back from 2050—well, some of us, such as the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, might—and see that every decade between now and then was the hottest on record; so we must make sure that adaptation is a focus of the Bill. I also strongly agree with the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, that the Bill must recognise nature—the natural environment, our natural capital—as essential infra- structure. The Bill specifically identifies as infrastructure the technology and facilities for removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The best and cheapest and way to do this is very often a tree. It would be completely perverse to encourage a complex engineered solution in a situation where an investment in nature could deliver As the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, said—I strongly agree—investments in nature-based climate solutions, especially those for adaptation, face some of the most difficult barriers and hurdles to secure, so we should absolutely ensure that this important development of the UK Infrastructure Bank enables those critical investments. If I might do a little bit of advertising, I will say that the Adaptation Committee is currently producing a report on the barriers to adaptation investment, which will be published in the autumn. I am sure the UK Infrastructure Bank will be an important part of the solution in overcoming those barriers.
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Environment
Roger Thomas (Crossbench, Unknown): I could not possibly add to or improve on what the noble Baroness, Lady Brown of Cambridge, said in support of Clause 2(3)(a) on the environmental objectives, but I want to say something in support of the amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, because the two must be tied together. If economic development is to be an objective, then it must be to level up. Some evidence is beginning to emerge that it is possible to achieve climate change investment in a way that disadvantages areas of inequality further and yet further. The altering of subsection (3)(b) would make it clear what were the twin objectives—that the objectives are not enriching the citizens of Westminster, of which I am one, Chelsea or other areas of London, and that green investment must be done with the specific object in mind of improving the economic, lifestyle or whole-life benefits of those who live in disadvantaged areas. The bank must keep both objectives in mind.
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Macroeconomics
Richard Gilbey (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I will be very brief because the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, has introduced these amendments eloquently, and I am not sure there is a huge amount to add This goes back to what we talked about in the previous group: too much power for the Treasury to change things at will. You cannot have meaningful operational independence if the mandate within which the bank works can be changed without scrutiny and safeguard. The noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, eloquently explained the limitations around the affirmative procedure; we all know about them. Something as fundamental as the basic objectives of the bank should be changed only following proper, full scrutiny using primary legislation. That should not be controversial; it should be fairly straightforward Amendment 33 adds an element of scrutiny that is currently missing to the statement of strategic priorities given by the Treasury to the bank. Those priorities are very important. I can understand that it is appropriate that there is some level of flexibility to those strategic priorities, but the idea that they can just be changed at will and filed with Parliament but with no scrutiny, discussion or review just seems wrong. Introducing the affirmative procedure for those makes sense to me.
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Government Operations
Roger Thomas (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I have just three brief observations. The first is that I think the clause of the framework agreement to which the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, referred is wholly inconsistent with the Bill. The Bill requires the directions to be published; the framework says they can be made confidential. It is plain that the two are inconsistent, and the Bill must prevail. It seems to me that that emphasises the need to go through the framework to actually update it—it is part of the editing process that is needed. My second observation is that I can see that, to some extent, as the Minister said at Second Reading, there may be circumstances of necessity or urgency. If there are—and, as the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, said, please can we have some illustrations?—those words need to go into this clause, because it seems to me, if I may respectfully agree, that we may need to cut down this power: we cannot use it, as is suggested in article 15, to resolve a dispute. That is not its purpose; its purpose is for something exceptional Thirdly, it seems to me that, if those illustrations cannot be provided, then the obvious answer is that it should be a recommendation that should be published. Of course, we all know that if the Government were to publish something sensible for a body like the bank, it would have no option but to comply with it. But it means you give effectiveness to operational independence, but you actually have the steel fist behind the velvet.
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Government Operations
Roger Thomas (Crossbench, Unknown): I think that the Minister mentioned the appointment of someone with knowledge of Scotland, but what about Wales and Northern Ireland? Is the Treasury taking active steps to do something about representation on the board from someone with detailed knowledge of Northern Ireland and Wales?
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: International Affairs
Roger Thomas (Crossbench, Unknown): The reason why I asked the question was to do with public confidence from Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. That is critical at this stage of keeping the union together. I know that the Minister, who is very helpful on this Bill, may not be able to answer that tonight, but I shall return to this issue with detailed questions on Report, or press an amendment.
