argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Archbishops’ Council’s Strategic Development Fund — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what recent assessment the Commissioners have made of the level of funding for the Archbishops’ Council's strategic development fund.
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): Amen to that, Mr Speaker. I thank the hon. Gentleman. I will take those thanks back to the Church Commissioners. The hon. Gentleman’s question gives me, as Second Church Estates Commissioner, a chance to remind the whole House of the Church Commissioners’ commitment to helping communities, especially some of our poorest communities, to refurbish and regenerate their churches.
Archbishops’ Council’s Strategic Development Fund — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what recent assessment the Commissioners have made of the level of funding for the Archbishops’ Council's strategic development fund.
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for that question. It is a very important point that the strategic development fund is there not only for the restoration of very fine examples of English architecture, such as Top church in Dudley, but to establish new churches, often in communities where there has been no provision for places of worship. I reassure my hon. Friend. If he has candidates in his constituency, perhaps he would like to place a request through me to the commissioners, if that is what he seeks.
Church Land and Buildings: Digital Connectivity — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what progress has been made on implementing the joint accord between the Government and the Church of England on the use of Church land and buildings to support digital connectivity.; To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what recent discussions the Church of England has had with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on using church spires to facilitate the provision of broadband in rural areas.
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): It gives me very special pleasure to respond to my hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall (Mrs Murray) because it allows me to extend to her my very best wishes for her wedding on Saturday. I am sure the House joins me in that The Church of England is working with stakeholders to produce guidance for churches to be published in May. The guidance should assist churches in making the best use of the joint accord between the Government and the Church to support digital connectivity. Two hundred churches have taken up the opportunity of the new technology, adding to the existing 300 that had already done so.
Church Land and Buildings: Digital Connectivity — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what progress has been made on implementing the joint accord between the Government and the Church of England on the use of Church land and buildings to support digital connectivity.; To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what recent discussions the Church of England has had with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on using church spires to facilitate the provision of broadband in rural areas.
Sheryll Murray (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for her good wishes. Is she aware of any specific problems that discourage parishes from taking up the opportunity to improve connectivity in rural areas such as South East Cornwall, and at the same time increasing parish income? If so, can the Government do anything to help?
Plymouth Gin: Mayflower Commemorations — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether the House of Commons plans to stock Plymouth Gin during the Mayflower 400 commemorations.
Michael Penning (Conservative, Centre-right): As the House authorities are aware, wholesalers have a monopoly, particularly when it comes to putting beer into Strangers Bar. Red Squirrel Brewery, which is in my constituency, managed to get it in there after five years, but only after having to go through the wholesaler designated by the House. The margins made it almost unprofitable for it to put the beer in there. That is wrong: there should not be a monopoly in this House.
Plymouth Gin: Mayflower Commemorations — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Other
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether the House of Commons plans to stock Plymouth Gin during the Mayflower 400 commemorations.
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I say to those observing our proceedings that that interesting inquiry does relate to alcohol, but not to gin. It is a sort of side observation from the right hon. Gentleman, borne of his personal experience, for which we are grateful.
Ordination of Women: Priesthood — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to mark the 25th anniversary of women’s ordination to the priesthood.
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): There are a number of significant anniversaries this year. It is the 25th anniversary of women’s ordination as priests, the 50th anniversary of women being made readers and the fifth anniversary of women being consecrated as bishops. The Archbishop of Canterbury has held a special service at Lambeth Palace to celebrate the anniversary, and events have also been taking place in diocese.
Ordination of Women: Priesthood — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to mark the 25th anniversary of women’s ordination to the priesthood.
Mark Andrew Menzies (Conservative, Centre-right): Throughout 2018, celebrations were rightly held in honour of the centenary of the women’s vote. What plans does the commission have to carry on in that vein for the 25th anniversary of women’s ordination to the priesthood?
Ordination of Women: Priesthood — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to mark the 25th anniversary of women’s ordination to the priesthood.
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): Our plans are to pursue our determination to encourage more women into the priesthood. For the record, I share with the House the fact that the number of female clergy is now at a record high: women now make up nearly a third of the 20,000 active clergy. More importantly, there are those in the pipeline: more than half those entering training for the priesthood in 2018 were women.
Easter Church Attendance — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what plans the Church of England has to encourage more families to attend church this Easter.
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): Parish churches will be welcoming parents and families especially back to church this weekend for Mothering Sunday. What better year to record with grateful thanks all of those involved in making it possible for mothers to have their names on marriage certificates? Even though Mothering Sunday takes place during Lent, it is a feast day. In preparation for Lent, the Church has developed a free Lent pilgrim app and emails, and the campaign material is also available on Alexa.
Easter Church Attendance — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what plans the Church of England has to encourage more families to attend church this Easter.
