argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Homelessness — House of Commons, 2018-02-27
Topic: Housing
Heather Kay Wheeler (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I won’t It is important that in allocating this funding we measure the effectiveness of our investment. To do that the Department, with the support of external partners, will be undertaking and publishing a range of evaluations of the different schemes we fund. More broadly, the Department, along with the DWP, will be undertaking new research into the drivers that cause homelessness and rough sleeping. That will enable us to better assess the impacts of Government intervention and inform future policymaking in this area We all know that money alone is not the answer. We need to be searching for new solutions to entrenched problems. This is why just last week I was proud to sign The Homelessness (Review Procedure etc.) Regulations 2018, which enact key provisions in the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 from 3 April 2018. I am sure Members will agree that the Act is a transformative piece of legislation that significantly reforms England’s homelessness legislation. Placing duties on local authorities to intervene at earlier stages is a key preventive step to reduce homelessness in local areas We are keen to ensure local housing authorities are equipped to deliver these changes. Last week, we launched our new "Homelessness Code of Guidance", a comprehensive guide for local authorities on how to exercise new functions introduced by the Act, alongside existing statutory responsibilities. Of course, we have already agreed £72.7 million of new burdens funding, payable to all councils over the spending review period, and a commitment to review this going forward. I am exceptionally proud of the work that has gone into delivering these changes—the work of the Department and of my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) before me—and as ever, I remain grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for all his endeavours However, there is clearly more to do. As we prepare for the Act to come into force in spring, I am now chairing regular meetings of the new rough sleeping advisory panel that will feed into the Government taskforce on rough sleeping and homelessness, which is meeting next week. The advisory panel, which includes the Finnish Government adviser, Peter Fredriksson, is made up of leading experts in the field, who will share knowledge, expertise and experience to support me in the production of a rough sleeping strategy, which I can confirm, will be reported in July this year I look forward to the months of work ahead and with pleasure to the opportunities to update the House. I therefore commend the estimates in the name of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to be supported in the votes.
Department for Transport — House of Commons, 2018-02-27
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I thank the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) for giving the House a perfect example of keeping exactly to time. However, as the House will be aware, a great many people wish to speak this afternoon, so we now need to have a formal time limit of five minutes, which might well have to be reduced.
Department for Transport — House of Commons, 2018-02-27
Topic: Other
Huw William Merriman (Conservative, Centre-right): Is the hon. Gentleman aware that a letter of clarification was issued in November, which, if it holds true, will solve all the issues caused by Mr Fidler’s letter in July? The danger is that there is still a consultation, so who knows where it could end up?
Removal of Royal Mail Postal Collection — House of Commons, 2018-02-27
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her—I use this term in a non-pejorative sense—attempted point of order, and I am grateful to her for giving me advance notice. The reality, colleagues, is that the orderly conduct of business in a Public Bill Committee is a matter not for the Chair in this Chamber, but for the Chair in that Committee. I do not disregard or seek to rebut what the hon. Lady says about the logical course of events that could flow were this to be a regular practice, but nothing she has said leads me to believe that anything disorderly took place. It may well have been extremely vexing, and perhaps even a source of considerable consternation to the hon. Lady and others, but that is not the same as saying that anything disorderly took place. I have every confidence that the right hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan), who I understand chaired the proceedings, would have ensured that that was so The Committee took a decision to adjourn its proceedings to another day, and the hon. Lady opposed that decision and found herself, in the process, in a minority. I venture to suggest—again, I do so non-pejoratively—that this is not the first time that that has happened. Conceivably, it might not even be the last. The hon. Lady’s brow is furrowed, and what I mean by that is that this will not be the only occasion on which she has voted in a particular direction and found herself outnumbered. It is quite a commonplace experience if one is in opposition. It may be that the hon. Lady’s concerns about the conduct of proceedings in the Committee on the Bill can be assuaged during their course. If not, I do not doubt that she will find her salvation during her contributions on Report, which I have to say I await myself with keen anticipation. I think we must leave the matter there for now. If the hon. Lady was in pursuit of an immediate resolution of her grievance, that might have been optimistic. This is the best that I can offer her at this stage We come now to the Adjournment, for which the hon. Member for Charnwood (Edward Argar) has been so patiently waiting.
Eating Disorders Awareness Week — House of Commons, 2018-02-27
Topic: Other
Jacqueline Doyle-Price (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood (Edward Argar) on initiating an extremely important and timely debate. I commend the sincerity and passion with which he has made his case. He has given me quite a long "to do" list, and I suspect that I shall have to come back to him, given the lateness of the hour You and I have attended many Adjournment debates together, Mr Deputy Speaker, and it is nice to see so many fellow Members here.
LGBT People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The UK Government directly challenge other Governments who criminalise homosexuality. We support LGBT people through tackling exclusion and violence against them and through increasing their access to services. LGBT inclusion is one of the eight priority areas in DFID’s new UK Aid Connect programme.
