argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Engagements — House of Commons, 2015-03-04
Topic: Defense
Questions: A centre for excellence is to be created on the Isle of Wight for composites, advanced manufacturing and marine technology. This project, led by GKN Aerospace and the Isle of Wight College, will benefit new and existing island businesses. Does the Prime Minister agree that this is an excellent example of the Government supporting the local economy and ensuring that young people on the island have the skills that the industries of the future will need?; My father died of cancer; my mother died of cancer; and my sister died of cancer. A year ago, the Prime Minister set a target for those on urgent cancer referrals to receive their first treatment within two months. Last year, 20,000 people did not have that target met for them. Does the Prime Minister understand that, even if the national health service can survive another five years of a Conservative Government, 100,000 cancer patients cannot?; Does my right hon. Friend agree that, too often, some of NATO’s leaders confuse announcements with action? Will he ensure that NATO does what it said it would do at Cardiff last year, so that those who, for their own domestic reasons, want to undermine the political and territorial integrity of the alliance realise that when we say we will defend it, we mean it, that we have the means to do so and that we will do so?; Without wishing to be personal, does the right hon. Gentleman realise that many people consider him to be a Prime Minister who simply does not understand the lives of millions of people of this country who try to live on modest incomes? The Tory party has been, and remains, the party of the rich and the privileged.; At a time when the Government are losing millions through tax avoidance, how does it make sense to close North Ayrshire tax office, given that every officer there brings in taxes amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds that would otherwise be lost to the Exchequer?; Does the Prime Minister believe that his own behaviour and that of the Leader of the Opposition during Prime Minister’s Question Time enhances or damages the image of the Houses of Parliament and, indeed, that of politicians in the eyes of members of the public?; Yesterday the Prime Minister rightly designated child sexual exploitation as a national threat. Sadly, the police are receiving more reports of abuse than ever before, but there are fewer investigations and prosecutions than there were in 2010-11. Since then, 16,000 police jobs have been cut. How can it be right to cut a further 1,100 next year?
Liam Fox (Conservative, Centre-right): In a dangerous world, experience as a statesman is one of the many advantages that my right hon. Friend has over any alternative Prime Minister. Does he agree that, in such a dangerous world, the ultimate guarantee of our security is our nuclear deterrent, and will he confirm that he would never be involved in any shabby deal to give away our nuclear deterrent as part of a wider deal with a unilateralist party, simply to get the keys to No. 10?
Armed Forces (Flexible Working) Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: Defense
Frederick Richard Penn Curzon (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, in moving that the Bill do now pass, I express my appreciation to all noble Lords, noble and gallant Lords and right reverend Prelates for their interest in the Bill and for their thoughtful contributions to what have been constructive debates during its passage through your Lordships’ House. I am grateful for the positive engagement and support of noble Lords on the Opposition Benches and from around the House The Government have responded positively to the concerns of this House that the Defence Council regulations should be subject to the affirmative procedure. I know that the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, and others will be disappointed with our response to his concerns about the use of the term "part-time" in the Bill. I hope that in due course he will see that his fears about people disparaging the good name and full commitment of the Armed Forces are unfounded, once people are able to apply to work part-time or have protection from being separated from their home base for prolonged periods Of course, encouraging the right cultural attitudes and behaviours in the Armed Forces will play an important part in ensuring the success of these measures. As I said at the outset, the Bill is designed by the services for the services, and all three remain involved in the plans to make this a success. We are immensely proud of the achievements of our Armed Forces; they work hard for us and we owe them a great deal. Flexible working will provide our brave and courageous service men and women with an opportunity for some respite from their full-time commitment when they need it most. This Bill is for them and I beg to move.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-06-22
Topic: Health
Sarah Virginia Brinton (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Following last week’s Urgent Question, the Secretary of State responded to questions about new outbreaks in local areas and local authorities not being given access to all the necessary data. He said: "We have provided more data to them, and we will continue to do more."—[Official Report, Commons, 17/6/20; col. 810.] I am still hearing from local authorities that the data sent to local areas is still incomplete, which means that vital urgent local tracing teams are trying to do their job with one hand tied behind their back. This includes the outbreak at the meat-processing factory in Kirklees. When will local authorities and directors of public health get the data they need?
