argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
Margaret Jay (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I welcome this opportunity to underline how the UK, even while confronting our own epidemic, must not abandon the world’s most vulnerable people. There is now evidence that the virus will set back programmes and progress in the poorest countries by at least three decades. Statistics from these countries are fragmented, but understanding what we do now about social distancing it is easy to imagine the rapid devastation of populations in overcrowded favelas, slums and shanty towns. Without international help, the fragile economies and weak health systems of those countries may be completely overwhelmed As the Minister said, this country has a strong record of building our own aid programmes and supporting the work of international institutions. Today, I ask the Minister for specific assurances about how this will continue. Importantly, will the iconic 0.7% of GNI remain committed to overseas aid? Will future financial assistance focus on loans and debt relief, or will HMG also offer properly targeted grants, essential for business and employment recovery I am pleased that the Government remain energetically committed to multilateral assistance through bodies such as the World Health Organization and the World Bank; now is certainly not the time to undermine them. However, I am alarmed by the threats to our own smaller NGOs and charities—often the most successful in delivering assistance on the ground, notably in the 2015 Ebola epidemic. Today, over half of them say that they are reducing programmes, and 43% may close unless they get extra finance in the next six months. Can DfID use some flexible funding mechanism to support them Overall, in spite of our own challenges, we must demonstrate global leadership and not retreat to "fortress Britain".
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
John Stephen Monks (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, the key question underlying this debate is whether the nations of the developed world will rise to the challenges of tackling Covid-19 globally and not just concentrate on their own country. Will we in the developed world in particular raise the $6.7 billion that the UN is trying to collect? Do the Government think this is a realistic, achievable proposal, or will the outcome be dominated by the nationalist politicians in charge of many countries around the world at the moment, elected on the basis that they will put their own country first The UK Government have certainly stumbled in how they have tackled the crisis on the domestic front, but—at least on the international stage—they have been one of the good guys, as we heard very well from the Minister. Can she now assure us that this will continue, as we take the difficult and no doubt self-absorbing path towards ending or easing the current lockdown in the UK? Will we keep our focus global as well as national as we tackle the future?
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
Leslie John Griffiths (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, noble Lords have focused on one aspect of the present crisis after another and, quite properly, fears have been expressed about how the poorest countries in the world will cope with the outbreak of Covid-19. How will the untold numbers in refugee camps, drought-affected and locust-ravaged Africa or war-torn nations cope I welcome the Minister’s reference to the Government’s commitment to a future strategy, but that of course begs the question: how do we build back better? In the Labour Party I keep hearing the words, "We must see this as another Beveridge moment". Who could disagree? However, it also has to be another Bretton Woods moment, another United Nations, with all its agencies, moment, another Marshall plan moment and—forgive me—another Christian Aid moment. We must adamantly refuse to allow the resumption of things as they were. This has to be a moment when we overhaul and recalibrate all these systems and institutions and make them fit for the purpose of building a world order where injustice and poverty, ignorance and idleness, and squalor and disease are overcome for all peoples The first Beveridge moment did not occur by magic in the summer of 1945; its recommendations had been worked at seriously for a number of years. The Labour Party secured a three-day debate in our own Chamber in March 1943, in the very midst of the war. This ensured that commitments were made that gave the implementation of the report a flying start. As then, so now. We must cope with and respond to needs and trends as we find them, but we must not take our eye off the ball. The future awaits us and our best efforts to shape it creatively and for the common good must go on right now. The Beveridge report dealt with our domestic agenda. The new Beveridge moment must envisage nothing short of the common good and the survival of the planet.
