argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Food Labelling — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: Agriculture
John Eric Gardiner (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, nuts are one of the 14 allergens; the labelling law as set out in the EU’s food information to consumers legislation includes nuts, and is therefore considered to be mandatory information that must be available to consumers. As one of the 14 allergens, nuts must be included in information.
Overseas Development Aid — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Michael Bates (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, with the leave of the House I will repeat the Answer to an Urgent Question given by my right honourable the Secretary of State for International Development in the other place earlier today "The combined global aid spend totals $150 billion dollars, leaving a funding gap of $2.5 trillion to deliver the global goals. We are adrift on the global goals— 80 years off nutrition, 100 years off education, 200 years off poverty. We must ask ourselves: do we want to deliver the global goals? If we want to, we have to let others help, including the private sector We have had good returns from investing in developing countries. CDC’s average annual investment return is 7%. The City of London manages over £8 trillion in assets, but little is invested in the poorest countries. Even a small increase could have a huge impact on these economies. For example, if we could redirect just 1% of the total assets to investment opportunities in Africa, that would generate an additional investment of around $110 billion. By contrast, global aid flows to Africa in 2016 were worth just $50 billion. I believe the public would be interested in their savings and pension funds being used to deliver the global goals. Why can British people not go to banks and invest their savings in pensions and products that will invest in the global goals, or open up an app on their phone and select which global goals they would most like to invest in We have lots of tools to do this. As we outlined today, the World Benchmarking Alliance, which I unveiled at the UN General Assembly, will rank companies on their contributions to the global goals, so people can decide which companies they want to buy from, invest in or work for. We have the expertise to do this: the City of London in the financial services sector, in DFID and elsewhere in development and impact investment. Today I have announced that I want to start a national conversation with financial institutions, but also with savers, pensioners and the wider public. We will announce the findings of that conversation at the UK Africa investment conference next year. We will work with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to make sure that the aid rules incentivise private sector investment where it is needed. This is the only way we will collectively deliver the financing necessary to meet the global goals. In future years, as the amount of funding coming back into our own development financial instruments increases, we should be open to using these profits to count towards 0.7%. I am exploring the scope to reinvest those funds with DAC—the Development Assistance Committee—to maximise the value of our investments."
Overseas Development Aid — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Michael Bates (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord is right to say that the development assistance community works by consensus. That is how it arrives at its conclusions. Regarding this debate, I feel that a few issues are being conflated. One is the SDGs, to which we are all committed and which we discussed earlier today. The second is the realisation—I readily accept that the noble Lord has regularly made a point of it—that that cannot be achieved by public flows alone. It has to be catalytic to leverage in private sector investment. Then there was the question about impact investing, and whether something else could be done in the future so that more private citizens could leverage in capital The final issue comes to the heart of the noble Lord’s question, about CDC funding. This is where we have had a lot of debate. If, for example, your £1 billion is put into CDC and over time the investments make a profit which is then returned into the fund—it is 100% UK-owned, so it is public sector in that sense—and then that profit is reinvested, should that reinvestment score? It is a debate that has to be had. We believe there is a case for doing that, but we have to do it by working with our partners and discussing it with them. This is one of a range of points on this issue. I hope that that has been helpful.
