argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Bill — House of Lords, 2021-04-16
Topic: Health
Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, like the previous speaker the noble Lord, Lord Addington, I very much support this Bill The idea of cosmetic Botox and fillers for under-18s fills me with absolute horror; that horror has been magnified by the debate so far. I speak as a grandparent of five beautiful granddaughters who are adventurous and will grow up to experiment. These kinds of procedures used to be the preserve of those of us who are care-worn and ageing but, with social media, everything has changed. There is a very strong case for early action. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Wyld on her first Bill and her clear introduction. I also congratulate Laura Trott MP in the other place—another emerging talent. They have done really well to secure government support, as my noble friend Lord Lansley said. I look forward to his Bill Noble Lords will know that I am always concerned about enforcement. I am glad to see that the Bill uses the powers in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which I had the pleasure of putting on the statute book when I was a Minister. There are parallels with tattoos and sunbeds. I have faith in local authorities as enforcers of such regulations and in stopping bad practice as such practices go underground, although I always fear that their funding is inadequate I am disappointed that no impact assessment is available, but then this is not a government Bill. I have heard that one has been made; perhaps I could have a copy. I would, however, ask my noble friend the Minister or my noble friend Lady Wyld where the new costs are likely to fall and on whom. I assume that operators will lose some of their ill-gotten gains and that there will be a cost in understanding the new requirements, in training and in identifying under-18s accurately I know that there was also some concern in the other place that the Bill did not respect the common commencement dates for regulations of 1 April and 1 October. I valued these conventions as a former operator across many regulatory areas when I was in retail—though not in Botox, I hasten to add. They allow for proper preparation and training. However, it is for the Government to set the commencement date under Clause 6, so they may be willing to support that policy I wish the Bill a speedy passage so that it is not lost in the forthcoming Prorogation of Parliament before the new Queen’s Speech.
Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Bill — House of Lords, 2021-04-16
Topic: Health
Rachel Trixie Anne Gardner (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I welcome this legislation. The growth in social media, instant likes and dislikes as regards body image, and peer pressure to improve a false perception of not being body perfect, all add up to pressure on children these days, so this has not come too soon. My concern, however, is whether the Bill goes far enough. The effect of the proposals is to ban anyone not qualified to use such fillers and toxins, the consequences of which I completely agree can be extreme. But I cannot help but wonder why, other than in medically justified cases, under-18s need this work done at all The noble Lord, Lord Addington, made a very good speech, and the comment on botched jobs doubling last year should give us real cause for concern. Should the legislation not provide a blanket ban, and then allow for limited exceptions, such as in cases of disfigurement after an accident, a birth defect or similar, for any such work to be carried out on a child?
Ministerial Code — House of Lords, 2021-04-27
Topic: Health
Sheila Masters (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that while Westminster and the mainstream media are getting excited about things such as the decoration of the Prime Minister’s flat and who said what to whom in texts, away from the Westminster bubble, people are much more interested in getting their vaccinations, getting back together with their families and friends and getting the recovery of the economy under way?
Ministerial Code — House of Lords, 2021-04-27
Topic: Health
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): I do agree with my noble friend. The Prime Minister, in denying one of the more absurd allegations, made the same point. If I am allowed a personal comment: I have the privilege of having my second vaccination tomorrow thanks to a modern miracle of science. We should all be profoundly grateful for that and the way it has been carried through in this country.
Overseas Development Assistance: Budget — House of Lords, 2021-04-27
Topic: Health
Tariq Ahmad (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, on the final point, the challenges of the last year have of course quite severely impacted the fight against not just malaria but other diseases. That is why the Government have stood firm in our support of multilateral organisations and initiatives such as Gavi and CEPI. We continue to invest in research and development on malaria specifically; as I am sure the noble Baroness will acknowledge, that was primarily responsible for the world’s first antimalarial drug, which has saved more than 1 million lives. However, I fully accept that the challenges to programmes are severe—I do not shy away from that. We will work with organisations and countries to see how we can manage the impact of the cuts being made.