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Government Operations
Richard Gilbey (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, like I think almost every noble Lord who spoke at Second Reading, I agree that the reporting schedule set out in the Bill is completely unacceptable. In fact, I think it was possibly the only point in the entire Bill on which there was absolute unanimity. Ten years before the first report and then only every seven years thereafter is just too long. I wonder if even the Minister was surprised at the times when she saw the Bill I have added my name to Amendment 59, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, which suggests four years before the first report. I understand her point about having three years plus time to get that first report out, and it therefore makes sense that the first one has a bit longer. Others have suggested three years. I cannot too excited about it, to be honest. Ten years and seven years are too long. We need to bring that down As I and the noble Baroness mentioned earlier, it is quite inappropriate that the Treasury should be marking its own homework in this respect, so I support her amendments ensuring that the effectiveness reporting is independent.
Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme — House of Lords, 2022-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on his new position and welcome him to the very difficult job he now has. I declare an interest as we are trying to sponsor a family ourselves and work through this with them. Can he tell me what will happen to those who have had to flee and do not have their documents with them—whatever those documents are—even though they may be known to the people wanting to sponsor them What is being done on the transferability of DBS checks? Many of us working in the health service or schools have been DBS checked. Are those going to be automatically transferred? Are the Government going to require every adult in the household to have been checked or will one be adequate as an interim to take things forward Have the Government issued a template to local authorities of issues they need to address, such as the ways of managing bereaved children? Many of these children will have left their fathers behind; many will not know what has happened to their fathers even if they have come with their mothers. Managing bereaved children has to be done right and it is not a question of just going "There, there". They really need to be understood. Is that guidance going to local authorities at a national level as to resources, or is each local authority having to find it out for itself?
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-03-16
Topic: Education
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): I am most grateful to everyone who has spoken. I realise that the time is late so I will try to be very brief in responding. I appreciate the offer of Nuffield to host another round-table event. I believe it held one recently and it had its previous inquiry. The sad reality, however, is that over recent decades of trying to teach communication skills, things have not improved as much as they should. One of the reasons is high staff turnover, which means you educate one group and it moves on. Yes, things have to be sensitively managed, but the role models come from the seniors. We are not talking about the vast majority, who are doing really well. The problem is that the people who are not doing well are the very ones who do not take up the education and do not want to change. I believe we have now got to the point where we need to send a very clear message and put this in the Bill. I beg leave to test the opinion of the House.
National Insurance Contributions (Increase of Thresholds) Bill — House of Lords, 2022-03-30
Topic: Macroeconomics
Nicholas Macpherson (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, back in 1986, in my second job in Her Majesty’s Treasury, I was in charge of advising on national insurance and the National Insurance Fund. Here I am, 36 years later, speaking in this debate I will confine my observations to two points. First, my working life has seen this extraordinary transfer of revenue raising from income tax to national insurance. As other speakers have observed, national insurance is chargeable only on earnings, not on rental income or dividends. The relevant facts are that, when I became an adult, the national insurance rate was 5.75%; it is now 13.25%, so it has more than doubled. Over the same period, the basic rate of income tax has been cut from 34% to 20%, and it is now planned to reduce it to 19%. This is an extraordinary shift and one that both Conservative and Labour Governments have been prepared to implement, presumably because they regard taxpayers as more willing to pay national insurance than income tax and, sadly, opinion surveys bear that out. The fact is that both are taxes, and this is classic sleight of hand and smoke and mirrors which, as a former Treasury official, I should admire but I find it difficult so to do I will make my second observation briefly. I am actually in favour of the proposals in this Bill. I am in favour of lifting people out of national insurance. Of course, it is a new policy to seek to align the starting rate for national insurance with that of income tax. I remember Gordon Brown—in fact, I was advising him on that Budget—announcing it in 1999 and implementing it in 2001. Year after year throughout the 2000s, their starting points were aligned That was brought to a sorry end by Brown’s decision—again rightly, in my view, but unfortunately it had difficult consequences—to abolish the 10p rate of tax. As that resulted in losers, Mr Darling had to raise the personal allowance in mid-year and it was too expensive to raise the national insurance allowance. The two have ceased to be aligned ever since There is a more serious point to make. This Government have chosen, sensibly, to align the starting points of employee and self-employed national insurance with the personal allowance. When Gordon Brown was Chancellor he went one step further, which had a certain logic, which was to raise the employer allowance, which I believe is called the secondary threshold. In economic terms, whether you charge national insurance on employees or employers, the net effect is the same, because wages adjust. I am just slightly disappointed that the Government have, in a sense, sold the pass on employers, because this is also a burden on employment. When the Minister responds, I would be interested if she could explain why they have chosen to load the tax cut on employees. I recognise that employees vote and employers hardly do, or at least in fewer numbers, but it is a disappointing turn of events.