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for her answer. As she knows, Easter is a special time for us Christians as it represents the absolute core of our faith. There is something unique and special about spending it in church, so can she outline what work the Church of England is doing to reach out via social media and the internet to families who may not normally be church attenders to come and share that special joy with us?
Easter Church Attendance — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what plans the Church of England has to encourage more families to attend church this Easter.
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): The Church has been winning awards for the range of innovative resources it uses to develop support for local churches and encourage their communities to use them. For example, there is achurchnearyou.com, a finder website that has more than 10 million visitors a year and has seen a big increase in the number of people using the site and spending time on it Hard copies of the Church’s materials are also available. Should the rigours of Brexit be too much, it is not too late for Members to avail themselves of the "Pilgrim Journeys" book of daily readings to get us through to Easter.
Supporting Disabled People to Work — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert Henry Halfon (Conservative, Centre-right): I strongly welcome what my hon. Friend has said. My constituent, Lacey-Rose Saamanthy, a Harlow resident, is deaf and she was recently offered a role at Broomfield Hospital as a catering assistant. However, her offer of employment email did not make it clear that that offer was conditional on a risk assessment, and it was subsequently retracted. To me, that is outrageous. The risk assessment identified a number of risks that Ms Saamanthy believes could easily have been mitigated. Will the Minister explain the role that disabled employees can play in the workplace, and help stop such outrageous discrimination against a deaf person who was offered a job but who then had that offer rescinded?
Supporting Disabled People to Work — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): I was very pleased to sign up my constituency office to the Disability Confident scheme, because I know, as a former employer in a small business, that there are practical and awareness barriers. Will the Minister update the House on some of the practical measures he is implementing to help employers employ disabled people who really want to work?
Supporting Disabled People to Work — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman, who has done a huge amount of work in this area. These are the sorts of points that were picked up in the Maynard review. We have worked very closely with a lot of the leading autism charities. They rewrote the training guidance for our frontline staff and fed into the autism toolkit within jobcentres. He is absolutely right: if employers are savvy and look at their skills gaps so that they can match them to the huge amount of talent and potential of people with autism, they will benefit. That is the key message to employers. We are not looking for favours; we are looking for a win-win for the disabled individual and the business.
Supporting Disabled People to Work — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): I am delighted to pay tribute to Brentwood Community Print. It has recognised that it can benefit from being an innovative business in terms of recruitment, and I hope that many other businesses will look and learn the lessons that it has set out.
Supporting Disabled People to Work — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend and I do understand the importance not just of responding to individual MPs’ correspondence but offering an opportunity to meet, particularly on the more complex cases, and there are many Members I can see here today whom I have met in recent weeks on a variety of issues. We are all first and foremost constituency MPs who are here to champion those in our communities who have challenges. On the question about how many disabled people are employed in the Department, I will have to write to my hon. Friend because I would not wish to give somebody of such experience anything other than the exact answer.
Supporting Disabled People to Work — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for highlighting what is clearly a very successful local initiative. This goes back to some of my earlier answers, in that we are committed to finding ways of getting support to those innovative local initiatives that are making a real difference on the frontline, and I will feed in to the Department his suggestion of a visit.
Supporting Disabled People to Work — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said in my earlier answers, I am happy to attend and support debates and meetings. I am also proud to have served as the Minister for disabled people a few years back, and my passion has not diminished one bit. We all collectively owe it to those people who need that extra bit of support to do everything we can, and I am proud to do that.
Households Below Average Income Statistics — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the Secretary of State agree that it is right that we look at the pressures on people’s incomes in the round? That means that we should look at the cost of childcare, which the Government are addressing, and at taking people out of tax, which the Government are addressing. We should also look at putting up wages for the poorest people on the lowest wages, so will my right hon. Friend confirm that the national living wage is rising, which will benefit a lot of people on low incomes?
Households Below Average Income Statistics — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Housing
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): One of the regular challenges that those in poverty face is in finding suitable accommodation, as the Secretary of State referred to in her statement. What work is she doing in talking to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that we deliver the quality homes that people need, at an affordable price, across the country?
Households Below Average Income Statistics — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Housing
Amber Rudd (Conservative, Centre-right): That is such a good point from my hon. Friend. He is right that we need to constantly address poor-quality accommodation, as well as making sure that that accommodation is affordable. I am engaged in conversations with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that we address this together.