UK Musicians: EU Visa Arrangements — House of Lords, 2021-01-20
Topic: Culture
Diana Barran (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord for his questions. I do not think the red lines were between DCMS and the Home Office; I think they were between the UK and the EU. We proposed a tailored deal for musicians and other cultural professionals and the EU did not accept it. On the correspondence and the discussions, my noble friend the Minister for Digital and Culture said yesterday in the other place that she would talk to BEIS and Home Office colleagues with a view to publishing the details of those discussions. On the noble Lord’s final point, we are consulting extensively with the sector to understand what it needs to be able to thrive once we emerge from the pandemic.
Ballymurphy Inquest Findings — House of Lords, 2021-05-17
Topic: Defense
Jonathan Caine (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, having met the Ballymurphy families a number of times, I commend their dignity and tenacity and express the genuine hope that the coroner’s conclusions, which are clear, provide them with some comfort. On the past, given that the Stormont House agreement, which I helped to negotiate, is now nearly six and a half years old and that its legacy sections have yet to be implemented, is it not right that we look at possible alternative approaches that protect those who served and provide better outcomes for victims and survivors of terrorism? Finally, does my noble friend agree that, while we do not defend the reputation of the British Army by defending the indefensible, as in this case, the vast majority of those who served did so with courage, professionalism and restraint and all of us owe them and the RUC a huge debt?
Ballymurphy Inquest Findings — House of Lords, 2021-05-17
Topic: Defense
Andrew Robathan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I know Ballymurphy rather better than I would wish. The Statement says that the Army made terrible errors. The 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment showed itself to be out of control and without any proper discipline, both in Ballymurphy and a few months later in Londonderry, on Bloody Sunday. I was 20 at the time, a probationary officer at university. I could have told you that then. Now it is 50 years ago—the same distance away as the Boer War was when I was born. This is tragic, but it is time to move on from this terrible, shameful disgrace, and from the many hundreds of murders committed by terrorists. For instance, we will not be able to convict Gerry Adams for his involvement in the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, a mother of 10, or those responsible for many other victims—police, Army and civilians—of the IRA and loyalist terrorist groups. Is it not now time to draw a line in the sand?
Medicines and Medical Devices Bill — House of Lords, 2021-02-02
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I do not intend to repeat much of what I said at Third Reading. Many thanks to the noble Lords who have contributed to the changing shape of the Bill. From Committee to ping-pong, we have listened, heard proposals for change and brought workable, practicable compromises forward I wish to repeat the remarks made by the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton. She congratulated all of us on the effective communication that has made it possible to make considered progress on this Bill, despite all the challenges that Covid-19 has presented us with. This a very fair assessment; I agree with it completely. From the report of my noble friend Lady Cumberlege to the demonstrated expertise of our medicines regulator, the MHRA, we have seen the importance of patient safety, clinical trials, our life sciences sector and effective regulation bear out in our hospitals, clinical trials and patient community I look forward to the debates ahead of us on the regulations that will be made under the Bill. They will be important, as we set forward on our course for the best possible regulatory regime for the UK, with the patient at its heart.
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I can assure the noble and right reverend Lord that PHE will be employing existing surveillance systems and enhanced follow-up of cases to monitor how effective the vaccine is in protecting against a range of outcomes, including infections, symptomatic disease, hospitalisations, mortality and onward transmission. I can assure him that that work is in progress, but I cannot give him a timescale. He will understand that we will need time to gather sufficient data to get a clear picture, but he is right that it will be critical.
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very happy to raise those issues with both the Department of Health and the Treasury. I am sure that my noble friend Lord Bethell in particular will be able to keep the noble Baroness updated on discussions.
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
David John Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I congratulate the Government on being way ahead of the curve in vaccinating more people in this country than the whole of Europe combined—and thank God we did not sign up to the EU procurement racket. Does my noble friend agree that a jab in the arm is not rocket science and does not need experts to do it? Tens of thousands of people self-inject daily, and all we had was a two-minute teach-in from a nurse and that worked. Can we call on every able-bodied volunteer, not just retired medics and professionals and the military, cut out the NHS’s idiotic 21 forms to fill in, and run those vaccination centres 24/7? The public want to pile in to help. Let us encourage them to do it and put no obstacles in their way.
