argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Law and Crime
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of safer streets. I am pleased to tell him that this spending review makes available £400 million more for the Home Office and local policing to make sure that we can recruit an additional 6,000 police officers next year, on top of the 6,000 this year, in order to make great progress on our way to 20,000 by 2023.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Matthew Alexander Vickers (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend has had to make some tough decisions on issues such as foreign aid, but can he assure me that by doing that, he will be able to focus on domestic priorities and a levelling-up agenda that can do so much for so many in Teesside?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This spending review is about focusing on the priorities of our constituents. I am sure that he and his constituents will be pleased to know that we have made £3 million available today for the Tees Valley hydrogen transport hub. Teesside is at the heart of our hydrogen revolution, bringing new jobs, attracting investment and driving growth in his local area. That is an example of the kind of local priority that we can now fund, having made these tough decisions.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Julian Charles Sturdy (Conservative, Centre-right): I understand that my right hon. Friend has had to make some difficult decisions as we seek to rebuild our economy in the months ahead. I am delighted to hear his commitment to investment in infrastructure, but can he set out what that means for the north, in particular York and north Yorkshire? What benefits will it bring to my constituents?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right that it is about making difficult decisions so that we can prioritise the things that our constituents want us to. In his area, he will be pleased that there has been a success in accessing the new stations fund for Haxby station. That is an example of the Government delivering on our promises and trying to find ways to improve local transport infrastructure in his local area to drive growth and opportunity. We will relentlessly focus on those types of priorities.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I would, of course, be sympathetic to the idea of putting the bank in Yorkshire, as the hon. Gentleman knows, but he was slightly beaten to the punch over the weekend by my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies), who made a pitch for Bradford. In any case, I will happily hear his thoughts The hon. Gentleman is right about the focus on young people. The new Restart programme will be able to help a million people who have been unemployed for over a year. Before that happens, we have the kickstart programme that will benefit a quarter of a million young people—or more if it is successful. He talked about apprenticeships. Rightly, we have increased the cash bonus to businesses to £3,000 for them to take on a fresh new young apprentice, because he is right that that is where our focus should be.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
Jane Fiona Catherine Stevenson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Chancellor for the range of measures to support those on low incomes and to protect the most vulnerable, whether that is through an uplift to cash for local authorities to identify and support vulnerable families, or through the holiday activities and food programme and an uplift to the Healthy Start programme. Levelling up is crucial to a seat such as Wolverhampton North-East. Can he reassure my constituents that the Government will continue to prioritise job creation, investment and other opportunities for them?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): Some £1 billion has been provided to local authorities across the country to support their businesses and local economies as they see fit. That funding has, of course, been made available to the hon. Gentleman’s local authority. If that is how it chooses to use the funding, that is up to the local authority. We have provided a range of different support, whether loans, access to our more generous welfare system or mortgage holidays that, in the end, one in six mortgage holders used. Those are all ways by which we have tried to do our best to provide support to the largest number of people possible.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for her kind comments. She is right about the importance of our businesses, especially our small and medium-sized businesses, in helping to drive our recovery. We have provided cash grant support to those most impacted by the restrictions and that extra funding comes to Northern Ireland. On a UK-wide basis, we have provided tax cuts, grants, loans and other measures that she will be aware of. She can rest assured that I will keep all that in my mind as we think about how to exit the crisis. I look forward to my first visit as Chancellor, hopefully, to Northern Ireland in the near future.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): We put in place a range of temporary measures because we were dealing with an unprecedented crisis. We are now working our way through that crisis, and the future looks considerably brighter than it did in March, not least because of the medical advancements and our ability to do improved testing, so we can look forward. We keep everything under review. The uplift lasts all the way to the spring. As we get to the spring and have more clarity about the future path of our economy and restrictions, we will of course be mindful of how to support and protect those who are most vulnerable in our society.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Martin John Vickers (Conservative, Centre-right): While I share some of the concerns expressed by colleagues about the aid budget, I think that if we are to continue asking our constituents to make sacrifices, this temporary move is the right one. Can the Chancellor give an assurance that the Greater Grimsby town deal, which is of great benefit to my constituency, will continue to be funded? He is aware from a note I gave him last week that modest support for LNER would restore our direct rail service to London, and I hope he can provide that.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his support. He is right about my need to make difficult decisions and tough choices so that we can prioritise the things that he talked about. I believe that his local area has received some seed funding to examine proposals for the south Humber line, which I hope will make a difference to his constituents. I hope that he and I can have a productive conversation about our levelling-up fund, as we figure out how best to support the wonderful town of Grimsby with its future ambitions.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Michael Jon Wood (Conservative, Centre-right): We all want to see people’s wages go up again after the pandemic, and my right hon. Friend’s statement provides a strong foundation for securing that. At a time when many workers in the private sector face cuts or job losses, I can understand why it is necessary to pause public sector pay rises, other than those for frontline NHS workers and those earning less than the national average. Will he join me in urging the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to ensure that that freeze also extends to the salaries of Members of Parliament?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Government Operations
