argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Transportation
James McMahon (Labour, Centre-left): Transport operators have been devastated by covid, and it will take some time for them to recover to strength. The Government have stepped in to underwrite all the revenue risk of rail franchise operators, despite shareholder dividends being in the region of £1.7 billion since 2011. There was a sense that we needed to keep rail going, and that that was the right intervention, but the Government have gone further, paying out operators’ profits on top of that, with even more to come. Yet here in the nation’s capital, our essential transport workers, who are working hard to keep the city going, are routinely deployed to attack the Mayor of London. Why are the Government content to underwrite all revenue risk and bail out foreign Government shareholders, but not back the people of this country?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Transportation
James McMahon (Labour, Centre-left): Whether it is Sadiq Khan in London or Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, the Government are systematically drawing political fire at those who dare to speak out. Let us be very clear: it was the Prime Minister, when he left City Hall, who handed back the subsidy and left a £1.1 billion deficit, and it was Sadiq Khan who reduced it by 71%. Will the Government right this wrong and match the intervention for rail franchises across all operations, including TfL, or have they gone from the poll tax to the polling day tax, where they deliberately seek out anybody who dares to vote for a Labour Mayor?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Transportation
Questions: Under the cover of covid, the Department has been pushing councils to bypass normal procedures in order to rush in anti-car road-blocking measures. Two fine examples are on the dual carriageway in Smethwick, Tollhouse Way, and in London on the route to the M40 at Park Lane. These are creating traffic jams, longer journey times, and increasing pollution. When is the Secretary of State going to get a grip on this situation and get our roads moving again?
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Secretary of State confirm, because it is an important matter of fact that he has so far not acknowledged this morning, that before coronavirus, Transport for London’s debts had been reduced by 71% from the level the Mayor inherited from the Prime Minister, his predecessor? Will he also confirm that the Government’s instruction to people in March to stay at home and not to use public transport resulted in a collapse of more than 90% of Transport for London’s revenue? Will he stop playing politics with London’s transport system and work with the Mayor of London to keep it going?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Transportation
Questions: Under the cover of covid, the Department has been pushing councils to bypass normal procedures in order to rush in anti-car road-blocking measures. Two fine examples are on the dual carriageway in Smethwick, Tollhouse Way, and in London on the route to the M40 at Park Lane. These are creating traffic jams, longer journey times, and increasing pollution. When is the Secretary of State going to get a grip on this situation and get our roads moving again?
Taiwo Owatemi (Labour, Centre-left): My constituents in the more rural parts of Coventry North West often have to contend with bus services that are late and routes that are routinely missed out, made worse by the fact that they have to contend with being unable to board buses due to a lack of capacity. I am proud of the fact that the bus drivers are doing all that they can to ensure that social distancing measures are in place. However, will the Government commit to increasing bus services so that my constituents who use them, many of whom are essential workers, can safely get from one place to another without worrying about being late or being unable to enter the bus?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Macroeconomics
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): It seems the Chancellor’s much-vaunted winter economic plan has not even lasted the autumn. His tinkering with the system demonstrates that he has been behind the curve all along, and it has sowed hardship and confusion. Why is the support he offered in March not being replicated as the virus comes back and we are suffering a second wave in October? Why is he trying to achieve local lockdowns on the cheap?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Macroeconomics
Gerald Jones (Labour, Centre-left): From tomorrow, Wales will begin a 17-day firebreak lockdown to help to control the spread of the virus. During that period, there will be two support schemes from the Treasury as one ends and another one starts. The First Minister of Wales has asked the Chancellor to allow Welsh businesses to access the job support scheme a week early. He has refused, so a further request has been made to ease the rules on furlough for one week to allow people to get that support. We need to ensure that bureaucracy is reduced to allow Welsh businesses to protect jobs, so will the Chancellor be flexible, and what support, specifically, will he give to Welsh businesses?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Macroeconomics
Alexander James Jorden Norris (Labour, Centre-left): I understand that at half-past 4 today a Government Minister will meet local leaders in Nottingham to put us into the third tier. We had to find that out through the media, because local Members of Parliament have not been invited, which is saddening. If measures need to be taken to protect the health and wellbeing of our community, we will of course support them, but they will have a profound impact on our local economy. If Nottingham moves into tier 3 this afternoon, what package of support will the Chancellor put in place to protect our jobs and businesses?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Macroeconomics
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): I am not going to quibble; I think all of this is good and I am delighted that it is being announced today. However, I just want to say to the Chancellor that some of the measures he has announced apply across the whole of the UK and some apply only in England. That provides a lot of confusion for a lot of ordinary people out in the country who do not watch what we are doing in here every day and do not follow every element of the minutiae. Will he clarify precisely how much of the money he is announcing today is really new money to be spent in England through local authorities on the new business grants in tier 2 areas? How much extra money—I do not want to know about the earlier £14 billion for the devolved nations—because of Barnett consequentials is now coming to Wales?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Macroeconomics