LGBT People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): There are several things that we can do to address those issues, one of which is to strengthen the voice of those organisations that highlight abuse and discrimination. The UK Aid Connect programme will do that. It will provide funding to civil society groups to help us to understand what is happening in particular locations and what is needed to address the issues.
LGBT People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman should not be disheartened: we will still raise the issue. It is a strand of work that is going on. In addition to the UK Aid Connect programme that I have just outlined, I relaunched the DFID LGBT network at the start of the history week. Strengthening the support that our staff have to raise these issues—including staff who are LGBT themselves and who are required to work in-country—is vital to furthering this agenda.
Internally Displaced People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The UK is committed to meeting the needs of displaced populations, including internally displaced people. We are providing multi-year funding to support IDPs and the communities that host them through both humanitarian and longer term development programmes.
Internally Displaced People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for raising this matter. IDPs due to conflict and violence outnumber refugees by two to one, but they have not received the focus or been given the profile that they need. In addition to the compacts that the hon. Lady mentioned, there are moves to set up a new panel looking at the particular and unique needs of IDPs, and the Department for International Development will support that.
Internally Displaced People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Pauline Elizabeth Latham (Conservative, Centre-right): Internally displaced people are some of the most vulnerable people in the world, and we have heard a lot recently about charities that are abusing those people. Has my right hon. Friend seen The Daily Telegraph today? It talks about the BBC World Service’s charitable arm, where sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour, which is totally wrong in this field, has happened under the watch of the director of news.
Internally Displaced People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to point out that one reason why we must be good on safeguarding and not dismiss such issues is to protect those individuals. The BBC did not report those incidents to us at the time, but my letter of two weeks ago prompted it to come forward with that information. That is a good thing, and we need to grip the problem and deliver for vulnerable people around the world.
Internally Displaced People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): On behalf of Parliament, I concur with the Secretary of State. The situation is absolutely disgraceful, and this matter will be raised by the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) later on in our proceedings.
Internally Displaced People — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): We have a huge number of programmes that are supporting those people in particular—not just the short-term needs of shelter, food and so forth, but education, jobs and livelihoods. Those individuals have some unique needs that have not been addressed to date with as much focus by the international community, and the setting up of a panel to consider those needs and what more we can do to help in similar situations will be a big step forward.
Refugee Families — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I regularly discuss refugee issues with Cabinet colleagues, including the Home Secretary, and with Home Office officials. We have committed to resettling 20,000 refugees fleeing the Syria conflict, and 3,000 vulnerable children and their families by 2020 from the middle east and north Africa, and we provide lifesaving aid, education and jobs to millions of refugees globally.
Refugee Families — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): Obviously, the mandate resettlement scheme allows for that to happen, and there is no quota or cap on that. If we can improve things, I am always open to that on any issue, but I hope we can manage to do these things without primary legislation.
Refugee Families — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): It is loud in the Chamber, but I think the hon. Gentleman asked why children are not allowed to be joined by their parents. There are some solid technical reasons why we think that would be a bad idea, but I am looking into ways for us to get good things to happen. For example, the current Rohingya crisis has some barriers to good things happening in terms of identifying people and so forth, and we are working with the Home Office to address those issues. If the hon. Gentleman has suggestions, I would be happy to hear them.
Refugee Families — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming Refugee Action’s new Stand Up For Asylum campaign, which is launched today? It reminds us of the importance of providing a safe haven for those in genuine need.
Refugee Families — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for drawing attention to that campaign, which I welcome and look forward to reading about. We should be proud of the asylum system that we have, which protects individuals from around the world.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): On 20 February, I informed the House that I had asked all UK charities that receive UK aid to give me assurances on the safeguarding and reporting of historical cases by Monday last. I have received 161 responses, which my officials are now analysing, with independent oversight, and we have shared returns with the Charity Commission Unbelievably, a number of organisations have not replied. We are following up, but without compelling justification they will have lost our confidence and we will consider whether it is right to continue their funding. I will share my key findings, trends and themes in response to the safeguarding summit that will be held with the Charity Commission on 5 March, and I will keep the House informed.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: It is Rare Disease Day and we have been singing outside Westminster tube station to raise awareness. What is the Department doing to make sure that those who suffer rare diseases in developing countries are not left behind?; Some 90% of the plastic that enters our oceans is carried by just 10 rivers in Africa and Asia. What are the Government doing to help some of the poorest countries in the world to tackle this global problem?; I do not usually get that reception. The South Sudanese Government are preventing effective non-governmental organisations such as Christian Aid from providing aid to those who desperately need it in South Sudan. What more can be done to put pressure on that Government to allow such charities the access that they need?
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend deserves tribute for the way in which she raises this issue. In the 70th year since the United Nations’ universal declaration of human rights, it is a scandal that almost three quarters of the world’s population live in countries that restrict religious freedom. We do a lot in this area. Although we do not fix the percentage, it is important to respond to that need.