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the right reverend Prelate—and, of course, all the people from all the different faith communities who are working so hard to help with the difficult situation we find ourselves in. He is absolutely right: the noble Lord, Lord Boateng, raised some very important points, and we all need to come together to encourage people to take up the vaccine, and to deal with some of the myths and worries that people have. Trusted local community leaders such as faith leaders can really help to do that. We want to try to get everyone involved, so that we can get to the light at the end of the tunnel and, we hope, beat this thing once and for all.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation and Linked Households) (England) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Michael Morris (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am in isolation due to a contact of mine testing positive. I want to ask six questions. First, are all the Nightingale hospitals now being actively used? Secondly, have Her Majesty’s Government solved the problem with the 25,000 former nurses and doctors who have volunteered their services? Thirdly, as a politician, I am mystified how we can organise a general election involving more than 33 million people voting in five weeks, yet we are having difficulty organising in seven weeks sufficient jabs for 14 million people Fourthly, in a pandemic, is there any question of anyone at PHE, the MHRA or anybody else involved in the distribution of this vital jab not working on Sundays? Having done overnight work when I was in commerce, I suggest that people should work overnight if necessary Fifthly, will all GP practices be starting this Monday, 11 January, as mine is? Can we be reassured that all will have supplies in time for Monday morning? That is, they will need supplies tomorrow, on Friday Lastly, I take a particular interest in care homes, which have done a wonderful job, often on their own. They are now saying that care home staff should be treated the same as NHS staff and allowed to take LFD tests at home, rather than fixing them into their working week. I am most grateful to my noble friend on the Front Bench for the huge effort he has put into this whole programme.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation and Linked Households) (England) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Mark Lancaster (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, hindsight is a wonderful thing and used wisely I am sure that, with a careful, detailed, objective review, there is much that we will learn from the Government’s handling of this crisis that will better prepare us for future pandemics. My concern, though, is that the knowledge that hindsight brings seems to be currently used only for attacks on a Government trying to deal with a pandemic in unprecedented times. I have no doubt that the Government have made their mistakes, but I do not believe that a different set of Ministers would have dealt with the situation radically differently The Government’s strategy of trying to keep the balance between protecting the NHS and minimising the impact on the economy and the nation’s physical and mental health is a challenge beyond all others. There are two areas where I hope we will learn specific lessons and have an agreed framework for the future. Both relate to the fact that any graduated or full lockdown will work only with the support, understanding and, crucially, consent of the population The first must be to get an agreed and consistent approach among the four nations of the United Kingdom. Of course I understand the principle of devolved government, but the fact is that differing rules sow confusion and ultimately a distrust of a scientific approach. That is surely to nobody’s advantage The second lies in the use of local authority boundaries as tier boundaries. While simple, this has caused enormous challenges in some parts of the country. I live in Gosport, where my wife Caroline Dinenage is Member of Parliament. Her constituency is part Gosport Borough, part Fareham, and was initially split in half between tier 2 and tier 4. This meant that it was fine to have social gatherings on one side of the road but literally not the other. That was impossible to explain to constituents and undermined public confidence in the system Boundaries must be drawn somewhere but surely not, where possible, through centres of population. I suggest to the Minister that, if preventing the NHS being overwhelmed is the main objective, perhaps a tiering system based on catchment areas to principal hospitals using postcodes would be an equally simple but more logical approach.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation and Linked Households) (England) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Daniel Moylan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, we all look forward to a rapid vaccination of the population and a swift return to normality. But, as the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, said, Covid is likely to remain endemic for many decades to come. That means that improved drugs, care and treatment are necessary, with a view to driving down mortality rates even further than our excellent medical professionals have managed so far The British RECOVERY programme—RECOVERY as an acronym—is the world’s largest randomised Covid drugs trial. It has given us dexamethasone as the first drug clinically proven to help reduce deaths from Covid, and it has shown that other drugs thought likely to be useful have had little measurable effect. Results from further trials are likely to come through in coming weeks When I raised this topic recently in your Lordships’ House, my noble friend the Minister was generous in saying that the Government saw the importance of better treatment and were investing in it. May I urge him now—amid all the other pressures that he faces—to ensure that government heft and resource go with redoubled effect into supporting the development of new treatments, and to undertake to roll successful drugs out rapidly, even if, by contrast with dexamethasone, they cannot be procured for pennies?