Naseem Akhtar Shah (Labour, Centre-left): I do not need to tell the Chancellor about the way we are going, with the economy plunging further into a crisis. The biggest thing that businesses in my constituency tell me is that uncertainty is their biggest enemy. We have now been under extra restrictions for more than 150 days. If we go into tier 3, and given that the Chancellor does not want a planned circuit breaker, what support will he give to businesses in my constituency of Bradford West? Importantly, how long should they be prepared for uncertainty?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Labor
Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (Labour, Centre-left): Twenty-three OECD countries had job subsidy schemes in place for a major event such as a pandemic, but unfortunately, the UK was not one of them. The Government’s piecemeal approach to the pandemic is leading many of my constituents to ask why we were so poorly prepared for it in every single way. In Oldham East and Saddleworth, unemployment has nearly doubled since March. We know now that across the country nearly 300,000 people were not eligible for social security support. A third of those people were disabled and one in 10 were from the north-west. How many low-income workers covered by this new financial package will be excluded from social security support to top up their wages?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Nicholas Desmond John Smith (Labour, Centre-left): In March, the Government increased the basic allowances for both universal credit and working tax credit by £20 a week, but that uplift is only temporary; it will expire next April. Does the Chancellor accept that, after what we all expect to be a tough winter ahead, that will mean taking nearly £1,000 a year away from those families who really need it?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Labor
Stephanie Louise Peacock (Labour, Centre-left): In the past six months, the number of people forced to claim unemployment benefit in Barnsley has doubled. If the Chancellor is saying that livelihoods have to be balanced against lives, should the people of Barnsley expect unemployment to rise, the death rate to rise, or both?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Government Operations
Anthony Joseph Lloyd (Labour, Centre-left): The Chancellor will recognise that, although the tier system is only a few weeks old, Greater Manchester has been de facto in tier 2 for three months, before moving into tier 3 this week. The Chancellor told the House, in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford West (Naz Shah), that these grants will now be retrospective. Can he be absolutely clear: will the grants for Greater Manchester go back to the beginning of our period of de facto tier 2 and not simply to when the Government introduced the more formal, legalistic tier 2?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Transportation
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): One hundred and nine coach companies have gone bust, with 7,100 people made redundant, which is one sixth of the entire coach industry. Coach companies tell me that one reason for that is that they fall between gaps in support, being classified as neither tourism nor essential travel. Please will the Chancellor look urgently into what specific support can be given to the coach industry? Will the relevant Minister meet me and representatives of the sector to discuss their concerns?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Labor
Richard Burgon (Labour, Centre-left): When I previously asked the Chancellor about furloughed workers having to survive on less than the minimum wage, his callous response was that they would be "able to work elsewhere", yet minimum wage workers in very high virus areas whose workplaces have been forced to shut will now have to live off just two thirds of the minimum wage. That is just £5.81 per hour—the minimum wage level of 11 years ago. Will the Chancellor introduce a wage floor so no such worker has to live off less than the minimum wage?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Macroeconomics
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): I was critical of the Chancellor on Tuesday, so I want to thank him for listening and acting on one of the key asks of all Greater Manchester MPs, of all the council leaders in our city region and, yes, of our Mayor, Andy Burnham, too. It was that our businesses and supply chains should be supported in tier 2, because we have had 12 weeks of these measures with no help and no support, and many really are struggling as we tip into a stricter tier 3. For some it will be too late, but I thank him for making this retrospective. How soon will these funds be released, because it is pressing, and what calculation has he made of the 12-week entitlement for Greater Manchester businesses?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Labor
Stella Judith Creasy (Labour, Centre-left): The Chancellor says that he has been talking to the people who are worried about their livelihoods and the businesses facing redundancy, so he will know that those redundancies are falling particularly heavily on mums. We know from the data produced by the Office for National Statistics last month that 79% of the increase in redundancies has come from women, and we know that it is mums who are losing their jobs, but his Department is sitting on £1.7 billion of unspent tax-free childcare funding. Will he use that money to ensure that our childcare sector can support every parent who wants to get back to work and to stop the tsunami of unemployment that we are about to face?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Labor
Clive Stanley Efford (Labour, Centre-left): There is no change in this announcement for people who are self-employed. A constituent of mine has contacted me. Back in March, she was assessed as earning too much to qualify for any assistance. Her income has now been revised down, but there is no way for her to appeal that original decision. This is no way to treat self-employed people. Can the Chancellor go away and look at these people who have fallen through the net?