Engagements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Immigration
Questions: I believe in a global Britain and I want us to trade freely with the world, so can my right hon. Friend explain the difference between a customs union and a customs arrangement, as there seems to be some confusion?
Theresa Mary May (Conservative, Centre-right): As the right hon. Gentleman might have noticed from the last set of immigration figures, we actually still see more people coming into the UK from the European Union than are leaving the UK and going back to the European Union. We do have a care about the number of nurses and GPs that we have in the NHS. That is why we have set the highest levels of numbers of people in training for both nurses and GPs. It is why we have significantly increased the opportunities not just for people who are coming from the European Union to work in our national health service but for those people here in this country who want to work in our NHS to get those training places and do the excellent job that we know they will do for patients in our national health service.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Very well, but—[Interruption.] Order. I will be the judge of these matters; I require no assistance. The right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry) is always willing to help and I am grateful to her for that gratis voluntary offer of services, but I feel able to cope without them. The Minister will have a suitable period of time to respond, and the shadow Foreign Secretary can now add one brief sentence.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Forgive me: I do not wish to be discourteous to the shadow Foreign Secretary, and certainly not to the Minister either, but, by the way, the Minister for the Cabinet Office is not a Minister of State; he is a member of the Cabinet.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The entire Government are committed to there being no border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, or between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Both those elements were central to the December joint report, and they are both firm commitments of the entire United Kingdom Cabinet and the Government. The hon. Gentleman’s strictures about the Government’s approach to jobs and employment stand somewhat in contrast to the reality, which is that employment is at a record high in the United Kingdom at the moment and unemployment is at a 40-year low.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale (Conservative, Centre-right): Has my right hon. Friend seen the report prepared by the European Parliament’s policy department for citizens’ rights and constitutional affairs, which concludes that a technical solution allowing free movement of persons under a common travel arrangement and a low-friction border for the movement of goods will be possible, and that there is no reason why we should not start to implement that straight away?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree wholeheartedly with what my right hon. Friend says. His emphasis on all three strands is correct. It is important that there should be no cherry-picking between the different elements of the December joint report, and it is important that we should try to approach these matters in the calm, pragmatic way that he urges.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. This exchange is eliding into a debate, which it should not be. It is supposed to be a question and answer session, and I am getting enthusiastic nods of assent from the Minister for the Cabinet Office. I exhort colleagues to resist the temptation to orate. What is required is not oration, but inquiry, which will now be brilliantly and pithily exemplified by Lady Hermon.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on not being provoked by the ridiculous statements coming from the European Union on this subject. I commend to my right hon. Friend the wise words of the right hon. Member for Belfast North (Nigel Dodds), because they show that we can have a border with regulatory divergence, as there is at the moment. Why can that not continue into the future?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The right hon. Gentleman served in the coalition Government, so he knows that Government business involves Ministers writing and conversing with each other all the time. The Government’s policy is the policy that has been collectively agreed by the Cabinet, and that is what the Prime Minister and I have set out this afternoon.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
Antoinette Geraldine Sherratt (Sandbach) (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Minister’s commitment to the joint report. Will he confirm that it is Her Majesty’s Government’s intention to stick by the agreements that were outlined in paragraphs 49 and 50 of the report and that there is no intention to renege on any part of them?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Before the Minister for the Cabinet Office replies, I advise the House of what I have been advised: namely, that the Prime Minister will make a statement on Brexit policy in this Chamber on Monday. That is extremely welcome I should just say, in the name of the intelligibility of our proceedings to people who are not Members of the House, that the decision as to whether to grant an urgent question is a matter for me as Speaker—two have been granted today because I judged that they warranted the attention of the House—but, as colleagues also know and others might not, the matter of whom the Government field to respond to a question is a matter for the Government. That is the situation.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I always welcome parliamentary consensus where it can be built, but if the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) looks at the Prime Minister’s record of being here, giving statements after her main European meetings and answering questions at length, he should agree that it is a pretty good one.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said, we are at the start of a process of negotiation, not the end of it. I do not think the Prime Minister could have been clearer. No Prime Minister of any party who has served up until now, including my right hon. Friend, would countenance an agreement that led to a customs border between one part of the United Kingdom and another.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): That is precisely why this matter needs to be set within the overall arrangements. I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman will have noted the endorsement in the joint report of the continuation of the common travel area between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and the fact that that commitment was reflected in today’s draft text from the Commission.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The mechanism is that which is set out in the joint report and in the Government’s various speeches and publications over the past 12 months, the latest of which the Prime Minister will deliver this Friday.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Other
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The policy of the Government is the policy that has been agreed by the Cabinet, set out in our agreement to the joint report last December and expressed in the speeches that the Prime Minister has given throughout the past 12 months.