Households Below Average Income Statistics — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Housing
Amber Rudd (Conservative, Centre-right): As the hon. Lady will be aware, we have now seen a plateauing in the number of homeless people. We have a successful homelessness reduction strategy. I acknowledge that the number had gone up, but we are now seeing it come down, which shows that the homelessness strategy is working. We are committed to making sure that we continue it so that there are fewer homeless people across the country.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for her point of order, and for showing me a copy of the relevant email, which I have just read at the Chair. I hope I can offer her and all colleagues the assurance sought. I make two points. First, as I indicated to the House that I would, I have had arranged for me a meeting between me, other senior colleagues and, indeed, a variety of colleagues to whom this matter is of concern, with the Parliamentary Security Director and the chief superintendent on the parliamentary estate. However, I have to acknowledge that that meeting is taking place only next Thursday, so it is some way off, but that was convenient for diary purposes for everybody involved My second point is that, although this does warrant further investigation and colleagues would not expect me to shoot from the hip, I am concerned by the idea, which has now been put to me not only by the right hon. Lady but by another hon. Member last night, that there has been at least one case—let us not get into an argument about how many, but at least one—of an individual coming on to the parliamentary estate and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards Members and staff. Although it is of course a treasured principle that there should be a presumption of public access to the estate for our citizens and people who want to visit here, it is axiomatic not only that they go through security but that they pose no threat to anybody here. If there is evidence of a person or persons in relation to whom we cannot feel that sense of security, I believe it must be right for preventive action to be able to be taken, because if there is a clash between someone’s right to visit here and our right—the right of us all, Members, staff and MPs’ staff—to be safe, the latter has to trump the former. I hope that is helpful.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (Conservative, Centre-right): Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. Following the exchanges yesterday in which you quite rightly said you would convene a meeting, it might be of some reassurance to the right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry) that the director of security let my office know this morning that there will be significantly increased security tomorrow, for precisely the reason the right hon. Lady mentions. Our security teams here in the Palace are very aware of the concerns I remind all hon. Members that the behaviour code that forms a part of the independent complaints procedure applies to everybody, whether they work here or visit here, so if anybody feels that they are being treated in an unhelpful or derogatory way, that invokes the behaviour code that this House signed up to last July.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a very helpful underlining of the concern and the route map to resolution if colleagues are offended or insulted in that way. I had not made that point, and it is very helpful that the Leader of the House has done.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Other
Julian Murray Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I apologise for not giving you advance notice of this point of order. Yesterday, I was quite shocked, when attending a meeting of colleagues, to find at least two—one male, one female—in tears at the prospect, yet again, having twice taken the difficult decision to vote against a three-line Whip, of being put in the position of having to decide whether to do so or not. At what point will there be some protection, particularly for younger Members, so that they are not put in that situation by being asked to come back again and again and again to vote on the same proposition?
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I think the right hon. Gentleman’s point—of which, as he says, I had no advance notice—stands in its own right. Many people will feel that it is a powerful observation. There are a number of reasons for the long-established convention that the House is not asked to decide the same question more than once in the same Session. The reason invoked by the right hon. Gentleman was not, from my study of history, part of the original rationale for it, but in my own view it is a powerful reinforcement of the continuing case for the convention. He has made an extremely important point, and it is something on which colleagues at all levels need to reflect.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman makes a compelling case, and it will have been heard by colleagues. For my part, in so far as he exhorts me to seek to facilitate manuscript amendments and so on, I am inclined to say to him that I shall always profit by his counsels. I always have done and I dare say I always will do.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Other
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Further to the point of order made by my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis) about people being in tears, I think all of us here are grown up enough to be able to see that we need to do what we feel is absolutely right when we vote. The great Mr Forth used to say that whipping was optional. It is important that we bear in mind that we cannot allow the sensitivities of colleagues over feeling pressurised one way or another to stop us having a full choice. I am aware of 30 colleagues who have changed their minds on the meaningful vote, so I absolutely do not feel that those of us who have not committed to it yet should not have the ability to change our minds and have it back again. I am feeling rather frustrated that the two options that I supported yesterday will probably not make their way through the beauty contest, as I have described it, and I therefore reserve the right to wish to have meaningful vote 3, if am to pair it off against what I now see as the ugly sisters of the options.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady expresses her disappointment with the verdicts of the House on propositions legitimately submitted to it yesterday. She did that earlier in our proceedings and has thought it worthwhile to repeat and underline her point. She is perfectly entitled to her view, but it will have to be considered by colleagues alongside that just proffered by the right hon. Member for New Forest East. Conventions exist for a purpose, and I very politely say that the validity of a convention is not dependent upon a headcount at a particular time. The whole point of having a rule is that it is judged to be of value. The fact that somebody suddenly thinks it is not convenient does not mean it should be discarded.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-03-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I am not debating the issue with the hon. Lady. [Interruption.] No, it is not a debate. She has raised a point of order. I have answered it. The right hon. Member for New Forest East very courteously raised his, and it was answered, and other colleagues might also wish to raise points. We always need to have a sense of other.