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and the way he framed it was spot on. He will be reassured to know that the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has written to IPSA on behalf of the Government, the Prime Minister and I to express our views on the situation, to inform it about the pay policy that we have put in place in the public sector and to urge it to take account of that when it sets pay policy. Of course, it is an independent body, but I hope very much that it will look at what we are doing.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): No, it has not been shelved, and I can he tell the hon. Lady that there is extra funding in this spending review for youth services. There is an amount of money for extra capital projects for youth clubs and, of course, funding for the National Citizen Service. More generally, the Government will review their approach to all youth services later this spring, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will set out the details in due course.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Education
Andrew Hanson Jones (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the focus on infrastructure in the statement. As my right hon. Friend knows, I chair the all-party parliamentary group on infrastructure, and I can tell him that the industry has been looking for the certainty that he is providing today. Does he agree that that certainty will allow the industry to plan better and, through that, to deliver better value and develop skills programmes, including apprenticeship programmes?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is because of that multi-year certainty, particularly on the capital side, that we can deliver projects more efficiently, faster and at lower cost. That certainty also helps the supply chain to take on new apprentices—helped, indeed, by our apprenticeship bonus as well. He is absolutely right to say that we must train the next generation and create jobs as we deliver this infrastructure, and that is exactly what we are doing.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Social Welfare
Nicola Jane Aiken (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement today and on his stamina, as mine will be the 80th question he has answered so far this afternoon. Rough sleeping and tackling the causes of rough sleeping are subjects close to my heart. Sadly, in my constituency, we see more rough sleepers than in any other constituency in the United Kingdom. Will my right hon. Friend give me an assurance that today’s statement will provide financial support so that we can focus on the Government’s priority to end rough sleeping by 2024?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): Business rates are, of course, a devolved competency, and I am sure the hon. Gentleman can talk to the Scottish Government about their plans. They will receive £2.4 billion of Barnett consequentials as a result of what we are doing this year, and they could choose to use some of that funding to provide support in the way that he asks.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Although not part of the spending review, just very recently announced is the extension to the annual investment allowance, which was due to expire at the end of this year. This allows small and medium-sized companies to write off, in full, investments of up to £1 million, so that is a tax break that we are extending into next year. I know that it will be warmly welcomed by businesses in his constituency, and it will allow them to invest in their growth in a tax-advantaged way.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): It is almost exactly a year since we launched our manifesto, and today’s sobering statement has laid bare the impact that the pandemic has had on the nation’s finances and the difficult choices the Chancellor is having to make. He has done well to keep manifesto pledges on track, but I feel I need to make it clear that I personally feel ashamed that the only manifesto pledge we are breaking today is our promise to the world’s poorest.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Macroeconomics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that this is a topic about which my hon. Friend feels passionately, and rightly so. As she will have heard me say, we do this with a heavy heart. It enables us to make progress on our other priorities, and it is indeed temporary. We intend to return to 0.7% when the fiscal circumstances allow.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Labor
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady mentioned the relative pay premium. It is worth bearing in mind that there still is a pay premium. The latest numbers we have, from 2019, show a 7% pay premium between public and private sector wages. That premium will without doubt have been exacerbated by the growing disparity in public-private sector wages that we are seeing this year. So in the interests of fairness and of protecting public sector jobs, I think it is right that we have taken a targeted approach and prioritised pay rises for those on lower incomes and in the NHS.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Education
Thomas Patrick Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I very much welcome the £4 billion levelling-up fund, but it cannot just be about the north and the midlands. Ipswich will need to be part of the mix as well. I also welcome the over £7 billion extra funding for schools, but I am very passionate about special educational needs provision, as the Chancellor will know, and I just wanted assurances from him. We are talking about this extra investment and the extra 500 schools in the next decade. That must include providing first-class special educational needs provision, which does cost a lot but is absolutely worth it.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Education
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I know about my hon. Friend’s passion for this subject and I am pleased to be able to tell him that £300 million has been allocated for new school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities, which is, I think, about four times as much as was provided to local authorities a year ago.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Government Operations