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: Social Welfare
George Foulkes (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for initiating this debate. I am pleased to take part, not just as one of her predecessors at DfID but as co-chair of the All-Party Group on Ageing and Older People and as former chair of Age Scotland. I want to deal with those over 60 who are facing the highest risk of severe illness and death from this virus, particularly those with chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. As my friends at Age International say in their excellent briefing, older people are often excluded by international development bodies, yet they estimate that, among displaced people—who are some of those at greatest risk—30% are older people We know already that older men and women face barriers to accessing healthcare. We have heard of older people being turned away because, "You’re not ill, you’re just old". Age International gives examples of that in the Philippines. The UK Government need to ensure that their response to Covid-19 in the countries that we support are inclusive of older women and men, to ensure that no one is left behind. Pensions are a crucial form of social protection but, in low-income countries, only around 20% of older people get a pension. One good example, however, is the support that DfID has given to Uganda to pilot a senior citizens’ grant, giving a cash transfer to 180,000 older people. I hope that the Minister will say that this can be replicated elsewhere Will the Minister ensure that the needs of older people are taken account of in our assistance? Specifically, will she ensure that all our country-based staff are trained to take account of the needs of older people facing this unprecedented pandemic? Finally, if an independent inquiry into the global response to this pandemic is agreed to, as I hope it will be, will she take action to ensure that these and other similar challenges facing older people are taken into account when we consider the lessons learned?
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
Frank Ashcroft Judd (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, the Minister’s significant opening speech demonstrated the indispensability of a vigorous, independent DfID with a really strong Minister at its head. We have debated global interdependence and Covid-19’s underlining of this. It is surely important that we all demonstrate our support for what I understand is the Minister’s position: we must have strong, effective international institutions to meet the challenge and fulfil our role as a global Britain. I am totally convinced that our history will depend on that. History will judge us harshly. Have we been committed, effective players in the world situation We have also talked about a vaccine, but what is important is that a vaccine is available at a price that can be afforded by those most in need and is accessible, with effective means of distribution. It would be helpful if the Minister could say in a little more detail what these practical arrangements are We need a holistic approach to the whole issue of interdependence and Covid-19: poverty, malnutrition, food insecurity, displaced people, conflict, the arms trade, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and all the implications for the vulnerable. We also have to remember the position of the frail, the handicapped, the elderly, children, women and widows. Underlying all this, we must strengthen our commitment—not weaken it now— to the human rights of everybody in the way we treat them.
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
David Edward Lea (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, John Maynard Keynes is known properly for deficit financing as a way to deal with unemployment, but his main claim to fame in 1944-45 at Bretton Woods was for the global institutions, particularly the financial ones, tying into the UN system of organisations, and, underlying that, co-operation around the world rather than nationalism. At lunchtime today, I participated in a seminar run in conjunction with the All-Party Group for Africa, which I helped to found. What is striking is how far nearly all the African countries, despite issues of governance and silent voices from Beijing, are all part of strong north-south arrangements across the Mediterranean, which are absolutely necessary. The EU heads of mission in each African country—I have been watching quite a few of them—meet on a regular basis to ensure maximum co-ordination among the donors and the recipients. It would be highly counter- productive if there was a score of different European lines of advice to one or two people in Burundi, who are the only people who can run the administration. That goes right across from Benin, to Gabon and so on Britain often takes the chair at these meetings. I was chair of the All-Party Group for Madagascar. Right across, we are the leading member. Britain versus Europe is a ridiculous, scandalous misrepresentation. Some of us will do our damnedest to limit that disaster and try to reverse it. So I was quite taken aback today when Mr Duddridge, the Minister, proclaimed that the EU does not need to play a big role in Africa and that the loss of the UK from the weekly meetings et cetera is almost a step forward rather than a step back Finally, it is not a correct binary to think of economic growth versus reduction of health risks. They largely go together.
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
Meghnad Desai (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, the Covid crisis has not just been a health crisis; it has also been an economic crisis. While we should tackle the health pandemic soon enough, which may last all of six months, the economic crisis will last much longer. There are many groups of people in countries who have not been affected by the virus, but they have suffered the collateral economic damage, as the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, and others have pointed out. While international co-operation is required for dealing with the health pandemic, it is much more important that we tackle the economic collateral damage being inflicted on the most vulnerable. Such people are not typically salaried or in white-collar jobs or jobs which can be done from home. They are suffering severe loss of income and, very often, the welfare state, such as the universal credit system, treats them extremely unkindly. We have to face up to the fact that, for the next 18 months, no economy will recover; certainly, ours will not. Whatever international co-operation may achieve from country to country, we have to see who is helping the poorest people in them. For example, are we going to resume refugee traffic? Are we going to help asylum seekers? Are we going to help those who have been temporarily unemployed because of the economic crisis and who barely qualify for universal credit It is these questions that we must study. We should start international co-operation on that subject.
