argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Health
William Nigel Paul Cash (Conservative, Centre-right): I simply want to say how glad I am that the Bill has reached its Third Reading and to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) on piloting it through, with the conspicuous help of the Minister and the Government. As I have said before, Ken Lownds and others have also been involved. Over the many years that I have been involved in the Mid Staffordshire situation, Ken Lownds has been a tower of strength, and we are all very grateful to him This is a Bill of national importance on a scale way beyond that of many private Members’ Bills. My hon. Friend deserves congratulations from all parts of the House on bringing it forward. I am glad that the Opposition are giving it a fair wind because it has a truly national purpose. It is in the interests of everybody that we achieve the kind of zero-harm care to which we should aspire I am extremely glad that the Bill will now go to another place, where, as my hon. Friend said, there are many experts who will no doubt say quite a lot about it. There may well be further amendments that will come back to this place. I urge their lordships to have regard to the importance of the Bill and the principles that lie behind it, and to seek amendments in the light of the fact that it is about our constituents. We, as an elected House, know—certainly my hon. Friend and I know—of the hard experience and tragedy that have been experienced by our constituents. Our constituents—the people of this country—deserve to have the improved health care that the Bill will help to achieve After those few words, I simply reiterate my thanks to my hon. Friend.
Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Health
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I follow my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Sir William Cash) in congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) on piloting the Bill so safely through the House. It is not necessarily easy to get private Members’ Bills through—and nor should it be—given the Scylla of the Back-Bench Tories who are not keen on new Bills coming through and the Charybdis of the Opposition, who sometimes suck Bills down to the bottom of the sea. I therefore congratulate him warmly on having achieved it My hon. Friend has done something that rather surprisingly was not done in the first place. The explanatory notes state that clause 1 "has the effect of removing the Secretary of State’s discretion around whether the requirements for registration with CQC should cover safety of care." It is amazing that the Secretary of State had that discretion. Why on earth would anyone want the Secretary of State to be able to think, "It doesn’t really matter if the safety of care is implemented or not. I think on this occasion I won’t bother with it."? How reassuring it is that somebody has had the sense and wisdom to bring forward a Bill to close that extraordinary loophole, drawing on the experiences that are well known, particularly to the Members of Parliament from Staffordshire I take great comfort from what my hon. Friend said about the identifiers not being—to carry on with my Greek mythology—a Trojan horse to bring in an identity card system. It really would have set trouble alight if he had been trying to do that, but it seems perfectly reasonable to have a system that sees efficiently who people are within it and has a consistent form of identifying them. Having a notional go at an identity card system does not seem reasonable, so I am glad that he has stated so clearly that the Bill is not intended to do that. I am sure that their lordships will take careful note of that It is a tremendously important Bill that is being passed today, and one that I am sure that the other place will want to expedite because there is little time left between now and the end of the Session. The Bill will ensure that the primary duty of not doing harm to patients is established in law. As I said, it is extraordinary that it was not there before. I commend my hon. Friend for his discovery of that lacuna and his closing thereof.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Defense
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time This is my third contribution today to the manifesto development of the Conservative party for the next general election, and this Bill was inspired by the Bill of the right hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (Michael Moore) to introduce a target of 0.7% of GDP for international development expenditure. It occurred to me that if the Government are in favour of that Bill, surely they must be in favour of a similar Bill on defence expenditure, in line with the communiqué from the NATO conference in Cardiff and what has been enunciated on numerous occasions by Defence Ministers from both the main parties. If NATO’s policy is that each country in NATO should spend a minimum of 2% of GDP on defence and we support that, why are we not prepared to incorporate it in statute The argument traditionally deployed against such a move is that the Exchequer should not fetter its own discretion, and therefore it would be unreasonable to have various areas of earmarked expenditure. As the Government have abandoned that principle in favour of having earmarked expenditure incorporated within statutory limits, as in the case of overseas aid, why not do the same in respect of defence expenditure? This is a straightforward proposition and, as far as possible, the drafting of this Bill is designed to mirror that in the similar Bill on overseas aid.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Defense
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): Given that it was supposedly so important that we introduced a 0.7% target because it was supposedly an international commitment made in 1970, does my hon. Friend agree that this international commitment on defence made in the 1990s should surely take precedence over the one made in 1970?
