argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Energy
Questions: Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating the greatest evening newspaper in the country, the Express & Star, and the brilliant work of Wolverhampton University, which have launched the green shoots scheme? The scheme has now successfully distributed £4 million of regional growth fund money, supporting 65 businesses, creating or protecting 600 jobs and, extraordinarily, generating over 11 million in private sector investment to support businesses in places such as Dudley. Contrary to what he said earlier, everybody knows that Dudley was the real birthplace of the industrial revolution.; Since 2010, my constituency has seen 8,800 apprenticeships started across many sectors, and very soon I will be hosting my first apprenticeship fair, bringing together local students and businesses. Will the Minister outline what steps he is taking to encourage more small businesses to engage with apprenticeships and take on more apprentices in places such as my constituency?; The Government’s industrial strategy Green Paper talks of the need to close the skills gap and invest in infrastructure, so can the Secretary of State explain to the House why childcare is not mentioned once?; I thank the Secretary of State for his support for the midlands engine. In Stafford, we build them. Last week I had the honour of opening the technical training centre at Perkins’ large engine plant in Stafford. Does he agree that that shows just how important it is for businesses to be proactive in putting together the facilities needed for apprentices and taking on more of them, as Perkins is?; Given that the Brexit negotiations are about to start, does the Secretary of State agree with his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister that no deal is better than a bad deal?; Will my right hon. Friend set out how he intends to shape the regulatory environment as we leave the European Union, including through such things as visa allocation, to ensure that the United Kingdom remains at the forefront of the technological revolution?; Scotland’s economy, from its thriving universities to our diverse food and drink sector, relies on EU freedom of movement. How does the Minister hope to close the skills gap and pave the way for a highly skilled economy if he cannot safeguard the rights of EU nationals living here?; Given the decimation of Scotland’s renewables sector and the fact that Scotland has very different energy capabilities from the rest of the UK, why do the Government continue to think that a one-size-fits-all energy policy is in any way appropriate for Scotland?; A recent Resolution Foundation report stated that one in three UK businesses admitted to under-investing over the last five years. What measures will the UK Government take to turn that around?
Stephen James McCabe (Labour, Centre-left): I thought the Minister was a touch complacent in his earlier answer on smart meters given that this will cost the taxpayer £11 billion by the end of the Parliament. What is he going to do about the fact that they do not work when a customer switches supplier?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Technology
Questions: Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating the greatest evening newspaper in the country, the Express & Star, and the brilliant work of Wolverhampton University, which have launched the green shoots scheme? The scheme has now successfully distributed £4 million of regional growth fund money, supporting 65 businesses, creating or protecting 600 jobs and, extraordinarily, generating over 11 million in private sector investment to support businesses in places such as Dudley. Contrary to what he said earlier, everybody knows that Dudley was the real birthplace of the industrial revolution.; Since 2010, my constituency has seen 8,800 apprenticeships started across many sectors, and very soon I will be hosting my first apprenticeship fair, bringing together local students and businesses. Will the Minister outline what steps he is taking to encourage more small businesses to engage with apprenticeships and take on more apprentices in places such as my constituency?; The Government’s industrial strategy Green Paper talks of the need to close the skills gap and invest in infrastructure, so can the Secretary of State explain to the House why childcare is not mentioned once?; I thank the Secretary of State for his support for the midlands engine. In Stafford, we build them. Last week I had the honour of opening the technical training centre at Perkins’ large engine plant in Stafford. Does he agree that that shows just how important it is for businesses to be proactive in putting together the facilities needed for apprentices and taking on more of them, as Perkins is?; Given that the Brexit negotiations are about to start, does the Secretary of State agree with his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister that no deal is better than a bad deal?; Will my right hon. Friend set out how he intends to shape the regulatory environment as we leave the European Union, including through such things as visa allocation, to ensure that the United Kingdom remains at the forefront of the technological revolution?; Scotland’s economy, from its thriving universities to our diverse food and drink sector, relies on EU freedom of movement. How does the Minister hope to close the skills gap and pave the way for a highly skilled economy if he cannot safeguard the rights of EU nationals living here?; Given the decimation of Scotland’s renewables sector and the fact that Scotland has very different energy capabilities from the rest of the UK, why do the Government continue to think that a one-size-fits-all energy policy is in any way appropriate for Scotland?; A recent Resolution Foundation report stated that one in three UK businesses admitted to under-investing over the last five years. What measures will the UK Government take to turn that around?