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
Thomas Lyttelton (Labour, Centre-left): I join other noble Lords in welcoming the Government’s embrace of multilateralism in their response to the Covid-19 crisis, when they have too often appeared in other respects enthusiasts for British or even English exceptionalism The Government’s significant and early commitment to emergency funding, to be channelled through the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations with its commitment to equality of access, was particularly welcome. However, it is wrong to attribute this, as the Secretary of State for the Department for International Development did in her Statement to the House of Commons 12 days ago, to the altruism of the British people. It is not altruism that lies behind investment in the accelerated development of Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics but overwhelming economic and social self-interest. As the Minister said in her opening remarks, the virus does not respect national borders. This investment should not be at the expense of the other international aid programmes financed by DfID, when, as many noble Lords have highlighted this evening, the social and economic needs of low-income countries have already been increased so much and, I fear, will increase even more if Covid-19 explodes in those countries, as the hotspots in Nigeria threaten. I therefore have three questions for the Minister. First, how much of the £388 million committed by the Government under the coronavirus global response has been, or will be, taken from the international aid budget and the 0.7% of GNI obligation under the International Development Act? Secondly, is the £84 million grant to Oxford and Imperial, announced last week, an addition to the CGR commitment and will it come from outside DfID’s budget? Lastly, in the current year, when the OBR is forecasting a 12.8% fall in GDP which will be reflected in a similar fall in GNI, will the Government not just protect the 0.7% international aid obligation, as my noble friend Lady Goudie has asked, but increase it in percentage terms, at least maintained in absolute terms, without counting any spending under the CGR commitment?
Procedure Committee — House of Lords, 2020-07-02
Topic: Government Operations
John McFall (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, the report makes a single, simple recommendation, to which I will briefly set out the background for the benefit of the House The Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019, which established the Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body as an independent body, also requires the establishment of a separate statutory body called the Estimates Commission. This body will consider the Sponsor Body’s annual estimate and lay it before the House of Commons for approval, and it will assess the Sponsor Body’s own expenditure. The Estimates Commission will consist of four members: two from the House of Commons and two from the House of Lords. The report recommends that nominations should be made by the House of Lords Commission and approved by a resolution of the House. The report anticipates that I will be appointed to the Estimates Commission in an ex-officio capacity, and that I may make Written Statements and answer Written Questions on behalf of the Estimates Commission. If this motion is agreed to, consequential changes will be made to the Companion to the Standing Orders. I beg to move.
Lammy Review — House of Lords, 2020-07-02
Topic: Law and Crime
Frederick Ponsonby (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, the Minister in the other place spoke about the progress the Government had made in implementing the recommendations of the Lammy review. However, my right honourable friend David Lammy spoke of a lack of trust, which is exacerbated when the Government claim to have implemented some of his recommendations when in fact they have not been implemented. Does the Minister agree that the outcomes of the report matter more than the outputs of the recommendations, and that the outcomes are getting worse, with 51% of children imprisoned now from BAME backgrounds, which is an increase from when David Lammy completed his review? Also, the proportion of stop and searches on BAME young people has increased since the report was published. Does the Minister agree that if the Government aim to build trust in the criminal justice system by the BAME community they need to start by being honest and straightforward about the recommendations that they have implemented from the Lammy review?