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Defense
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a compelling point, and I am sure it will find favour with the Government. If the Minister is going to say that he cannot do this because the Liberal Democrat minority do not support the NATO target, let him say it. In any event, I hope that the Conservative party will have no inhibitions about making clear in its next manifesto its commitment to spending in each year of the next Parliament—when it is the governing party—a minimum of 2% of GDP on defence.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Defense
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): I oppose this Bill. I know where my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr Chope) is coming from, but hypothecating the expenditure of a Department in legislation is economically illiterate. It makes no sense at all, and we cannot right one evil by creating two evils. Although I am strongly in favour of the 2% commitment on defence expenditure, the Treasury must approach the defence budget in the same way as it approaches all other budgets: we decide what we would like to do, we decide what we can afford to do and we live within our means. Whatever our views on international development, I am strongly in favour of spending on humanitarian aid and of many other aspects of our budget. However, while we are going to cut expenditure on Lincolnshire police by £3 million, and we cannot afford to have more than one patrol car operating in my 600 square mile constituency at night, it seems that, because of the growing economy, we can afford to increase international aid development by £1 billion. I cannot believe that that is the right way to run the economy I understand why my hon. Friend has introduced this Bill. He is drawing attention to an appalling hole into which we are digging ourselves. We must get out of it and proclaim the principle that we believe in defence spending, international aid and all the other good things that we want to do, but, as a Government, we must live within our means and spend what we can afford to spend.
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Defense
Mark Gino Francois (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) for allowing me to chip in briefly I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr Chope) on introducing this Bill and on giving us the opportunity to discuss this important subject, albeit rather briefly. He has never been slow in making contributions to the Conservative party’s manifesto development process whether as a Minister or as a Back Bencher, and he has been most industrious in making a contribution today In the limited time available, I wish to point out that, as one of the 12 founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the UK adheres to the principles of its membership. According to NATO’s own figures, we have the second largest defence budget in the alliance, behind the United States, and the largest defence budget in the European Union. Moreover, the defence budget and the defence programme are in balance across the next 10 years. We have the assurance of a stable and well-managed budget, and confidence that defence is both affordable and deliverable, having taken some, at times, extremely difficult decisions to put right the mess that we inherited in the Ministry of Defence from the previous Labour Government The NATO summit in Wales proved a pivotal moment for defence spending and investment. It represented the first ever collective public pledge on defence investment made by NATO allied leaders and was a clear acknowledgement of the challenges we face from the rapidly evolving and diverse potential threats on NATO’s borders and the need to reverse the trend of declining defence budgets to tackle key capability shortfalls. Clearly, living up to the commitments made at the Wales summit on defence investment will be challenging for all allies and progress will take time. For many, even halting the decline will be a significant challenge. Importantly, however, along with reaffirming the continuing and unwavering commitment of allies to NATO as a transatlantic alliance, there is now a willingness and commitment among allies to try to turn around the decline in defence spending, particularly on the part of our European allies The Wales summit was a critical moment for the NATO alliance, coming as it did in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s adventurism in Ukraine, growing instability from the middle east to north Africa and the conclusion of the international security assistance force mission I conclude by pointing out that we still spend 2% of our GDP on defence. We will continue to do that to the end of this Parliament and going into the—
Apprenticeships — House of Commons, 2015-01-08
Topic: Defense
Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles (Conservative, Centre-right): I have the greatest respect for my hon. Friend and am always nervous about implying that his comments are in any way unfair, but the armed forces in fact create more apprenticeships every single year than any other organisation in the country. I want this to be an integral part of the procurement for major infrastructure projects and, to the extent that the MOD is involved in such projects, it will absolutely apply to it, but the MOD is leading the way in creating apprenticeships, and we should pay credit to it for that.