Melanie Onn (Labour, Centre-left): The digital strategy is a key component of the Government’s industrial strategy. Can the Secretary of State do better than the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and tell me which companies have committed to work in Great Grimsby as part of the digital skills partnership?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister has spoken many times about the importance of achieving a good deal from the negotiations that the country is about to embark upon, yet in recent days the Foreign Secretary has said that leaving with no deal would be perfectly okay, while the Secretary of State for International Trade has said that not achieving a deal would be bad. Would the Prime Minister care to adjudicate and tell the House which of those Ministers was speaking for the Government?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Andrew Murray Burnham (Labour, Centre-left): May I tell the Prime Minister that it is not just in Scotland where there is a fear that the right wing of her party is dictating the terms of this debate and pushing us towards a Brexit deal that favours London and the south over the north? May I ask her to dither no more, and to establish a Brexit committee of the regions and nations, and give places like Greater Manchester equal and fair representation in this crucial debate?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Foreign Trade
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister has said that no deal is better than a bad deal. We all wish her well in getting the best possible deal for the UK, but will she now publish what the effects would be of crashing out of the European Union on World Trade Organisation rules, so that we can have a debate in this country about her assertion that no deal is better than a bad deal?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Christopher Michael Leslie (Labour, Centre-left): After lecturing the other European leaders on how they should complete the single market, did the Prime Minister remember that she had already thrown in the towel on Britain’s membership of the single market? Will she admit what an error it was for her to give the Scottish First Minister exactly the excuse she was looking for for an opportunistic second referendum?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Alison McGovern (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister lectures nationalists on the importance of staying in unions, but all the while she is advocating leaving one. She lectures our European partners on the importance of the single market, but all the while she is hellbent on our leaving it. Does she think that this incoherence in her position might be dealt with—and make her life easier—if she thought again about our staying within the single market?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Catharine Letitia Hoey (Labour, Centre-left): I am sure that the Prime Minister will be pleased to know that millions of Labour supporters across the country will be delighted and will share her and my pleasure at the legal decision taken by Parliament. Did the right hon. Lady have any chance at the Council to discuss informally with EU leaders the position of British citizens in other countries? Are those leaders sticking up for our citizens there in the way we are sticking up for their citizens here?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Michael John Gapes (Labour, Centre-left): The practice and experience in complex negotiations, such as in Northern Ireland, is that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Does the Prime Minister agree that that will be the case here? If so, and given that she said that no deal is preferable to a bad deal, how can British citizens living in EU countries or EU citizens living in the UK believe that there will be any resolution of the uncertainty?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Owen Smith (Labour, Centre-left): A moment ago, the Prime Minister repeated without a hint of irony or comedy that she is encouraging the European Union to complete the single market in services because that is in our national interest. Will she explain to the House and to the country how it is not in our national interest to be a part of it?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Stella Judith Creasy (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister has said that, in the deal she wants with the European Union, she would like associate membership of the customs union—a membership that does not as yet exist On 6 February, after the last European Council, I asked the Prime Minister whether she had raised that idea with her European counterparts, and she overlooked the question—I am sure it was an oversight—so I ask her the question again. Has she raised the idea, and what was the response? Or should we take her evasiveness as meaning that there is no deal?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Chuka Harrison Umunna (Labour, Centre-left): On single market membership, in their 2015 manifesto the Prime Minister and her party made an unconditional commitment to "safeguard British interests in the Single Market." She castigated my hon. Friends the Members for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) and for Pontypridd (Owen Smith) for raising that issue, but on 26 May 2016 she told an audience of Goldman Sachs bankers, in relation to single market membership, that "the economic arguments are clear. I think being part of a 500-million trading bloc is significant" Why is she waving the white flag and starting these negotiations without even trying to keep our membership of the single market, with the reforms she seeks? We are the second-biggest economy in Europe and the fifth-biggest military power in the world, and she is waving the white flag before the negotiations have started.