Overseas Development Aid — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Michael Bates (Conservative, Centre-right): The impact comes in three levels that we specifically target. One is the amount of money which catalyses money to come in from the private sector: if we invest £1, does it bring in £10 of private investment? We look at it in terms of the taxation it generates for revenue in the country where the investment is taking place, and we look at the number of jobs that are created by that. In alignment with the SDG requirement on this for aid, this is for decent work, so I accept all that. That is how we do it. The point which the noble Earl was right to highlight was addressed substantially by the change in the new investment strategy, which the CDC was required to have alongside the new investment. That has a much greater focus on the most fragile and most affected states, because we do not want it—not that it has ever done this in its illustrious, 70-year history—to cherry pick the investments. We want it to go where no private sector capital is going so that it can make the greatest impact. That impact and that change in the investment strategy will see results in the years to come.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Baroness and the noble Lord for their comments. I shall deal first with the questions from the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter. I reiterate that our blueprint is the White Paper and we continue to negotiate on that basis. We are convinced that it offers frictionless trade, which is what we want to achieve. We are taking forward discussions on that basis and are waiting for a formal response to those proposals from the EU On the timescale, as soon as we have an agreement we will bring forward a debate in this House and a vote in the other place on the so-called meaningful vote, and we will then introduce legislation as quickly as possible to implement the withdrawal agreement. We are mindful of the short timescale between then and our leaving date of 29 March to get that legislation through, but considerable planning is being carried out on that basis. Of course, we produced the White Paper before the summer to illustrate that With regard to the backstop, the Commission proposal was unacceptable. We will shortly produce our counterproposal, which will meet the requirements as set out in the joint statement in December I have not visited the port of Dover. I and ministerial colleagues have visited European capitals and considerable discussions are going on between officials to make sure that there is minimal disruption at Dover With regard to no-deal notices, to reiterate the point, we do not want or expect a no deal, but we think a responsible Government should plan for the possibility, and we will continue to publish the no-deal notices to take account of that unlikely possibility Lastly, I agree with the noble Baroness’s final point: that we are seriously negotiating at pace. Negotiations in Brussels are ongoing as we speak, and detailed discussions on all the outstanding issues are proceeding I can only apologise to the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, if he was not given an advance copy of the Statement—he should have been. I have already raised it with officials and I will ensure it does not happen again, but please accept my apologies for that. He referred to the no-deal notices. I do not know if there is some confusion; we are not publishing any additional no-deal notices today, but there was a Written Ministerial Statement accounting for the no-deal notices that were published a couple of weeks ago.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Patrick Cormack (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, naturally I wish my noble friend and his colleagues in government well; we all do. But could he give the House some indication of what he expects the timetable to be between now and the rising of the House for the Christmas Recess? Could he also have a gentle word with the Foreign Secretary and point out that, while it is humorous if he confuses Japan and China, it is serious if he confuses the European Union with the Soviet Union?
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): On my noble friend’s last point, I am not sure I am in a position to give the Foreign Secretary advice. But, to be fair, I looked at his comments, and he did not compare the EU to the Soviet Union; he was making a point about how difficult it is to leave various organisations. I think afterwards he withdrew the exact words he used Regarding timescales, it is difficult to be precise. We are still trying to target an agreement by the October summit. As I mentioned in my answer to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, we are conscious of the need for proper parliamentary scrutiny of the withdrawal Act, and we are preparing for that, but we need appropriate time to get the legislation through both Houses before 29 March. We have made the EU aware of that timescale, but of course we want to ensure we get the right deal for the United Kingdom. As soon as I have more information on the timescale, the noble Lord will be the first to hear about it.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said in previous answers, the House of Commons has rejected the option of remaining in the EEA, and our legal position is that we will leave the EEA when we leave the EU. Seeking to remain in the EEA does not pass the test that the Prime Minister has set for our future partnership. It would not deliver control of our borders or our laws, and it would mean continuing to accept all EU single market rules, so I do not think that is the right future for Britain.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): I said we are planning for a no-deal Brexit. I do not know what he means by a "confirmatory vote". If he means a second referendum, then, no, we are not planning for a second referendum, because we have already had a referendum and the vote was clear.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: Macroeconomics
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): The terms of the implementation period are already agreed and both sides agreed with the proposal to end the implementation period co-terminous with the end of the current multiannual financial framework. There is no possibility of extending that built into the agreement.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: International Affairs
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): As with all these things, it is difficult to be precise. However, the noble Baroness will be as aware as I am of the necessary parliamentary timetables that will be involved in passing the appropriate legislation. If we do not have a withdrawal agreement in place in enough time to get it passed by Parliament then we will clearly be looking at a no-deal scenario, given the timescale. I do not want to be any more precise than that. The noble Baroness will probably want to push me on it, but I think she will now have some idea of where we are going.
Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill — House of Lords, 2018-10-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Mark McInnes (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my noble friend for his intervention. I refer to the 1,000 cases out of the 6,000 in 2016-17 that the Home Office report identified as providing a channel for those with extreme right-wing views that could lead to terrorism I therefore hope that the Minister will be able to reassure me that the focus of building public confidence will be a core element of continuing internal review The Bill protects the freedoms and liberties we all enjoy while fulfilling the state’s responsibility to protect all our citizens from harm. The Government must continue to do all they can to ensure that we have a flexible and fit-for-purpose framework that our security services may work within, keeping ahead of those who wish to cause harm. I look forward to the Bill’s progress through your Lordships’ House.
Children: Welfare, Life Chances and Social Mobility — House of Lords, 2018-11-01
Topic: Education
Theodore Agnew (Conservative, Centre-right): I accept that the noble Baroness says that it is controversial; we will have to agree to differ at this time. I would like to pick up on a slightly more positive issue that she raised in the debate on music and facilitating subjects the other day. I have spoken to two Ministers in the Department since, and have agreed that we will write to some universities to test their appetite for adding music A-level to the facilitating subject range I apologise, I am running out of time, but I want to say I am very grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken today. All of you have shown great passion and expertise in this area. We all agree that early intervention is vital to promote children’s attainment, health and well-being through their lives. The Government, across departments, will continue to make progress on this agenda, to improve the life chances of this nation’s children, particularly those in most need of support.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, with the leave of the House I would like to repeat the Answer to an Urgent Question given in the other place earlier today. The Answer is as follows: "This morning, officials from our embassy in Tel Aviv and our Consulate General in Jerusalem visited Khan al Ahmar to express our concern and demonstrate the international community’s support for the community. While they were there, they did indeed observe a bulldozer that began levelling the ground. While we have not yet witnessed any demolition of structures, it would appear that demolition is imminent We deeply regret this turn of events. Not only has the United Nations said that this would constitute forcible transfer, but it would pave the way for settlement building in E1. In accordance with our long-standing policy, we therefore condemn such a move, which would strike a major blow to prospects for a two-state solution, with Jerusalem as a shared capital The UK has repeatedly raised its concerns with the Israeli authorities and others, including during my visit to Khan al Ahmar on 30 May. On 12 June I issued a video message emphasising the UK’s concern at the village’s imminent demolition, and I reiterated these concerns to the Israeli ambassador to the UK on 20 June. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary has also expressed his concerns, most recently during his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu in London on 6 June. The Foreign Secretary’s Statement of 1 June also made it clear that the United Kingdom is deeply concerned by the proposed demolition, which the United Nations has said could amount to forcible transfer, in violation of international and humanitarian law. As recently as Monday, the British ambassador raised the issue with the Israeli national security adviser Later today, the British ambassador to Israel will join a démarche alongside European partners to urgently request that the Israeli authorities halt demolition plans. Under Israel’s independent courts and rule of law, it believes that it has the right to take the action that it is beginning today, but it is not compelled to do so and need not do so. A change of plan would be welcomed around the world and would assist the prospects of a two-state solution and an end to this long-standing issue" My Lords, that concludes the Answer.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord will not be surprised to hear that the United Kingdom Government do not hold that position. We feel that a distance has to be travelled and that there has to be much greater progress made in relation to the negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. We need to see an end to provocative behaviour and violence. The United Kingdom considers that at this stage such a course of action, as requested by the noble Lord, would be premature.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): As the noble Baroness is aware, there is a regular diplomatic exchange between the United Kingdom and Israel—indeed, in the repeat of the Answer that was made crystal clear. What is beyond doubt is that demolitions and evictions of Palestinians from their homes cause unnecessary suffering to ordinary Palestinians and, frankly, call into question Israel’s commitment to a viable two-state solution. That is profoundly regrettable, because everyone desires to see progress made, but both entities have to be committed to taking forward that process I would also point out that these demolitions and evictions, in all but the most exceptional cases, are contrary to international humanitarian law. The United Kingdom, as I indicated, will consider these matters further with our European partners as they progress. We think that a threat of demolition is imminent but, as I speak, there is no evidence that the demolition has happened. We will respond to events as they take place, in concert with our European partners.