Gibraltar — House of Commons, 2015-01-08
Topic: Defense
James Gerald Douglas Howarth (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is the embodiment of reasonableness—everything he has said about what his Department is doing is couched in terms of reasonableness and accordance with article this, that or the other—but people are fed up with the United Kingdom and our British overseas territory of Gibraltar being treated in a cavalier fashion by a NATO and European ally. We are looking for a bit of retaliation. To be perfectly candid, what he has done has had no effect. He said that we have reduced the number of incursions by 22%, but we need to send the Spanish defence attaché packing back to Madrid.
Gibraltar — House of Commons, 2015-01-08
Topic: Defense
Liam Fox (Conservative, Centre-right): There is another way in which the prosperity of Gibraltar could be further enhanced, and that is if our NATO allies were to use the naval facilities in Gibraltar to an even greater extent. As I pointed out, the United States is one of the few allies that does this, largely because if any other ally even thinks about it inside NATO it comes under huge pressure from Spain, even intimidation and threats. Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to tell our NATO allies that they would be extremely welcome to use the naval facilities in Gibraltar, which would provide not only the alliance with something of a boost, but potentially employment and prosperity as well?
Creative Industries — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight that important point, and I commend his excellent work in taking forward the Rebalancing the Outer Estates Foundation. He will know that the Arts Council supports many regions around the country and helps with that rebalancing effort, but there is always more we can do, and I or the Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy would be happy to meet him to take that issue forward.
Creative Industries — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I referred earlier to a report published this week, which shows strong growth in the creative industries throughout the UK in every region, including Scotland. I encourage the hon. Gentleman to take a look at it. If he has any fresh ideas that he thinks we should look at, I would be happy to speak to him.
Arts Investment — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government have an excellent record of creating new opportunities for investing in the arts and creative industries. Following the success of UK film tax credits, which have generated billions in investment since 2010, we have introduced new tax reliefs for TV, video games, animation and theatres, and continue to invest in skills and innovation.
Arts Investment — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): First, I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s support for what has been achieved in the arts under this Government. He makes a good point. If I remember correctly, he raised recently the issue of social investment tax relief, which can help community arts activities as well as other charitable activities. He had called for an increase in the cap and he will know that the Chancellor announced just that in the last autumn statement. He can see from that that the Government are listening and doing what we can to help community arts.
Arts Investment — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Anne McIntosh (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate the Government on their investment through tax credits and the wonderful boost that that has given to the UK film industry. Will he join me in celebrating the investment made by small cinemas such as the Ritz in Thirsk and the Palace in Malton to bring digital cinema to a wider rural community and giving people a great night out?
Arts Investment — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I support everyone having a great night out and if the Government can help with that, it is a good thing. But seriously Mr Speaker, my hon. Friend is right to point out the support that the Government have provided to the film industry. Just in the last year, the Government have helped support over 300 films made in the UK with expenditure of almost £3 billion across the country, which is a good thing for us all.
Arts and Culture (Funding) — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Edward Vaizey (Conservative, Centre-right): Normal service is now resuming The Government strongly support the fair distribution of funding for culture and arts throughout the country to increase opportunities for access and participation. We recently announced new cultural investment in the north of England. The Arts Council intends to build on its current trend of 60% grant in aid and 70% lottery investment outside London. That will, of course, include Hull, which will become the UK city of culture in 2017.
Arts and Culture (Funding) — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Robert Henry Halfon (Conservative, Centre-right): Is my hon. Friend aware that Harlow is the cultural oasis of the east of England? We have the Gibberd gallery, the beautiful Parndon mill, the Harlow museum and much more besides, and we are also a sculpture town. Will he consider what he can do to support our beautiful town and culture and arts in Harlow?
Museums and Galleries (Funding) — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): This Government have done more than any of their predecessors to cultivate philanthropy and corporate sponsorship in support of our cultural sector. I commend all those individuals, businesses, trusts and foundations that support museums and galleries across the country.