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): As a former local government Minister, which was my first job, I am happy to tell the hon. Lady that there is nothing smoke and mirrors about core spending power. It is the metric on which the local government finance settlement is done each year and it is the main metric on which it is focused. It is going up 4.5%, which is a very high level compared with that in any of the last years. She is right about how council tax works, which is why we have put in an additional £300 million of grant on top of the existing grant. Part of that is used for equalisation and the exact way that that works is a matter for MHCLG. As is always the case, we have an equalisation element to the grant to deal with the specific issue she raises.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat (Conservative, Centre-right): First, may I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend, who has the most extraordinarily difficult job in juggling the nation’s finances at this time? I pay tribute to him for his investment in levelling up, and I also pay tribute to his focus on business, which, after all, is going to pay for all the money that he has just spent. However, will he perhaps tell me a bit about the aid budget? I have noticed 20 basis points moving from aid into defence. It is a very welcome defence budget, certainly, but at a time when aid has never been more needed in extending the perimeter of our public health to countries where the covid crisis would otherwise run wild, surely this is not exactly the right moment to be reducing those defences Secondly, does my right hon. Friend agree that the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015, to which he has made reference this afternoon, clearly gives him the opportunity to opt out of the 0.7% target according to three different metrics, all of which are covered by the covid crisis? He can therefore do his reduction, if he feels it is necessary, with no change in the law whatever.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: International Affairs
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I am thankful to my hon. Friend for his comments and, indeed, the constructive conversations I have had with him on our aid budget, our defence budget and, more generally, our place in the world, which he rightly champions, and he does a very good job at that. He is right that we should look holistically at this, and he made a good argument for why we play a role, particularly with providing security through our defence budget to many places. He is also right about the 2015 Act and the so-called ouster provision contained within it, but given that we cannot predict with sufficient certainty when exactly the current fiscal circumstances will have improved and given our need to plan accordingly, we do intend to look at bringing forward appropriate legislation in due course. However, my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary will make a statement tomorrow and can answer the question in more detail.
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Geoffrey Robert Clifton-Brown (Conservative, Centre-right): May I admire my right hon. Friend the Chancellor’s stamina in answering well over 90 questions? I also warmly welcome his statement this afternoon and in particular the £100 billion he announced on infrastructure spending, which includes some vital projects in my constituency, notably the levelling-up fund and the feasibility study for the Cirencester light railway, the reconfirmation of the funding for the A417 and, above all, the extra funding to improve gigabit broadband, which is an issue my rural constituency suffers from. Will he confirm that very hard-hit economies, such as Gloucestershire’s, will benefit from this infrastructure funding, and that it will help speed up a strong recovery?
Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Transportation
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his kind words in support. He is absolutely right: we want to ensure that this record investment in infrastructure brings tangible benefits to our constituents wherever they live, whether that is in the rural south-west or a town up in the north-east. All the people of this country should see measurable improvement in the quality of their lives and see the opportunities that they can seize ahead of them. That is something that the Government will focus relentlessly on and intend to deliver.
Independent Expert Panel — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Government Operations
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): Indeed, I can. Members of the independent expert panel, including the chairman, will be paid monthly in arrears a fee of £350 excluding value added tax for each half day spent by the panel member in the provision of their services. The amount claimed by each member will depend on the number of cases, and their individual contribution. It is expected that the annual report of the panel will include information on its costs. I can reassure the right hon. Gentleman—I think this may be his next question—that panel members will not be part of a pension scheme for their services, but I am happy to take further interventions from him.
Independent Expert Panel — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Law and Crime
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that it is popular to be disparaging about lawyers, but it is sometimes unfair. The right hon. Member for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz) is a very distinguished lawyer herself, as is, as it happens, the Leader of the Opposition, so the Opposition have plenty of distinguished lawyers on their Benches. This process has to meet the requirements of natural justice. An understanding of the law and the application of law is a protection both for those who bring complaints and for those who are accused, so I am not surprised that lawyers make up a significant number of the applicants.
Independent Expert Panel — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Law and Crime
Bernard Christison Jenkin (Conservative, Centre-right): I entirely support the idea that we should bring on to the panel people who have juridical experience in the courts, and I commend my right hon. Friend and the Commission for appointing to the chair of this body an ex-High Court judge. That is exactly the kind of authority, independence and legitimacy that is required to give both those being scrutinised or disciplined in this process and those who are complaining through this process the confidence that it is being done properly.
Independent Expert Panel — House of Commons, 2020-11-25
Topic: Government Operations
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that point. Before the appointments were made, we had a number of representations from Members of this House saying that they would feel confident in the system if the chairman of the panel had the experience of a High Court judge, and Sir Stephen is a distinguished—