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Patricia Morris (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register. I applaud the Government’s stand on this and the very strong stand taken by our ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, and our consul-general to Jerusalem, Philip Hall. The people of Khan al Ahmar, where I have been, are delightful people. They have been plagued by settlers trespassing on their land, lighting fires and trying to take away the small livelihood that they eke from some rather meagre land. I very much hope that the Government will be able to stop this demolition—but, if they are not, these lovely people are going to be moved next to the municipal rubbish dump. I hope that we can do something to ensure that, if their village is demolished, they can go somewhere far better than that.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): I think that there will be a lot of sympathy with the sentiments expressed by my noble friend. No one can view these events with anything but a very heavy heart and profound concern about what the implications will be—as the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, correctly pointed out—for the negotiation of a peace process. We expect people to be treated humanely, we expect them to be treated with compassion and, above all, we expect law to be observed and human rights to be respected.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Douglas Hogg (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the decision of the American Government to put their embassy in Jerusalem has encouraged the Israeli Government to conduct actions that are both illegal and profoundly unwise, and would my noble friend ask the Prime Minister to raise this subject and make that comment to President Trump when we have the pleasure of welcoming him to the United Kingdom?
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my noble friend for his question. It is the case that the United Kingdom did not consider the decision of the United States in relation to its embassy helpful—certainly the United Kingdom Government have no intention of moving their embassy from Tel Aviv. As to what may or may not be discussed during the forthcoming visit by President Trump to this country, between him and the Prime Minister, is for them to determine. I imagine that the Prime Minister will have a list of things that she is keen to raise.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): As I made clear, the history of demolitions is profoundly regrettable. According to the information I have, which is provided by the United Nations, from January to May 2018 Israel has demolished 175 structures, displacing 161 people; and during 2017 Israel demolished 423 structures on the West Bank, displacing 664 people. Although we have considered at an earlier stage what this means for the peace process and the possibility of agreement ever being reached between the two entities, we must never forget that these figures depict families in distress, communities being torn apart and the complete disruption of a peaceful section of society. That is, in human terms, greatly to be regretted.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Patrick Cormack (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it will be some little time before the Prime Minister meets President Trump, but could she be persuaded to speak today to Mr Netanyahu and tell him what enormous concern there is in this country among those who count themselves friends of Israel—as I do—at the actions of the Israeli Government?
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sure that my noble friend’s comments will have been noted. As I have already indicated, this situation is being monitored and there is already extensive diplomatic exchange—but I have no doubt that my noble friend’s request will have been noted.
Khan al Ahmar — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): The United Kingdom Government will assess and then respond to events as they unfold. As I said earlier, we are in conversation with like-minded European partners about possible next steps. I cannot pre-empt what these will be, but there is universal concern and, if matters intensify, I have no doubt that there will be a raft of suggestions that we and our EU partners will want to consider.
Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: Agriculture
Matthew Ridley (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I welcome this ambitious and sensible Statement, with its candid recognition that the European common fisheries policy has been a disaster for both ecological and economic sustainability. I also welcome the ambition to regulate fisheries more sustainably, and particularly the reference to effort control. But will my noble friend confirm that the Government will learn from elsewhere in the world the important techniques of the transferable quotas that give fishermen themselves skin in the game of conservation, as that is a crucial element in such management?
Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations — House of Lords, 2018-07-04
Topic: Agriculture
John Eric Gardiner (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, one point that has come to light is the importance of contemporary scientific advice. That is why CEFAS will be so important. The problem with the common fisheries policy is that so much was predicated on something that may have been appropriate in the 1970s, but is no longer appropriate in the light of climate change and changes in fish stocks. This is a welcome opportunity for us to have more contemporary research and to learn, as my noble friend said, how better technology and science can furnish us with ways in which to care for the ecosystems in our waters, for which we will become responsible.