argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
High Speed Rail (West Midlands – Crewe) Bill — House of Commons, 2021-01-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Theodora Roosevelt Clarke (Conservative, Centre-right): I wish to speak to Lords amendment 3, which requires the Secretary of State to consult Staffordshire residents, and Lords amendment 2, regarding the protection of ancient woodlands, in order to represent my constituents who have endured the spectre of HS2 for many years From speaking to residents since I have been an MP, I am very aware of the problems that HS2 has caused, and like my predecessor, I have done all I can to assist my constituents in dealing with HS2. I have already visited numerous local groups and business who are being affected, and I have worked with Staffordshire County Council to try to come up with solutions to the disruption that HS2 has caused, and continues to cause. I have also met multiple constituents whose lives have been blighted by dealings with HS2, and have tried my best to improve the situation for them. In September, I presented a petition and stood up for local residents and businesses at the House of Lords Select Committee on the High Speed Rail (West Midlands–Crewe) Bill The fact remains, however, that despite the best efforts of local residents and everyone I have mentioned, HS2 will be extremely disruptive for the people of Staffordshire. Lords amendments 2 and 3 go some way to addressing many of my Stafford constituents’ concerns, so I am very pleased to hear the Minister’s remarks this evening. HS2 construction will also disrupt the A34, the A518, the A51 and the M6 motorway, all of which will potentially cause more traffic for my constituents, which is why amendment 3, requiring consultation with my local residents, is so important. I am also very concerned about the feasibility of construction of the Stone railhead and maintenance base, the increase in heavy goods vehicles and the disruption, which will certainly exacerbate the situation on Staffordshire’s roads. This is another reason why Lords amendment 3 is so vital—it will ensure that local residents are adequately consulted on scheduled works Lords amendment 2 reflects the importance of our ancient woodlands. At a time when Britain is leading the way on climate change and hosting COP26, we should not be seen to be cutting down trees, which is counterproductive Since my election, I have consistently represented my constituents with regard to HS2, and I remain extremely disappointed by the way they have been treated by HS2. I am grateful to the Minister for meeting me on numerous occasions, and responding on specific constituency places. The way that HS2 has behaved is simply unacceptable, and I am pleased that the Government are supporting the amendments and will consult with my constituents. It is right that they be listened to.
Animal Charities: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2021-01-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Marco Longhi (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess) for arranging this debate this evening. Zoos such as Dudley Zoo are among our foremost animal charities, caring for some of the world’s most endangered animals and undertaking essential conservation and research work to ensure a sustainable future for all species. They are reliant on income from visitors, and coronavirus has had a devastating impact on their ability to raise funds, but they are still incurring the high costs of high-quality animal welfare. Dudley zoo has only just qualified for a quarter of a million pounds of the much welcomed £100 million zoo animals fund. To be eligible for this emergency funding, it must see its finances diminish dangerously low to just three months of reserves, which is impractical to ensure the welfare of animals in its care. It would not be right for zoos to have to euthanise animals in their care simply because they can no longer afford to care for them. Although I am deeply grateful for the support scheme, my plea to Ministers on behalf of Dudley zoo and zoos across the United Kingdom is to revisit the support package, eligibility criteria and deadline to save our zoos.
Covid-19: Financial Support for Students — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Housing
Joanna Mary Gideon (Conservative, Centre-right): The fantastic Staffordshire University is in my constituency of Stoke-on-Trent Central, and since the start of the pandemic I have received several messages from students and constituents attending the university with concerns about their financial position. Many of them were placed on furlough and have experienced reduced hours, while also being locked into private tenancy agreements throughout this academic year; they are therefore unable to benefit from the rent reductions offered by Staffordshire University to students living in on-site accommodation What consideration has my hon. Friend given to students in similar positions across the country? Would she consider altering the loan available to students whose household income has been affected significantly during this difficult time?
Covid-19: Financial Support for Students — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Immigration
Michelle Emma May Elizabeth Donelan (Conservative, Centre-right): Hardship funding in England has always been applicable to international students. We have worked hard to get that message out there; I recently wrote a letter specifically addressed to international students. We continue to disseminate that message. The hon. Member is quite right: it will have no implications for their visas if they choose to take that money.
Technology in Schools: Learning Legacy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sheryll Murray (Conservative, Centre-right): What work has my right hon. Friend’s Department undertaken to look at using virtual platforms, with which children are now familiar, to set up international meetings to help improve foreign language skills and knowledge of different cultures?
Covid-19: Safety of Early Years and Specialist Settings — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): The earliest years are the most crucial point of a child’s development, and we know that caring for our youngest children cannot be done remotely. The current evidence continues to show that pre-school children under the age of five are less susceptible to covid and unlikely to have a driving role in transmission. All the data that we base decisions on is public, and further scientific evidence was shared just last week.