Museums and Galleries (Funding) — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Culture
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. Tax breaks are part of the incentives and the action that the Government can take to encourage more giving. The cultural gift scheme is an example, as is the increase in the annual cap on tax relief that the Government have implemented. We have also simplified the gift aid scheme, but there is always more that we can do. If he has any ideas, I would be happy to listen.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Health
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): There is no doubt that these matters predated devolution. As most colleagues are aware, there is a Scottish inquiry going on. Almost inevitably when it reports, it must report on things that pertain to the United Kingdom Government. I notice that the Secretary of State for Health has joined us, which illustrates the importance of this issue to all of us. He is enormously welcome, especially given the burdens that he carries. The UK dimension of this is indeed very real.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Health
Oliver Heald (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Member for Newport East (Jessica Morden) has explained this tragedy extremely well. I first became aware of the issue in the early 2000s when I was a member of the all-party group on hepatitis C. I would like to pay tribute to the work of Jim Dobbin, whose memorial service it was yesterday. He was a great campaigner on a number of health issues and will be sadly missed I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) on doing a wonderful job to secure the debate, and on working so hard on this issue. A constituent of mine recently told me that attending a meeting chaired by him in the House had left her more reassured than ever that he, and the group of MPs involved, would eventually obtain a decent settlement for all victims and their families I have a very old friend who has haemophilia. He has kept me informed on the issue over many years but is not very well these days. I would like to pay tribute to my constituent Mrs Ward. She campaigns on the issue on behalf of her family, who have been very badly affected by it. It is an issue of compassion; it is an issue for our generation; it is an injustice and a scar on the NHS. It has to be resolved We all feel for the people who are continuing to struggle with the aftermath of this decades-old mistake. The right hon. Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott) made the point that this blight can run down the family for years. Obviously we understand the background of the original lack of understanding and the medical challenge to treat people with haemophilia, not knowing with security that the blood was safe. It is good that Governments have now recognised the extreme harm and the disaster that this was for victims, for which compensation was necessary. The arrangements put in place in 2011 were a major step forward I want to make three points. The first is that the APPG’s excellent report highlights the confusing system for compensation, with the five separate bodies all receiving Department for Health funding. There are two private companies and three registered charities; it is too opaque. I hope Ministers will see whether there is some way of improving the signposting to ensure that people can find their way through it The second point is that even if one understands the funding to which one is entitled, the process of claiming it is difficult, confusing and onerous.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Health
Peter James Bottomley (Conservative, Centre-right): A point put to me is how infuriating and occasionally humiliating it is when, on meeting a new clinician, someone has to go through their whole life history, explaining that they do not drink too much and so forth. There should be some way of flagging up the fact that these people do not need to be asked ordinary clerking questions when their condition is perfectly plain.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Health
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): I entirely agree, and I do not think this is just a question of money. If we attack the Government just in terms of money, we might not succeed in this campaign. It is also a question of learning lessons, and what the victims want above all is some sense of involvement in future schemes. We must learn lessons, and I am sure we are doing so The screening of blood donors was totally inadequate, allowing those with a history of jaundice to donate. Even in response to the rise of AIDS the Government failed to implement the best technology available at the time to render blood products safe. The results of this neglect have been appalling: the infection of over 5,000 haemophiliacs with hepatitis B and C, over 1,000 of whom were also infected with HIV from NHS blood products, resulting in 2,500 deaths. Although there has been compensation in many cases, it has been inadequate—indeed, they would claim it has been miserly. For instance, although there is a one-off payment available for hepatitis stage 1, there is no ongoing payment. All this is plainly unacceptable; I think everybody who has spoken agrees with that. It is also obvious that there must be a suitable scheme for compensation to the victims—not that any monetary amount can repair the damage that has been done The Irish scheme has perhaps not received as much attention as it should have done in this debate so far, and again I am quoting here from the arguments given to me by my constituent. It is not, as I am afraid some of my hon. and right hon. Friends on the Front Bench have suggested, that we want to link the UK compensation payment scheme to that which exists in Ireland. It is worth repeating that campaigners have never expressed a wish to place the Government’s funding of any compensation scheme in Irish hands. For myself, I do not suggest that the compensation should be exactly the same, but the Irish scheme is worth looking at in terms of compassion: it puts compassion first; it accepts liability; and it is substantial enough for the victims to gain closure. So I encourage Ministers to look further into the compensation scheme the Republic of Ireland has established and to see what lessons might be applicable to us here in the UK.