Covid-19: South Yorkshire — House of Lords, 2020-10-22
Topic: Health
Narendra Babubhai Patel (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, as the infection rates and admissions to hospital rise, as seen in tier 3 areas, what are the Government doing to accelerate clinical trials to bring more treatments that could help patients with Covid infections? We have got to the market two treatments: dexamethsasone and remdesivir. Recent anecdotal and observational studies suggest that vitamin D, for instance, is related to mortality ratios in Covid infections. What are the Government doing to accelerate clinical trials of other treatments, including vitamin D, to improve the outcome for Covid patients?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2018-10-30
Topic: Health
Edward Jonathon Davey (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The right hon. Gentleman is talking about the rise in health spending. He is Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, so can he tell us by how much social care expenditure is going to rise over the next five years?
Science and Technology Committee — House of Commons, 2018-09-06
Topic: Health
Norman Peter Lamb (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his helpful contribution and totally agree with him. I will make sure that we specifically send the report to the devolved Administrations, and he highlights the fact that there is now such strong consensus through all the organisations I referred to—Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and so on—of the relative harm reduction through adopting e-cigarettes as opposed to smoking. Any confusion of that message will result in fewer people giving up smoking and more people in our country dying, and we must stop that.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-12-30
Topic: Health
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): Dame Deirdre Hine’s report on the 2009 influenza pandemic recommended raising public awareness and understanding about the key characteristics of a pandemic and core response measures. Yet we learned little. A failure of public communication through excessively optimistic mixed messages has led to deepening distrust. Some reporters, such as Fergus Walsh, have explained the scientific and clinical reality well, but we need clear, consistent messaging across the UK, sharing uncertainty and true risk. For example, the B.1.1.7 variant infectivity in effect adds more than 0.4 to the R number. The current reality is proving even worse than the modelling predictions for the coming months for bed shortages, overloaded services, staff infections and exhaustion. Second-time infections are now presenting, as antibodies seem to be short-lived Yes, the vaccine is brilliant news; it should prevent fatal infection. But infection control measures will remain essential in the long term. We do not know how long the immunity will last, whether those immunised will still get infected and be viral carriers and spreaders, nor how rapidly further mutations will develop, leading to the need for new modifications and new vaccines. Will the Government collate immunisation data from the NHS number with diagnostic data in the long term to understand the epidemiology as it evolves? Mixed messages and false hope fuel mistrust. Control will only be achieved by collaboration with the public when they understand that vaccination is not a quick fix.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-12-30
Topic: Health
Karan Bilimoria (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I congratulate the Government. The Minister just announced the MHRA’s clearance of the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine. I congratulate Kate Bingham and the Vaccine Taskforce on this phenomenal example of collaboration between business, universities and the Government, and of international collaboration between Sweden and Britain. India has a contract for 1 billion doses to the Serum Institute of India—the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world. Could the Minister assure us that there will be all hands on deck for vaccinators, including retired doctors and nurses, wherever we can get volunteers, and that we will use all possible premises, including workplaces, as long as they are in a safe supervisory environment There was an excellent article in the FT the day before yesterday on rapid Covid tests, titled: "Rapid Covid tests are being used more widely: can they be trusted?" Yet here we have the example of Britain and France using rapid Covid tests to unblock the 48-hour blockage of movement. Enabling the use of these tests has saved so much. Can the Minister confirm that permission was granted on Tuesday for the public to use these tests on their own? Will the lateral flow tests now be available to the public? Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor at Oxford University, said: "Testing asymptomatic people is an enormous priority … If there’s no testing, they don’t get caught. Every successful positive you get is a win." Surely that gives validation to this, yet we have others who say that we will miss half the cases. Professor Tim Peto of the University of Oxford said: "They’re not perfect, but that doesn’t stop them being a game changer for helping detect cases of infectious disease" Would the Minister agree? There is also the very clear example of Slovakia. That test was employed throughout the country and lead to a 60% to 70% reduction in the rate of infection across Slovakia There is no perfect test. "Everything is a compromise", according to Jo Martin at Queen Mary University. The best will otherwise be the enemy of the good.
G20 and Paris Attacks — House of Commons, 2015-11-17
Topic: Defense
Gisela Stuart (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to a wider narrative explaining how he thinks Daesh can be defeated, and his insistence that that has to be done with our allies. Press reports this morning suggest that France has invoked the mutual defence clause in the Lisbon treaty for the first time. Will the Prime Minister explain what practical implications that may have for the United Kingdom and our co-operation?