Education for Children with SEND — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank all schools, especially those special schools that have helped to care for vulnerable children throughout the pandemic. Attendance has risen. We have provided bespoke advice on testing children with special educational needs, and we will provide families of all pupils with access to home testing, including those with special educational needs. That will help to keep covid out of the classroom. Where a teacher is supporting a clinically extremely vulnerable child, as the care provider that teacher may also be entitled to a vaccine, and those decisions are made locally.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are fully committed to protecting and promoting children’s rights; it is such an important issue. We strongly believe in the principles laid down in the UN convention on the rights of the child, which a Conservative Government ratified 30 years ago, in 1991. We regularly report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on the great work that we have been doing across the UK to implement the UNCRC and to promote children’s rights.
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng (Conservative, Centre-right): I would be delighted to make a statement that we are considering and looking at these sites. My hon. Friend will know that I have visited Hinkley Point in his constituency and seen the great work there. I have no doubt that the manufacturing skill and competence of his constituents and his area will be able to sustain an excellent gigafactory.
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, my hon. Friend is quite right. There are lots of sites that have potential in the field of gigafactories, and we remain absolutely committed to securing UK gigafactory capacity. There is a range of factors, as my hon. Friend will appreciate, that will influence the decision of any location of gigafactory investment, but I would be very happy to discuss further plans with him, alongside officials, and have further discussions about our strategic future in this important area.
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very pleased that my hon. Friend has raised that question. I had an excellent visit a few months ago, as he remembers, in his constituency in Culham. I spoke to many business people who are driving the net zero agenda, and, alongside him, I am very happy to support those efforts.
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Other
Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng (Conservative, Centre-right): I recall that I gave that pledge during questions on the Floor of the House, and I am delighted that I will be seeing the hon. Gentleman, and others, on Thursday, to see what can be done on this critical issue.
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng (Conservative, Centre-right): I am fully aware and conscious of the difficult time that we are going through, but the hon. Lady will appreciate that these are ongoing conversations —ongoing sensitive negotiations—and I am not going to be prepared to enter into the details on the Floor of the House. Once we have a reached a decision—a conclusion—with the company, we can then have a fuller discussion. I am very committed to landing the right result in this conversation.
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Other
Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not sure whether that was a yes or no question, but yes to my hon. Friend’s point. Andy is doing a great job. MPs in the region, my right hon. and hon. Friends, are really driving progress in this area. I would be very happy to help them and support them in that endeavour.
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Marco Longhi (Conservative, Centre-right): One of this Government’s priorities is to protect and support jobs and livelihoods across the country as we recover from the pandemic. With Dudley and the Black Country having a pivotal role in the car manufacturing supply chain, will my right hon. Friend confirm that supporting the automotive sector and boosting battery cell manufacturing is an integral part of our plans to build back better and greener from the pandemic?
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is absolutely right. I pay tribute particularly to the hard work of her constituents to make the Vivaro vehicles; they have ensured that the Vauxhall plant in Luton has been a great success. It is exactly because of that, among other reasons, that we are keenly committed to making sure that Ellesmere Port enjoys equal support and success.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for her questions, and I will try to address each of them. She mentioned what the Government are doing to assist south Asian groups, where the numbers and the impact appear to be increasing. We have taken a number of steps to mitigate the impact of covid-19 on these groups, including targeting those occupations with larger Pakistani and Bangladeshi workforces. For example, we issued new guidance to private hire vehicle and taxi drivers in November—updated in January—about how to protect themselves from covid-19. Working with religious leaders and others, we have taken steps to promote vaccine uptake among these groups, including housing vaccination centres in mosques and other places of worship. The race disparity unit and No. 10 recently held roundtables with representatives from south Asian groups on how to promote vaccine uptake The data is changing every day, so we try to make sure that we have a clearer picture before we base any actions and recommendations on what is coming out. This is likely to be a dynamic situation, but I will continue to update the House as we know more I can tell the hon. Lady that the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities is due to report imminently. It is an independent commission, so I cannot control exactly when it submits its findings, but I have had regular updates from the chair, and I know it is finalising recommendations and I expect the report shortly The hon. Lady also mentioned the recording of ethnicity. I am pleased to tell her that data on ethnicity is now being published. It was first published on 28 January, based on the availability and quality of data. On the point of equality impact assessments, she does know that they are based on the information provided to Departments, and it is up to them to decide what they do, but we do not routinely publish equality impact assessments. The hon. Lady asked specifically about vaccine uptake, and I can tell her that I wrote to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which is determining the prioritisation with the findings from our report. I know that this issue is being taken into account, along with the covid prioritisation tool, so the information is in the public domain and does not require an equality impact assessment to know.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is right to point out that we should not assume that community organisations, which might be male-dominated, are reaching female members of ethnic minority groups, and I will ensure that we continue to work on that. I will check with officials to ensure that the groups she has mentioned are included in the ones we are providing advice and guidance to and are liaising with.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Immigration
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): With regard to the support that the Government are providing to those who have no recourse to public funds, many of the wide-ranging covid-19 measures that the Government have put in place are available to migrants with no recourse to public funds, such as the coronavirus job retention scheme, the self-employment income support scheme and support allowances that are not classed as public funds. In addition, we temporarily extended free school meals to include some groups who have no recourse to public funds. As I have said to the hon. Lady’s Scottish National party colleagues, and probably to her as well, it is really important that we do not conflate ethnic minorities with recent migrants; they are two completely distinct groups and it is wrong to mix them up in this way. We are ensuring that we are providing support to those who are most vulnerable and who need it most.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): I believe that we have answered this question before; if memory serves me correctly, I think I have written to the hon. Lady on this subject. It is something that the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities is looking at. The commission will be reporting shortly and will be able to give a statement on ethnicity pay reporting. I would like the hon. Lady to send me her statistics about workforce inequality; they are not statistics with which I am familiar, and it would be very interesting to look at the evidence base on that.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Simon Richard Clarke (Conservative, Centre-right): I commend my hon. Friend on the outstanding job that she is doing in encouraging the whole population take the vaccine when they are offered it, because that is so important. In an article on LabourList on 19 February reflecting on covid-19, Labour’s shadow Equalities Minister, the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova), claimed that Government Ministers continue to dismiss and deny "the realities of racism", and went on to state that "structural racism" was the cause of those disparities. What is the Government’s view on this question?