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation and Linked Households) (England) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Alexander Randall (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, we should be in no doubt about the seriousness of the current situation, so I have no hesitation in supporting these regulations while recognising the grave impact that they will cause for many—financially, physically and mentally. Undoubtedly, lockdown fatigue is pervading the nation, so I commend the Government, and in particular the Prime Minister, for doing whatever is possible to emphasise the gravity of the current situation I am afraid that there is still a small minority of our fellow citizens who either unwittingly or deliberately consider that they do not have to conform to these regulations. However, I commend the innate common sense of the majority of our fellow citizens, who are doing what they can, at sometimes considerable personal cost, to try to curb the spread of this pernicious virus and the new variants that we are seeing. I also echo the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, that each of us in this House should consider whether attending the Chamber is absolutely essential Many groups deserve our gratitude for working beyond the call of duty. I particularly mention the many teachers, such as my eldest son, who are working in a very difficult environment and whose only concern is the education and welfare of their students. They have not been found wanting in these difficult days I pay tribute, too, to all those who continue to find innovative ways to keep their businesses afloat as best they can. For example, Balcony Shirts, garment printers in Uxbridge, is once again producing T-shirts and hoodies for those schooling at home with the logo "Home School Class of 2021". This proved very popular during the last national lockdown with parents and pupils alike—it was a real morale-booster for many. It is also giving a sizeable proportion of the price to the charity Shelter. That is just one of many examples of the invention born of this pandemic Let us earnestly hope that if we all do the right thing we may lift these restrictions before 31 March, but we owe it to ourselves and our fellow citizens not to drop our guard until then.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation and Linked Households) (England) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Nicholas Bourne (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I thank our NHS and care home staff, who are now in the eye of this storm, for all that they do. I agree with other noble Lords about testing at ports and points of entry. Look at the experiences of Australia and New Zealand. It is extraordinary that we have not done this already. I also agree with the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, about the wearing of masks. We must err far closer to clamping down on this disease and further away from freedom in this regard, and do so very quickly Vaccinations are obviously key to all this, and I agree with others who pointed to the experience of Israel. If there is no shortage of supply, and I would encourage the Minister to make clear that there is not, why are we not making more progress than we are currently seeing? We certainly need to use community pharmacists and we should be welcoming volunteers, not making it more difficult for them with some of the extraordinary red tape in the training and questions about deradicalisation and so on. It is monstrous and makes no sense at all I hope that the Minister can provide some clarity, disregard his script and tell us why we are not having night clinics and why we are not working at inoculating every day of every week and using every conceivable site for inoculation now? That is what we must do. The nation is crying out for progress on this joint endeavour, standing ready to help in every conceivable way. The Government really need to step up the programme of vaccination, to do so at pace, and to do so now.
Covid-19: Educational Settings — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the noble Lord for mentioning vaccination, because I forgot to outline the position. We are following independent experts from the JCVI in distributing the vaccine first to those who are most clinically at risk of hospitalisation and death. The single biggest factor, as I am sure noble Lords are aware, is age. I understand that the Prime Minister might be talking about the progress of the vaccination at this very moment. In relation to reopening schools, the testing being rolled out and consideration of the vaccine are very much on the department’s mind. I am due to meet the Independent Schools Council later this month. From previous discussions, I know that it is closely linked to Ofqual and I am sure it will be involved in responding to the consultation on exams. We recognise the concerns and views being expressed by Members on the priority that should be given to vaccinating school staff.
Covid-19: Update — House of Lords, 2021-04-20
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend is right: the people of Leicester have done a terrific job at getting the rate down. It was once 571 per 100,000, and on 15 April it was 74 per 100,000. This is a huge achievement, but I am afraid that behind that lie some concerns. Nationally, we are at 26 per 100,000, but 23 local authorities have cases above 50, and Leicester is one of them. In some areas of the country, the virus is proving extremely resilient. That is partly due to the deprivation referred to by the right reverend Prelate and the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, and partly due to the cultural and practical habits of those involved. We are working really hard to try to address those knotty problems, and I welcome the civic engagement of all who live there.
Educational Settings: Reopening — House of Lords, 2021-01-27
Topic: Health
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I pay tribute to the work of staff and parents who are home schooling, particularly those who still have to go to work but are not critical workers and therefore do not have a school place for their children. The JCVI is currently considering the vaccination of essential workers. This is unusual timing, in that the Prime Minister is due to make a Statement in about 15 minutes in the other place on Covid. I draw the noble Lord’s attention to that.