argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): I compliment the Business Secretary on one thing at least, and that is the title of this Bill. Just listen to how it sounds when you say it aloud, Madam Deputy Speaker: the Enterprise Bill. It sounds important, dynamic, even exciting. To me, that is the title of a Bill that should be heralding a huge change in how we do business in this country. In time, it ought to be one of those Acts of Parliament that historians will look back on and describe as the most important of the age. After all, it is clear that the world is now on the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution, and if we are not ready for the wave coming toward us, we will miss it. I want us to take advantage of what will be an age of rapidly advancing digitalisation, and an age of robotics and big data that is expected to transform our lives out of all recognition—and to do so much more quickly than we might expect. It will be an age that confronts us with profound questions about how to generate and share prosperity and fight for a fairer outcome for everyone in our society As the first industrial nation, we need to react to that challenge if we are to mould it to our advantage. To guarantee our future prosperity and to earn our way in this rapidly changing and competitive world, we must be ready to seize the opportunities. So, do we have a Government who realise the importance of change and transformation at this particular time and who are willing to legislate accordingly for a more active, enabling and agile state? Do we have a Government who will rise to the challenge? On the basis of the contents of the Bill, we do not. We cannot fault their high-flying rhetoric, however. According to the Government, the Bill is meant to be about creating an open, enterprising economy, transforming Britain’s business culture. It is supposed to "reward entrepreneurship, generate jobs and higher wages for all, and offer people opportunity at every stage of their lives" In the other place, Baroness Brady even claimed it was "an exciting attempt" to improve the business ecosystem. All I can say is that she gets excited pretty easily. We have before us a Bill that has been variously described in the other place as a curate’s egg, a hotch-potch of minor measures, a legislative herbaceous border, a dog’s breakfast and even "a big legal pudding made up of all sorts of ingredients".—[Official Report, House of Lords, 12 October 2015; Vol. 765, c. 43.] The last was from someone who supported the Bill We have a hugely ambitious title hiding a collection of worthy but minor and underwhelming measures that it is hard for anyone to oppose in principle—that is, in the Bill as written, although we have heard about new things that might change our minds. What we do not have is a piece of legislation that remotely meets the challenges that we know are ahead. We do not even have a Bill that matches the ambition of the Government’s own rhetoric.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): I am saying what we will do. We support this part of the Bill, because it makes a minor extension that just restores the intention of the original Act There are many modest measures in the Bill with which we agree; indeed, the Government resisted many of them during the passage of the Deregulation Act 2015, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 in the previous Parliament, and we welcome the fact that the Government appear to have come round and accepted them now However, there are a number of measures in the Bill with which we are not in agreement.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Mixed Topics
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): Well, we are waiting for the Government to come forward with more detail about how the apprenticeship levy will work. The hon. Gentleman loves being in meetings. He told us that earlier in the day. He was waxing lyrical about how excited he was being in vast numbers of meetings every day. He made even the most banal meetings sound fantastically interesting. I am glad that he enjoys his job. The Opposition would certainly be more than happy to embroil him in even more meetings.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Other
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): Once it gets around that the hon. Gentleman is so free with his diary, I am sure he will be very, very busy I would like to speak about a number of areas in what Lord Patten has called this "pudding" of a Bill.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): No, I do not, but I think the hon. and learned Lady should read the Government’s own impact assessment. The provision on the small business commissioner that the Bill proposes is so minor that the Government’s own impact assessment says that they will be able to deal with only 500 cases a year, and yet we know that late payment is a huge issue. I am not saying that the issue of late payments is trivial; I am saying that in dealing with it, the Government’s response is far too limited and very disappointing.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): As a former small business owner, I entirely endorse what my hon. Friend says. The problem with the Government’s proposal is not that they are attempting to tackle late payments but that it is an utterly inadequate attempt to tackle one of the great scourges of all business, but particularly small businesses—late payments.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): I could not agree more with my hon. Friend’s words Part 1—clauses 1 to 13—deals with the small business commissioner, so let me come on to the Opposition’s view on this. In the previous Parliament, Labour argued for the establishment of a small business administration that would be specifically tailored to focus on the very specific needs of small businesses.