Covid-19: International Response — House of Lords, 2020-05-18
Topic: Health
Christopher Rennard (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I draw attention to my entry in the register of interests. As we have heard, the current meeting of the World Health Assembly is focusing on strengthening global co-ordination against the Covid-19 pandemic. It cannot do so, however, without real openness and honesty about how the pandemic originated and has spread and what all countries are learning about how it may be countered. The claim by China that it has always acted in an open, transparent and responsible manner is contradicted by the apology that had to be made to Dr Li Wenliang and his colleagues, who were reprimanded last December for warning people about the threat We now need fully transparent, independent and expert scrutiny to examine the approaches being taken in different countries, including our own. There needs to be a halt to any attempts to coerce any country into dropping demands for knowledge to help the war against the virus. Truth may be the first casualty of war, but allowing it to be a casualty now will have catastrophic consequences. We need all the expertise that there is in the world to fight a threat on a scale that is without precedent That is why, as the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner of Worcester, said, it is so wrong to exclude Taiwan from the deliberations of the World Health Assembly. Given its proximity and ties to mainland China, it is remarkable that Taiwan has kept its number of cases so low. Our Government are now confusingly telling people to be alert, but Taiwan was alert to the problem on 31 December, when it expressed concerns to the World Health Organization about the virus’s potential for human-to-human transmission. It received no reply. Instead, the WHO endorsed China’s denial of human-to-human transmission until 21 January. Anything less than full transparency by all Governments now will waste precious time again and cost many more lives.
Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill — House of Lords, 2019-01-15
Topic: Health
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I beg the indulgence and forgiveness of the House because I have not been involved in previous stages of the Bill, but the amendment concerns terminal illness, and I should declare that that is my specialty. It may be helpful to the Minister if I explain that the DS1500 benefits are where the six-month definition has come from—we are going back many years. If someone is deemed likely to die within six months in this country, they become eligible for DS1500 benefits, which is a special fast-track benefit However, the problem with the six months that it is impossible to predict. All the evidence is that you cannot accurately predict whether someone’s prognosis is longer or shorter; it is really a best guess. Therefore, I completely accept the humanitarian rationale behind the amendment, but it is important that the Minister clarifies that this provision is six months with treatment available wherever that person is. I raise that because, to take the example of an insulin-dependent diabetic, if they stop their insulin and already have complications, they will die within six months, but if they carry on with their insulin, they may well live for many years It is important to clarify on the record that they are expected to be terminally ill given that they have accessed the treatment available wherever they are. I fully accept that in some parts of the world there is very little treatment available for a lot of diseases, but there is a very wide range of conditions which are fatal in a short time if they are not treated, and I should hate the Government to be caught out by any manipulation.
Raqqa and Daesh — House of Lords, 2017-10-24
Topic: Defense
Tariq Ahmad (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with my noble friend, of course. In any such situation, any intervention or military action should be exercised with strict rules of engagement. As I alluded to earlier in response to the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, we seek first of all to minimise civilian casualties in any action our military is taking. Secondly, on holding those to account, the important thing is that international law and rules of justice are upheld, whether for those surrendering themselves to coalition forces or to the Syrian coalition forces on the ground, or indeed those returning to any part of the world.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2015-02-10
Topic: Defense
Julian Murray Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): NATO was formed originally so that no aggressor could try to pick off one country after another without knowing that he would immediately be at war with the major powers. Is it not vital that we maintain the distinction between NATO countries and non-NATO countries? Is not the best way to reinforce the impression of the strength of NATO to give an open-ended commitment in future, as we have in the past, that we will spend 2% of GDP—the NATO recommended minimum on defence?
Report of the Iraq Inquiry — House of Commons, 2016-07-14
Topic: Defense
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I welcome the right hon. Gentleman’s useful approach in going back to the primary sources. Does not the information to which he refers, though, highlight just how dangerous it is to go to war on the basis of intelligence alone, which is essentially what marked the Iraq war out from every other one? Does he agree that the process of making intelligence available for assessment by this House has to be improved, or we could risk doing it again?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2015-02-10
Topic: Defense
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): On that last point—two huge armed forces meeting in central Europe—the hon. Gentleman will know that NATO has refrained from stationing non-national NATO troops in the front-line new NATO member states precisely to avoid that build-up. It is part of the Russia-NATO agreement to avoid that build-up of forces in a confrontational way. I am personally rather reluctant to dictate to independent third countries what they can and cannot do. I think Ukraine is perfectly entitled to aspire to membership of the EU or NATO if it chooses to do so. However, it is very, very clear that membership of either organisation would be many, many years away. Ukraine would have a huge amount of work to do before it was ready for membership of either organisation.