Ukraine — House of Lords, 2022-03-30
Topic: International Affairs
Simon McDonald (Crossbench, Unknown): Your Lordships’ House debated the invasion of Ukraine on 25 February, the day after Russia’s invasion. Everybody who spoke that day wished Ukraine well. Nobody predicted what has happened in the past six weeks; nobody foresaw what Ukraine could achieve. Everything that could go wrong is going wrong for Russia. Evidence is accumulating that Russia is losing. So I have two questions for the Minister. First, I do not expect him to go into detail, but among the scenarios that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is now considering, is it looking at the consequences of Russian defeat? The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991; might the Russian Federation, across 11 time zones, collapse in 2022? Secondly, sadly, defeat for Russia does not mean victory for Ukraine. President Zelensky may have to agree an unsatisfactory peace. Please can the Minister confirm that that would not be the trigger for us to lift sanctions? That is a different decision, and sanctions should remain in place until all Russian troops have left the territory of Ukraine.
Ukraine — House of Lords, 2022-03-30
Topic: International Affairs
David Alton (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, last week when visiting Lithuania, I was struck when meeting refugees, as the Minister was, that as civilians dropped off their loved ones they returned to Ukraine in their cars to take up arms and fight against Putin’s illegal war. Given the war crimes committed in Mariupol and elsewhere, and which were referred to earlier by the noble Lord, Lord Collins, what can the Minister tell us about the appointment of Sir Howard Morrison to expedite prosecutions of those responsible? Can he respond to the letter that I sent him recently urging him to organise a meeting in your Lordships’ House with Karim Khan QC, the prosecutor for the ICC? In her Statement to the Commons, the Foreign Secretary said: "We must ensure that any future talks do not end up selling out Ukraine, or repeating the mistakes of the past."—[Official Report, Commons, 28/3/22; col. 593.] Was she not right that whatever is decided must be the decision of the Ukrainian people? We must stand with them at this terrible time of trial.
Ukraine — House of Lords, 2022-03-30
Topic: International Affairs
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, we are having a very polite debate this afternoon. It does not feel as though we are right on the edge of a third world war. Mr Putin is extremely dangerous. He is not used to failure; he is not used to weakness. He does not represent the people of Russia. I worked in a Russian ministry for several years in the 1990s. Those people all want to join the West, but NATO rejected Russia, rejected Gorbachev, rejected Yeltsin and, in the early days, even rejected Putin’s requests—"Come on, let’s be partners. Let’s consider getting into a partnership within NATO." It all sounds a bit fanciful now. Putin is there; we have to look ahead. Will the Minister take back the point that if we leave this to Ukraine, Russia will tear it apart, literally, limb from limb? NATO bears some responsibility for what is going on. Will the Minister consider that and talk about it with his colleagues?
Ukraine — House of Lords, 2022-03-30
Topic: International Affairs
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, today I had a response from the Home Office that it did not know how many people had come into the UK with visas on the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Can the Government translate that website into Ukrainian so that it is more user-friendly? I have sent a list of suggested improvements to the relevant Minister I want to ask also about humanitarian aid. Of the 44 cancer centres in Ukraine, only eight now remain. Patients are being moved into Poland. Lithuania and Moldova’s health facilities are at capacity. In the humanitarian aid that we are providing, is there pain relief, and are there anaesthetic agents, surgical supplies and antibiotics going into Ukraine and neighbouring countries, including anti-cancer drugs to those adjacent cancer centres? Do we recognise that many of the medical staff within Ukraine have been killed or injured and therefore that their numbers are seriously depleted? Are we supporting those agencies from the UK which are providing rapid online support to trauma surgeons within Ukraine?