argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Debate on the Address — House of Commons, 2016-05-18
Topic: Macroeconomics
David Henry Rutley (Conservative, Centre-right): The northern powerhouse is not a slogan; it is a clear, strategically thought through narrative for the north and a concept supported on both sides of the House, but we want to take these initiatives further forward. It is not a slogan but a clear set of strategies around devolution, supporting key industries and taking forward infrastructure initiatives. We have taken those forward and that narrative goes far wider and is far better thought through than anything—again, I do not want to be party political but the hon. Gentleman raised the point—proposed under the previous Labour Government. In fact, Peter Mandelson himself said that the Labour party missed a trick on these issues. I think that that is the case. Given, however, that the hon. Gentleman is so keen on the issue, I am sure he will join the Government in helping to take forward these Bills, which will enable us to achieve our ambitions for the north I wish to return briefly to my reasons for siding with the remain campaign. As I said, the choice was finely balanced, but I believe that there will be more opportunities to export if we remain. Export opportunities outside the EU are obviously important and the north-west would be able to realise some of those initiatives and opportunities outside the EU, but let us bear it in mind that more than 50% of the region’s exports go to the EU. We need not only to seek to extend our global reach but to secure and strongly underpin our access to the single market. It is in our economic interest so to do This long-term Government have once again built on their long-term agenda for long-term success. I welcome the Bills in the Queen’s Speech that will consolidate our long-term economic plan, boost productivity, enhance life chances and add fresh momentum to the exciting development of the northern powerhouse. That is why I commend the speech to the House.
Debate on the Address — House of Commons, 2016-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
Stewart Jackson (Conservative, Centre-right): Was my hon. Friend a bit puzzled, as I was, by the rather carping tone of the leader of the Liberal Democrats when he complained that the referendum was all a function of Tory indiscipline and civil war? Am I wrong in remembering a leaflet that came out at the end of the 2000s depicting the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr Clegg) saying that the Liberal Democrats were committed to an in/out EU referendum?
Debate on the Address — House of Commons, 2016-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
Stewart Jackson (Conservative, Centre-right): It is actually worse than that, because although the Government ostensibly support remaining in the European Union, that was on the basis of a comprehensive renegotiation of our relationship with it, which most people agree has not happened. In fact, neither the Conservative party nationally, nor the parliamentary Conservative party, has ever been consulted on whether we should be campaigning as a Government to remain in the European Union.
Debate on the Address — House of Commons, 2016-05-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Stewart Jackson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is making a fine speech, but he tempts me in a way that I cannot resist. He will know that a senior politician in Mexico, which has a population of 120 million, said recently that it would be delighted to enter into a bilateral trade agreement, should Britain leave the European Union. That would help greatly in cementing our relations with Latin America and other countries.
Debate on the Address — House of Commons, 2016-05-18
Topic: International Affairs
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): I am delighted to have that reassurance from my hon. Friend. I just hope that he could offer the same reassurance in respect of the President of the United States and the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I fear that some of those people value us more as a member of the European Union that can get them access to a market of 500 million people than they would if we were outside it. I think we ought to be friendly with all our friends around the world. I respect the arguments that are made about the European Union by my hon. Friends who want to come out, but I have concluded that it is in the interests of my constituents for Britain to remain in and to continue to fight our corner.
Debate on the Address — House of Commons, 2016-05-18
Topic: Government Operations
Stewart Jackson (Conservative, Centre-right): I warmly endorse the hon. Gentleman’s comments, particularly given that, in our system, the Executive are recruited from the legislature. If the number of people in the legislature in the lower House—the elected Chamber—is reduced, the pool from which talent can be taken is reduced. That has an impact when there is also such a large unelected Chamber.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are committed to tackling disadvantage and extending opportunity so that everyone has the chance to realise their full potential. Our life chances approach will focus on tackling the root causes of poverty, such as worklessness, educational attainment and family stability.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
David Anthony Andrew Amess (Conservative, Centre-right): While I welcome my right hon. Friend’s recognition that strong and stable families make an enormous impact on children’s life chances, will he spell out to the House precisely what his Department is doing to ensure that those relationships are fostered and strengthened, particularly in a coastal town such as Southend?
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is exactly right: family stability is a really important part of our mission to tackle entrenched disadvantage. That is why we have doubled funding for relationship support to £70 million and are significantly expanding support for parents. In addition, through our local family offer, we are working with 12 local authorities, including his own in Essex, to learn how best to strengthen the support they offer to families.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right that such inequality is unacceptable in Britain today, and that is why our life chances approach includes a set of statutory and non-statutory indicators that will drive action to tackle the wide range of complex and deep-rooted factors that can trap people in poverty, damaging their health and preventing them from making the most of their lives.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Lucy Allan (Conservative, Centre-right): I would like to thank the Prime Minister for his amazing work on the life chances strategy. I hope that every Member, on both sides of the House, will continue to pursue this aim The troubled families programme has been a huge success, but does the Secretary of State agree that it could more positively be labelled the "supported families" initiative?