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): No, because I have given way to the hon. and learned Lady This Bill contains a much more modest aim in seeking to establish a small business commissioner to assist in late payment disputes and signpost advice services for small businesses. The Opposition will support this, but we are disappointed by its small scale and its very limited remit. Indeed, the small business commissioner’s budget is to be a modest £1.3 million a year, and only because of an Opposition amendment accepted in the Lords will the commissioner be independent and able to appoint their own staff. Moreover, the Government intended to allow the role to be abolished by ministerial order without parliamentary scrutiny—a situation that was changed by another Lords amendment. We support the idea of a small business commissioner, but it remains to be seen whether such a modest proposal can really counter the huge imbalances of market power that exist, especially between huge companies and their much smaller suppliers. I certainly wish the new commissioner, whoever they are to be, well in the work ahead, not least because figures showing that the amount owed to small and medium-sized enterprises in outstanding invoices has increased by more than 70% in two years and that almost a third of small businesses are expecting things to get worse this year.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Mixed Topics
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): No. I have given way to the hon. and learned Lady and I do not intend to do so again, because I am getting on to other aspects of the Bill Part 4—clauses 20 and 21—deals with apprenticeships. This Government are presiding over what employers have described as a "skills emergency", and productivity in the economy continues to be revised down year by year. The Bill contains welcome measures that aim to strengthen the quality of apprenticeships and to give statutory protection to the term itself. Labour Members have consistently supported the drive to deliver more high quality apprenticeships, but we worry about imposing an arbitrary numerical target, not least because it could militate against high-value, high-quality provision. We note that the Bill gives Ministers the power to set targets for apprenticeships in the public sector but is silent on how these targets will be met when the round of savage public sector cost-cutting continues unabated and FE provision is being decimated Clauses 30 to 32, in part 7, deal with the UK Green Investment Bank. The bank has only just been established and the Government are now seeking to flog it off—or, as I think the Secretary of State said, "set it free". In the light of the Paris climate conference, where Governments, investors and businesses across the world agreed to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, it is absolutely extraordinary that he has allowed the Chancellor to sell off the bank, setting back efforts to build a greener low-carbon economy.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Housing
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): My view is that the Chancellor should have allowed the Green Investment Bank time to establish itself and certainly not have considered virtually privatising it as soon as it was established. The hon. Lady will know that we are now in a tussle to see whether we can preserve the focus of the bank on sustainable development and a low-carbon economy. That is where the battle has been raging in the other place as the Bill went through its stages there Even more extraordinarily, under the Bill as introduced in the Lords, there was a real risk that the bank’s focus on green investment would be completely destroyed. Fortunately my Labour colleagues in the Lords were able to come up with a formula that safeguards its green focus even if it is sold, but we have heard today from the Secretary of State that their amendment is going to be removed. I promise him that in Committee we will look very closely at what he intends to replace it with and whether it actually does the job of safeguarding the bank’s green focus. We will also focus, in a non-green way, on ensuring that the proposals that the Government come up with are fit for purpose Clauses 33 and 34, also in part 7, deal with pubs reform. In January, when it was clear that there was a majority in the Lords for ensuring a fairer deal for the landlords of tied pubs, Ministers forestalled a vote that they would have certainly lost by promising to legislate for a fair market rent only option. Their promise was taken in good faith, but they then abandoned their previous commitment, causing uproar in the other place. If it is possible to believe that the other place is capable of uproar, this particular event caused it. Yet another U-turn was inevitable, and it was duly announced, much to the relief of us all. The Government must stick to the promises they made to pub tenants and stop dragging their feet. They should legislate on the promises they have made. It is clear that a rent assessment and a market rent only option at rent renewal are the bare minimum that would be required to make good on those promises. This would create a fairer system for pub tenants and pub companies, and it has widespread support from businesses and beer drinkers alike. Again, we will take a close look at what the Government come forward with in Committee Clause 35, in part 8, deals with public sector exit payments. Labour Members are concerned that this measure will have unintended consequences.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): The right hon. Gentleman raises precisely the kind of case that has no doubt been raised with other hon. Members in all parts of the House. The only thing he missed was his own Secretary of State calling everyone who worked in the public sector, presumably including his constituent who would be affected by this cap, a fat cat. We will wish to give the provision particular scrutiny in Committee I turn to a subject which is not currently on the face of the Bill, but on which the Secretary of State has chosen to make announcements today. It is important that the Government publish their Sunday trading consultation response, along with all submissions. I was rather hoping that it might turn up while we were speaking today so that we could look at it before we vote on Second Reading. The Government must publish it in full and immediately, and tell us what form amendments to the Bill or new clauses relating to the deregulation of Sunday trading will take We all await all the details, but it is deplorable that at this late stage in the Bill’s passage through Parliament— after the Bill has gone through the House of Lords—the Government have seen fit to introduce these changes.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Other