Covid-19: Economy Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Law and Crime
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): I have to notify the House, in accordance with the Royal Assent Act 1967, that Her Majesty has signified her Royal Assent to the following Acts: Sentencing Act 2020 Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Act 2020 In order to allow the safe exit of hon. Members participating in this item of business and the safe arrival of those participating in the next, I suspend the House for a few minutes.
Covid-19: Disparate Impact — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (Labour, Centre-left): Covid is the disease of poverty. The evidence clearly shows that there is a higher prevalence of, and mortality from, the disease in areas of high deprivation. In addition to people from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups being at risk of covid, disabled people accounted for nearly 60% of all deaths between March and July. They are more likely to live in poverty than non-disabled people, and also accounted for a third of the 300,000 people who were not eligible for social security support in the spring. I understand that the Equality and Human Rights Commission is examining discrimination of disabled people during covid, but what are the Government doing to protect disabled people’s lives and livelihoods in the second wave?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Lyn Carol Brown (Labour, Centre-left): In West Ham, we had the highest number of people furloughed in the country—almost 30,000. All of those people and so many more who are self-employed are potentially at risk of real economic hardship, and we simply do not know how many more will lose their work over the coming winter. The scope for damage to our already deprived and very vulnerable communities in Newham is vast As we know, there are differences in economies across the country. In my constituency, many parents work two or three jobs to pay their rent and their living costs. Let me tell Members quickly what it is like in Newham. The lowest quartile of private rent is higher than the lowest quartile of earnings. A month’s wages does not even cover the rent on its own. In many cases, if parents lose one source of income they will be under threat of homelessness and it will immediately mean cutting back on the things that children need and that parents want to provide, such as food, clothes, shoes for the winter, internet access and books. In this wealthy country of ours, losing that second or third job will leave parents with no choice but to cut back on food—first for themselves and then for their children. We know that when parents are pushed into poverty, the impacts can be lifelong on their children’s health, education and opportunity Last week, the End Child Poverty coalition estimated that almost 20,000 children were in poverty in West Ham alone—20,000 children! That is more than half the children in our local schools, and those numbers are from before the pandemic began. We have 20,000 children living in poverty in just one constituency. I worry about how bad this is going to get even if the Chancellor does not follow through with his threat to cut universal credit next year, and I hope to God he does not Around 575 school days have been lost since March. Only 8% of children with special educational needs and disabilities or under the protection of a social worker attended school during lockdown—8%! How can schools or local authorities identify the children who are at risk of abuse or neglect when they are not being seen? Self-isolation for covid is a really quick excuse that can be used for everything. Our services need to find new ways to proactively check children at risk and they need the resources to enable them to do that In my area, county lines see gangs grooming children with life-destroying consequences. This problem is now even more acute, because normally extended absences from schools are one of the clear signs that a child is being exploited to run drugs and put at risk of seeing and doing things that no young person should see or do. If preventative support is not given, it will create more damage in our communities and more costs for the public purse in the future, but most of all it will kill the hopes and the dreams of the children and the parents in deprived communities, cause much pain and waste so, so much potential.