Covid-19: Business — House of Lords, 2020-05-13
Topic: Health
Malcolm Bruce (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Given the decision of the devolved Administrations to maintain their guidance to stay at home and to limit the return to work, will the Government carefully monitor the path of the virus across the UK? If there is significant variation in the incidence of cases or deaths between England and the rest of the UK, will the Government revise the guidance in their documents? Can the Minister give an assurance that workers, companies and, indeed, Governments in the devolved Administration areas, or indeed anywhere in the United Kingdom, will not be penalised for maintaining a cautious approach which might prevent a second spike?
Medicines and Medical Devices Bill — House of Lords, 2021-01-14
Topic: Health
Dorothea Glenys Thornton (Labour, Centre-left): The noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, is quite right: two of our health big thinkers have laid out the issues here. My noble friend Lord Hunt gave a wonderful introduction to Amendment 66, which covered the reasons why it is important and what it will do. The noble Lord, Lord Lansley, took us on a journey through how health inequalities can be addressed. The point, and the reason the amendment is on the Marshalled List today, is that it does not always work like that. Implementation is key. As the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, said, requiring NICE to support NHS access to new medicines and medical devices seems kind of obvious. The challenge for the Minister here is how to use this legislation and this discussion to make what we think is obvious work better.
Personal Independence Payments — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Health
Questions: What assessment he has made of the implications for his Department of the High Court ruling in June 2015 on delays in personal independence payments.
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): It is important to recognise that other benefits are backdated. We have made huge progress. The backlog has been falling month on month since August 2014, and we are now within where we would expect to be as part of usual business. We are looking at a median time, end to end, of 11 weeks. We will continue to monitor that important issue closely.
Shipbuilding on the Clyde — House of Commons, 2016-04-25
Topic: Defense
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The workforce on the Clyde are highly skilled and motivated men and women, and I really do wish that the focus of the House this afternoon could be on preserving their futures and livelihoods, instead of on other considerations. With that in mind, will the Minister assure me that, between the end of the construction of the offshore patrol vessels and the start of work on the Type 26 frigates, everything will be done to ensure continuity, because it is in our national strategic interest to ensure that the workforce is maintained?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Health
Questions: I was pleased to meet with Disability Support Torbay on Friday to discuss the advocacy, support and advice it gives to many local people. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is crucial to work with employers to make sure that they are aware of work the Government are doing, such as the Access to Work programme, to help them to employ and retain people with disabilities?; Following the shameful failure of the Front-Bench team once again to answer a question today, may I ask again why the Government are refusing to publish—even though the Information Commissioner has instructed them to do so—the up-to-date statistics relating to the number of people who have died, having been found fit for work at their face-to-face assessment?; The latest employment statistics show that under this Government record numbers of women are in work, yet there are 2 million more women who would like to be in employment but are not. What discussions has the Minister had with colleagues to ensure that the barriers that those women face are being removed?; My hon. Friend the Member for St Helens South and Whiston (Marie Rimmer) is right. Given that on 5 June the High Court found the Department’s actions—this time on PIP delays—unlawful, does the Secretary of State think that he and his Department are above the law? Why does he refuse to publish the details of the number of people who have died within six weeks of their claims for incapacity benefit and employment and support allowance, including those who have been found fit for work?
David John Barrington Burrowes (Conservative, Centre-right): May I welcome the introduction of the family test and the Secretary of State’s lead on that? What is he doing to ensure that it does what the Prime Minister says it should do, which is change the way Government do business?
Covid-19: Vaccine Roll-out — House of Commons, 2021-01-12
Topic: Health
Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Yesterday, the Secretary of State revealed that only a quarter of care home residents in England had been vaccinated against covid, despite being the No. 1 priority group. Can he explain why they were not the first cohort to receive the Pfizer vaccine in December, as was the case in Scotland?