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend will be aware that a huge number of Members are not present in the Chamber. They may well have read the Bill and may be coming at 7 o’clock to vote on it. We know that a number of Government Members feel very strongly that, for Christian reasons, they do not wish to support further extensions to Sunday trading. They may well unwittingly vote for the Bill, not knowing what has been announced from the Government Dispatch Box.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Other
Catherine McKinnell (Labour, Centre-left): I apologise for interrupting my hon. Friend’s flow. Does she share my concern that the Government’s approach appears to be either underhand or incompetent? Will she seek reassurance from the Government that it is neither of those?
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): The Government have spoken. They keep acting as though we know what the changes are, when we do not. They have chosen not to give us any warning that they were going to be in the Bill, not even a private tip-off, so we have to react completely in the dark. Other than what was said from the Dispatch Box, we have no idea what will be in the Bill. [Interruption.] The Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise chunters away from the Front Bench, saying that these changes are minor, but we do not know whether they are minor until she publishes them and we read them. If she would like to publish them now, we can have a five-minute break, go out and read them and check whether she is telling us the truth.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): Given how busy publicans are, they do not want to spend their time at the adjudicator. They want to be serving punters and getting on with running their business. What does the hon. Gentleman think it says about the way the industry is currently working if the setting up of an adjudicator creates the likelihood that it will be swamped because all those publicans are so unhappy?
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): I start by drawing the attention of the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests Whenever I hear the Secretary of State speak, I am struck by the fact that I am listening to someone who appears to believe that Government do not work very well, and that business always knows better than Government. Indeed, he has set out to prove that by bringing to us a Bill that does not even contain its most contentious element. I am very concerned about the Sunday trading legislation, both because the Government are heading in the wrong direction and because this is a really important democratic matter The hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate (Mr Burrowes) —he has not been with us today—is very passionately against any extension of Sunday trading. Having read all the briefings and the Bill, he may very well walk into the Lobby at 7 o’clock in support of the Bill, without realising that he is actually supporting an extension of Sunday trading, as he would have heard had he been in the Chamber. He may very well be contacted by people who had previously been in touch with him, saying, "Why did you vote for Sunday trading?" He would reply that he did not know that he was doing so. How the Government are dealing with Sunday trading is an important democratic matter.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Melanie Onn (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend agree that the current Sunday trading laws represent a great British compromise? They allow retailers to trade, customers to shop and staff to work, while Sunday remains a special day, permitting shop workers to spend time with their family.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): I absolutely agree. We had long and very passionate debates about that during the last Parliament, particularly in the run-up to the Olympics, when the Government made what they said at the time was a short-term change to the Sunday trading legislation I have an interest in this matter in that my son works at Morrisons and is often there on a Sunday. One thing that will happen—I have had very few representations in favour of this—is that the supermarkets, finding that the others are opening, will have to start to open. That will not add any extra business, but it will extend or spread out the shopping week. It will mean that people have to work very late on Sundays, and people wanting to work during the week will find there are fewer shifts available during the week. No more business will be created; it will just be spread over a longer period. The period after 4 o’clock on a Sunday is vital to the convenience store sector, which is under incredible pressure.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): I am very concerned about that and I think that we need to inspect it. We want to encourage investment into the industry, but it is wrong if publicans are being told that an investment that was basically just to tidy the place up means that they no longer have the MRO option In summary, the Bill will do very little harm but will not do anything like the amount of good it could do. We have an opportunity to make it a Bill that is transformational for small businesses by ending the scourge of late payments, having a regulatory framework that really supports British businesses, and ensuring that publicans are supported and that small businesses have a fair opportunity to compete. At the moment, the Government are missing that opportunity. I hope that they put that right.