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for the question, and for the opportunity to reiterate what I said to the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova). Of course racism exists; no one in this Government has ever denied the existence of racism. In fact, I have spoken about my personal experience, as did the Home Secretary at this very Dispatch Box—and 30 Labour MPs, including the hon. Lady, dismissed the Home Secretary’s experiences as gaslighting. However, we will not assume that every issue experienced by ethnic minorities is caused by racism without looking at the evidence. We develop solutions based on where the evidence leads, unlike Labour, whose report in October recommended that we decolonise the curriculum to address covid-19 There is a legitimate debate to be had on how we tackle racism and address ethnic disparities, but although our means of achieving these goals may differ, that should in no way undermine our shared commitment to building a fairer and more cohesive society. Let me be clear to those who have either misunderstood or deliberately choose to misrepresent what the Government have said: this Government condemn racism, an evil which has no place in a civilised society.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. and learned Lady for her question. Inequality of policing outcomes, I am afraid, is outside the remit of this report. We are looking purely from a health perspective at the disproportionate impact of covid-19, but I take the point that she made, and I think she will find that we will talk about this shortly, when the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities reports, because it has been looking at these specific issues.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I can confirm that to my hon. Friend. The Government are looking at the most vulnerable and those who need our protection, not just in the context of covid-19, but more widely. To tackle unfairness in our society, we are looking at how we can open up opportunities to everyone, no matter their class, ethnicity or background. It is not a case of choosing one group over another. We want equality for everyone, everywhere. The work that we will do in the Government Equalities Office following the report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities will continue to address the structural issues that I know many Members are concerned about.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): I think it is a really interesting question that the hon. Lady has asked. She says that I dismissed the claim that systemic injustice was to blame, but the fact is that we did not know what was to blame at that time. That was in June, three months before my report What we need to understand is what exactly we mean by systemic and structural. We have seen that the data show that, at some point, ethnic minority gaps in terms of disproportionate impact completely disappeared. If these were structural issues, that is not what we would expect to see. For example, at the beginning of the second wave, we saw the disparity between black groups completely close. It is not credible to say that people were being structurally racist and stopped being so during the summer, and then over Christmas these structural issues re-emerged. That does not explain what is happening We need to look at what the data tells us. We cannot start from the conclusion that we want this to be systemic injustice so that we can continue to move from a political ideological perspective. We are using a scientific perspective —what does the data tell us?—and the data is telling us that this is a very complex situation. There are multiple factors, and that is why the recommendations, which the Government have, are addressing those underlying factors. It is not a genetic disease, and being an ethnic minority is not the risk factor specifically.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Peter Alexander Gibson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for all that she is doing to help the message to reach our ethnic minorities. While the Government follow the science the Opposition have called for 10 different employment groups to move up the priority list, which the JCVI has said would slow vaccine roll-out. Does she agree that that would risk needlessly exposing vulnerable people to harm for longer, and that it shows that the Labour party is more interested in chasing headlines than following the science?
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities — House of Commons, 2021-03-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): Our methodology drew on a wide range of data sources, including long-term data from the DHSC and Public Health England on covid-19 incidence, data on social integration, and evidence on the prevalence and specific support needs of, for example, disabled people in an area. The methodology was tested across the Government, and with many colleagues in the local government sector, before the funding was announced. To reach disproportionately impacted communities beyond those 60 areas, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has funded two voluntary community and social enterprises to carry out national communication and engagement activities, including health promotion and encouraging vaccine uptake We are trying to ensure that best practice is shared across local community areas. It is not just the presence of ethnic minority communities that means they are at risk—indeed, I spoke earlier about what places a specific individual at risk. We consider multiple factors, and those are what end up determining which communities get the funding. I assure the hon. Lady that her community will benefit, even if it does not get specific money under this scheme.