Down Syndrome Awareness Month — House of Commons, 2020-10-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): I appreciate that this is a really sensitive topic, but we know that coming into the world is a real challenge for somebody with Down’s syndrome. Will the Minister go away and look again at the conversations that are had with parents who are diagnosed in pregnancy with somebody with Down’s syndrome and see how we can change that conversation, so that people can understand the positivity of bringing up a child and raising someone into adulthood with Down’s syndrome?
Further Education: Public Transport and Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Transportation
Navendu Prabhat Mishra (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Minister accept that the Government have a responsibility to ensure that local authorities have the funds available to operate low-cost travel schemes, such as the System One scheme in Greater Manchester? Does she agree that it is unacceptable for the Treasury to simply devolve cuts, which will ultimately have an impact on young people?
Home Learning: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Education
Siobhain Ann McDonagh (Labour, Centre-left): What estimate he has made of the number of school children that did not have access to (a) a laptop or (b) another device to facilitate home learning when schools were closed during the covid-19 lockdown.
Home Learning: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Education
Siobhain Ann McDonagh (Labour, Centre-left): But from 22 October schools will be required to provide remote education to those pupils isolating because of coronavirus. Ofcom estimates that up to 1.78 million children in the UK have no access to a laptop, desktop or tablet at home, and this policy will fail them. With less than two weeks until the changes, how can the education of those children be guaranteed? Is it not time to ensure that every child entitled to a free school meal is provided with internet access and an adequate device at home?
Online Learning: Universities and Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Education
Richard Burgon (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State should have seen the new analysis today that shows that infection rates on university campuses are up to seven times higher than those in surrounding areas. There are fears that this will spread the virus to higher-risk groups in the local community. The Government should have moved teaching online before term started, as the University and College Union recommended. Will the Minister accept the Government’s error in not doing so and instruct universities to move to online learning as the default? Or will she and the Government continue to play Russian roulette with the lives of students, staff and local communities?
Online Learning: Universities and Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Education
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): In the Education Select Committee sitting last Tuesday, the Minister was unable to answer how many students are self-isolating and therefore totally reliant on accessing digital and online learning. She was also unable to answer how many students have covid-19; how we will ensure that tests are available to students; when the two-week late "imminent" guidance, with robust frequently asked questions on students returning home for Christmas, will be published; or even how many students are currently learning only online. What impact does the Minister think her Government’s incompetence and inability to answer basic questions about covid-19 in our universities is having on the spread of the virus in university towns and cities?
Children with SEND: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Education
Victoria Jane Foxcroft (Labour, Centre-left): I asked the Education Secretary on 2 July and again on 7 September about support for children with SEND during the covid-19 catch-up. He said that he would write to me, but that letter has not been forthcoming. I ask again: what assisted technology is being offered as part of the distribution of laptops and tablets to enable pupils to work from home if needed? Will the Minister provide an answer this time or will I have to do this again next month?
Schools: Covid-19 Costs — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Education
Eleanor Claire Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): Headteachers in my constituency tell me they are having to invest significantly in extra cleaning procedures and safety measures, as well as extra staff to cover periods of self-isolation. Further, many schools have also lost reliable income streams from hiring out spaces and fundraising events. Even before covid-19, school budgets were already stretched after years of cuts. With the pandemic set to continue, will the Minister commit today to extra funds for schools in the months to come?
Schools: Covid-19 Costs — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Education
Margaret Greenwood (Labour, Centre-left): Last week, the Schools Minister told me, as he has just alluded to, that schools have already submitted claims for £148 million for help with the extra covid-related costs they faced between March and July. As he just said, the Government have so far paid £58 million to schools for help during that period. Why is it that the Government accept that schools needed that additional help with covid costs earlier in the year, but are now ignoring pleas from headteachers for the resources they need for covid-related costs from September onwards? When will the Government recognise the significant extra costs of supply teachers required when staff self-isolate?
Religious Education: Maintained Schools — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Education
Janet Jessica Daby (Labour, Centre-left): Religious education helps children to grow up with an understanding of and respect for people from different religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It is also a statutory requirement, but the Religious Education Council tells me that 40% of all schools give no hours to RE in year 11. Does the Minister agree that the Department needs to better support schools to ensure that they are meeting their obligations to teach RE?