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): There is talk of substantial investment, but a substantial level of investment by a city-centre pub will be far greater than a substantial level of investment by a small pub on a street corner. Is it clear what the Government mean by substantial investment?
Enterprise Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Other
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Minister is spending time talking about provisions that no one but her has seen, because they are not in the Bill. How can that be in order?
Real-time Credit Scoring — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Christopher James Evans (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you for calling me to speak, Madam Deputy Speaker; it is a pleasure. I have been in this House for six years in May, and this is the first time I have ever been granted an end-of-day Adjournment debate I am delighted to have the opportunity to debate the topic of real-time credit scoring. For me, this is a very important issue, especially in the wake of several financial scandals over the years. The financial crash of 2008 proved one thing—that banking needs reform Whenever I think of banking, I think of the need for reform. Most people who use banks will want to borrow money and, unfortunately, personal lending and personal loans are the last area to be considered for reform by the Government Real-time credit scoring makes complete sense. The term describes the sharing of data from the credit reference agencies in real time or as close to real time as possible. This requires sufficiently up-to-date and complete relevant data from all the banks and financial institutions. People expect choice in any walk of life. It is what our system is based on. In the market for personal loans, the choice is too narrow and too clearly focused on the banks. Real-time credit scoring would shake up the market and bring about real change for consumers and banks The Financial Conduct Authority is looking at the issue. The case for regulation to enable data sharing to happen safely and effectively is compelling. If consumers could ask their banks to share real-time data about their account with a prospective lender, lenders could assess affordability more accurately, meaning that they could make more capital available to consumers with lower risk, thereby driving down cost.
Real-time Credit Scoring — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Christopher James Evans (Labour, Centre-left): I will develop that argument further. The hon. Gentleman identifies the nub of the problem—the delay in credit scoring needs to be addressed. That is common sense and I hope the Government will grasp the nettle.
Real-time Credit Scoring — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Yvonne Helen Fovargue (Labour, Centre-left): I congratulate my hon. Friend on obtaining this debate. Does he agree that it is not just consumers who would benefit, but new entrants to the market who are lending for the medium term would be able to come in without having to buy two databases: the payday loan database, which operates in real time, and the other database that operates for banks and other financial institutions, which is at least a month behind?
Real-time Credit Scoring — House of Commons, 2016-02-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Christopher James Evans (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend speaks with some expertise. I pay tribute to the amount of work she has done on payday lending and raising the issues associated with it. She is right. The real problem is that the banks have a stranglehold on lending. They jealously guard their data and they are suspicious of the Data Protection Act. They therefore keep out of the market major competitors who could bring down interest rates, which is what we all want to see.
Criminal Legal Aid — House of Commons, 2016-01-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Conor Patrick McGinn (Labour, Centre-left): The Saudi prison contracts, the secure college, the book ban, the outsourcing of the collection of fines by courts, the criminal courts charge, and now two-tier, the latest in the long line of U-turns by the Justice Secretary on measures taken by his predecessor. If he is looking for his next U-turn, may I suggest he looks at the repeal of the Human Rights Act—and, of course, the closure of the court in St Helens?
Closure of St Paul’s Place BIS Office (Sheffield) — House of Commons, 2016-01-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Louise Margaret Haigh (Labour, Centre-left): (Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State if he will make a statement on the announcement by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills online yesterday morning that it is to close its St Paul’s Place site in Sheffield, which houses 250 jobs, and relocate them all to central London.