Contracts for Difference (Electricity Supplier Obligations) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-07-02
Topic: Energy
George Foulkes (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I thank the Minister most sincerely for his very helpful and comprehensive introduction, which enables me to be briefer than I had intended. I thank him also for his courtesy in asking us all in advance whether we had any questions I should say first, as a Scottish Peer, that I am very proud of the progress that we in Scotland have made with renewable energy electricity generation. Indeed, it is now reported that an equivalent of 90% of Scotland’s electricity consumption comes from renewable sources, representing an increase of 14% year on year. Despite some policy uncertainty over recent years, which has limited deployment, our 100% target for renewable power generation in 2020 looks as if it remains on track. I am sure that the Minister will agree that success with renewables, including solar, onshore and offshore wind, and tidal and thermal energy, will all be critical in demonstrating that we in the United Kingdom have shown leadership when we come to COP 26, which we look forward to hosting in Glasgow next year I have a couple of questions for the Minister. The explanatory statement to the instrument notes that there is opportunity for these regulations to be used in "similar exceptional circumstances" without the need for further secondary legislation or debate. Can the Minister inform the House what "similar exceptional circumstances" would look like in the future? In this event, would the Government commit to providing further loans to support the Low Carbon Contract Company Finally, since these regulations are temporary, my main question is how the Government will reassess these payments in a year’s time. With the current uncertainty in the market, the composition of the players involved may have altered in a year’s time, so I would find it really helpful if the Minister would tell us and help us to understand how they will secure future payments and whether this will mean redistributing them among new market formations. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s answer to these two questions in his reply to this debate.
Electricity Capacity (Amendment etc.) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-07-02
Topic: Energy
Dale Norman Campbell-Savours (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, this is a very complex issue. I have listened very carefully to the Minister’s comments. As I understand it, the capacity market is there as a sort of back-up. As the pandemic has distorted the market with collapsed demand, wind and solar on occasion generate electricity to meet our needs, with wider excesses being dumped, in effect, at silly prices on the market I cannot understand why, in these extreme conditions, at a cost of potentially billions, we have to buy in through the interconnector. I have a simple question. Is all this to be renegotiated in the new Europe or is it all to remain in a spirit of compromise? With the pandemic testing the resilience of the system, we are told that capacity providers need time to either comply with EU requirements or appeal. Will this all be sorted by exit day With worldwide volatility in energy markets, if we are to be locked into the EU regimes, will that mean linkage to slow-lane EU emission targets, over which we will have no influence? Conversely, if not, how do we intend to respond to opportunities from pumped storage? That would help flush out fluctuations between high and low demand, particularly if combined with small modular nuclear reactors Finally, I have a simple question. We were told that our EU departure would lead to new trading patterns and greater self-sufficiency in steel, fisheries, farming and energy. With that in mind, why will we increase interconnector use from 4% to 9%, effectively doubling power imports? Also, how can the Government honestly claim a net-zero commitment if we buy in from countries which still generate from coal sources? I am thinking of Maasvlakte in Holland, or even Russian gas. Are we not then left in the absurd position where we end up switching our renewables on and off in favour of imported fossil-fuel-generated power supplies? In a nutshell, why should we end up paying capacity support costs to support their excess fossil production costs? How can we, whether it be for the short term or the long term, argue that the interconnector needs to be part of the mix when our objective must be decarbonisation throughout Europe? If we were not leaving Europe, at least we would have some influence on events in future.
Electricity Capacity (Amendment etc.) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-07-02
Topic: Energy
John Mann (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, we did not vote to leave the European Union, only to have the European Commission telling us what our state aid rules should be, particularly in the energy sector, where the European Union has had the most incoherent, disjointed approach for decades. That is summarised by, in recent years, the French going nuclear while the Germans went back to coal. Can the Minister clarify the implications for the remaining coal-powered generators in this country, for which the economics of the capacity market are critical? Several have closed in the past year, including Cottam, which I can see from my window today, leaving, I believe, three, including West Burton A, which has a capacity of 2,000 megawatts a year. West Burton is due to close in 2021. Will that closure be brought forward, will the date remain the same or will it be delayed? In other words, will we remain reliant on coal for longer than 2021, or will these regulations have nil effect in extinguishing what remains of our coal-fired energy generation power station system?
Higher Education (Fee Limits and Student Support) (England) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-07-02
Topic: Education
John Bassam (Labour, Centre-left): At end, insert "but that this House regrets that the draft Regulations reduce the funding available to English students studying at higher education institutions in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland; and calls on Her Majesty’s Government to provide emergency support for higher and further education institutions in order to help them respond to the COVID-19 pandemic".