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Foreign Trade
Wesley Paul William Streeting (Labour, Centre-left): Membership of the single market and the customs union gives our country barrier-free, tariff-free access to the biggest single market in the world and, through the customs union, more trade deals with other countries across the world than any other leading economy outside those institutions. Why is the Prime Minister therefore determined to pull us out? Is it because she genuinely believes it is the right thing to do, which she did not just a matter of months ago, or is it because she has been taken hostage by the right wing of her party? Once more, another Conservative Prime Minister is not only putting her party political interests before the economic interests of our country but is putting at risk the integrity of the United Kingdom.
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Heidi Alexander (Labour, Centre-left): In the Prime Minister’s desperation to do the UK Independence party’s bidding, she has determined that we will be leaving the single market as well as withdrawing from the European Union. Will she tell me whether there will be stand-alone legislation to repeal the European Economic Area Act 1993, or does she intend to use the EEA as the basis for her transitional implementation period?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Angela Christine Smith (Labour, Centre-left): There has been a lot of emphasis on the trade deal, but the divorce deal is very important, too. At the heart of any divorce deal is a fair financial settlement. What will the Prime Minister do if there is no fair financial settlement at the end of the article 50 period? What will happen then to the divorce deal and our exit from the European Union?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Ian Murray (Labour, Centre-left): When the First Minister announced her drive for a second divisive Scottish independence referendum yesterday, one of her manufactured grievances was the fact that Brexit gives the UK Government an opportunity to muscle in on the powers of the Scottish Parliament. Does the Prime Minister agree that the fundamental overriding principle of any EU repatriated powers should be that they are transferred to the devolved Administrations?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Education
Rupa Asha Huq (Labour, Centre-left): A total of 43% of publications from the UK’s 47 biggest universities come from collaboration with at least one EU firm—it is even higher in London institutions. Did the discussions that the Prime Minister engaged in with her European counterparts touch on any kind of safeguards for our university sector given that level of dependency on European industry? Furthermore, on page 75 of her party’s manifesto, there is a commitment not only to remain in the single market, but to expand it. How is that going?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Clive Stanley Efford (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Prime Minister accept that her intransigence over amendments to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill and her pandering to the Brexit fanatics on her Back Benches, which have diminished the role and sovereignty of this Parliament over the Brexit process, have opened up the door to threatening the future integrity of the UK?
European Council — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Christian John Patrick Matheson (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Prime Minister accept that if we crash out of the European Union with a bad deal or no deal at all, it will be entirely the failing and responsibility of our chief negotiator and her team—the Prime Minister and her Ministers?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Education
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): I believe absolutely that wealth creation is important to give us the resources we need to provide a good education, but is the Secretary of State aware that so many schools have seen cutbacks? We in Huddersfield are the 64th worst-hit area out of 650. We do not feel the affluence she is talking about.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Labor
Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (Labour, Centre-left): On the issue of human capital, does the Secretary of State agree that it is a mistake by the Government to cut the work allowance under universal credit, which will particularly affect women and deny them work opportunities?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Technology
John Mann (Labour, Centre-left): Is it not a fact that under this Government, while the Secretary of State has been in office, we have fallen two places in the research and development international league tables, behind Slovenia and the Czech Republic?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Education
Lucy Maria Powell (Labour, Centre-left): Did you call me Lucy Allan, Madam Deputy Speaker? I am very much a Powell Labour Members very much welcome any attempt to raise the status of technical and vocational education and the esteem in which it is held, something we began during our time in government. Does the Secretary of State agree that it is often a mix or blend of the technical and the academic—in engineering, digital opportunities, the creative industries or even health and social care—that will be important in the global world of the future, and will she assure the House that people will not be separated at the age of 16?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Education
Maria Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): Does the right hon. Lady accept that academic A-levels are one way in which young people can ensure that they get a good start in life, from which they can perhaps go on to great success through our university system? What will the proposals that she is outlining do for young people in Halewood and Knowsley, who have no option in the entire borough for doing academic A-levels and must leave the borough in order to study?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Education
Iain David Wright (Labour, Centre-left): On labour market participation, the Red Book shows that funding for returnships will be £5 million, as opposed to £655 million for extending the free schools programme. Does the Secretary of State think that is an appropriate balance?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Education
Angela Rayner (Labour, Centre-left): It is a pleasure to respond to the Secretary of State, and it is quite right that we have a day in this year’s Budget debate dedicated to education and skills. This Budget comes at a time when Britain has a deep social mobility problem that is getting worse, not better. That problem is the result of an unfair education system, a two-tier labour market, an unbalanced economy and an unaffordable housing market. That is not my accusation, but the conclusion of the Government’s own Social Mobility Commission The commission made a number of policy recommendations, most of which seem to have been ignored. It also made a recommendation against a policy: the Government’s proposals for new grammar schools. Sadly, that recommendation has also been ignored. Instead, the Chancellor used the Budget to announce plans to spend another £320 million on the next tranche of new free schools. The Prime Minister wrote in The Daily Telegraph that that money would provide 70,000 new places, as the Secretary of State reiterated today. That would be the equivalent of £4,571 per pupil, but the Secretary of State will know that her Department’s most recent figures showed that the cash cost of a primary free school place was £21,100 and the cash cost of creating a secondary free school place was £24,600 That huge underfunding is coupled with a slightly curious detail hidden in the back of the Red Book: a further £715 million of capital funding for free schools in the next Parliament. Perhaps the Secretary of State can answer this maths question. If Philip gives Justine £320 million for new free school places, and each school place costs at least £21,000, how many school places will Theresa end up with? I look forward to marking the Government’s homework later.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Education
Angela Rayner (Labour, Centre-left): I will come to the hon. Gentleman’s points about the cost-efficiency of free schools later in my speech Either the Prime Minister has made an announcement without the Chancellor actually funding it, or they are simply disguising yet another eye-watering overspend on their staggeringly inefficient free schools programme and pretending that it is new money for new places. That would not be much of a surprise. The National Audit Office has helpfully reminded the Chancellor and the Secretary of State: "In 2010 the Department estimated that it would cost £900 million by March 2015 to open 315 schools." By March 2015, the Department had spent double that initial budget and not even managed to hit its target for new schools. The NAO found that the Department had already spent around £3.4 billion on the land alone for free schools and it was on course to be Britain’s largest land purchaser, even before this Budget sank yet more money in. The NAO also showed that new places in free schools were far more expensive than those in conventional schools. Will the Minister tell the House and the British people how much money her Department will actually spend on delivering these new free schools, and will she guarantee that they will open in places where there is a clear need for spaces The Chancellor pledged £216 million for every other school over a three-year period, as the Secretary of State mentioned in her speech, but the NAO has found that, as the hon. Member for Southport (John Pugh) said, £6.7 billion is necessary just to return all existing schools to a satisfactory condition. The NAO also found that 85% of schools that applied to the priority schools building programme were rejected in the last round, and that that investment was cheaper than the free schools programme Of course, we know why the Chancellor focused on free schools despite the cost—because it "will enable the creation of new selective free schools." It was the former Education Secretary who said that he had "had enough of experts", but not even he tried to bring back grammar schools, let alone pretend that it was a policy for social mobility.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Education
Angela Rayner (Labour, Centre-left): I am not giving way. Only one in every 25 pupils at a grammar school is eligible for free school meals, while one in every eight pupils at grammar schools previously attended an independent school. Even among the highest-achieving 20% of pupils, those from the most affluent backgrounds are 45% more likely to get into a grammar school than those from the most disadvantaged. Of course, the Government have suggested —again, not to this House, but in leaks to the press—that they intend to take action to change that in existing grammar schools; that has not gone down very well on the Conservative Back Benches. Given that the Government have been happy to jump the gun on the rest of their consultation, perhaps the Secretary of State could be as forthcoming to the House about those plans as she was to the press?