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree very much with my hon. Friend’s point about the leadership role that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has played—it has been critical in driving this agenda forward—and I am delighted that the future Prime Minister also shares his commitment. My hon. Friend is also right about the troubled families programme. It is important that we stay positive about the changes and that we do not stigmatise any particular communities, families or households.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): I share the hon. Lady’s passion for helping single parents. The current statistics all demonstrate and underline that when lone parents are supported back into work, they can achieve remarkable things in bringing children in those households out of poverty. The trends are moving in the right direction. She should welcome initiatives such as universal credit and our support for childcare costs.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): I have always been very clear that income levels are important—a regular income is vital for families in difficult circumstances—but it is important that we look beyond that and, for the first time as a nation, start to tackle the underlying root causes of entrenched poverty.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the hon. Lady to her new position on the Front Bench. Given her work in the Select Committee, I am sure she will do an excellent job in the shadow role The 200,000 figure that the hon. Lady mentioned exactly points to what was wrong with the previous relative income approach, which her previous Government took to tackling poverty. When real wages grow, poverty rates increase, despite people’s incomes not falling. It is much more important to tackle the underlying causes of poverty—worklessness, educational failure, family stability, problem debt and addictions.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Chloe Rebecca Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend will know that Norwich is challenged by social mobility as per the social mobility index of earlier this year. Does he agree with me that it takes all parts of the community to come together to address these kind of problems, including the private sector and the third sector, and that constituency MPs can also play a key role in leading these things?
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree absolutely with my hon. Friend. The work she has championed in Norwich is a good example of local action, showing where local MPs can indeed be the champions. Much as we might want to talk about national levels of poverty and social mobility, it is much more important to understand what is going on at a local level and to drive local action with effective partnerships.
Disadvantaged Families and Children: Life Chances — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Education
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government have not said that they are going to scrap attendance allowance. We are looking at options for devolving it to the local authority level, but we have been absolutely clear that this does not mean a cut to supporting attendance allowance. It is about looking at more effective ways of delivering it at the local level to achieve what it is intended to achieve.
UK Pensioners Abroad — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: International Affairs
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (Conservative, Centre-right): As I say, the negotiations proper will begin when we have a new Prime Minister. In the meantime, we have a European unit that has been set up in the Cabinet Office, and it will report to the new Cabinet in due course.
UK Pensioners Abroad — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: International Affairs
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said, the result of the referendum came only some few days ago, but I can assure the hon. Gentleman that detailed conversations are going on in the Cabinet unit. Let me provide him with the further assurance that Britain still remains a member of the EU. I want to reassure British people living in EU countries and those EU citizens who are living in the UK that there will be no immediate changes in their circumstances.
Workplace Pensions: Automatic Enrolment — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
David Mowat (Conservative, Centre-right): Auto-enrolment has met or exceeded all initial targets. However, to maximise pensions in the long term, we need to bear down on charges. Two years ago, the Government put in place a cap of 0.75%, which is half that permitted by the Opposition when they had one for stakeholders. The Government said they would review the level of the cap, with a view to it being lower in future. Will the Minister update us on the status of that review?
Workplace Pensions: Automatic Enrolment — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (Conservative, Centre-right): We are working very closely with the Pensions Regulator to ensure the whole programme of auto-enrolment is easily understood, in particular for self-employed people and those who have one or two employees, so that the rules are in very clear easy-to-use language on the website and in offline literature and any other offline facilities.
State Pension Age: Transitional Protection for Women — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Questions: If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (Conservative, Centre-right): Transitional arrangements are already in place. We committed over £1 billion to lessen the impact of the changes for those worst affected, so that no one will see their pension age change by more than 18 months compared with the previous timetable. We have no plans for further changes.
State Pension Age: Transitional Protection for Women — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Questions: If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady refers to notice. At the time of the Pensions Act 2011, more than 5 million affected people did receive notification. That was done using the addresses Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs then had. As far as the proposals are concerned, they all, regrettably, cost a huge amount of money. We therefore have no plans to go down that route.
State Pension Age: Transitional Protection for Women — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Questions: If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (Conservative, Centre-right): I assure the hon. Lady that, under the coalition Government and the present Government, we have record levels of employment for women, including older women. That is something to bear in mind. We are working extensively with employers to ensure they appreciate the value of older workers, which they do. That is why we have record levels of employment, particularly for women.
State Pension Age: Transitional Protection for Women — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Questions: If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Geoffrey Robert Clifton-Brown (Conservative, Centre-right): I suspect that most hon. Members have been acquainted with difficult cases like the one mentioned by the hon. Lady. Will my hon. Friend the Minister keep an open mind on pension credit arrangements for these people? They are, after all, means-tested and could deal with the worst hardship cases.
State Pension Age: Transitional Protection for Women — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Questions: If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (Conservative, Centre-right): I remind the House that in 2012 the DWP conducted a survey and found that only 6% of women who were due to retire within the next 10 years were unaware of an increase in the pension age. As I said earlier, the Government have no plans to review the matter.
State Pension Age: Transitional Protection for Women — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Questions: If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; If he will make it his policy to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (Conservative, Centre-right): I find it deeply regrettable that Opposition parties seek to make capital at the Dispatch Box, and indeed from the Back Benches, when they do not have a solid proposal. They cannot provide a proper, credible solution that will ensure that the financial position of the country is taken into account. I might add that if the Opposition parties are so keen on this issue, they should bear in mind that although the Pensions Act came into being in 2011, the issue was not raised in any of their manifestos.
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: International Affairs
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): The British people have voted to leave the European Union, and the referendum decision must be respected and delivered. My Department is working closely with the EU unit that has been set up in the Cabinet Office, and we will be working with the next Prime Minister and the rest of the Cabinet as we forge a new path for the country.
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: International Affairs
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that one of the most important policy developments is the fact that, once we have left the EU, decisions by his Department relating to eligibility for benefits will no longer be at risk of being overturned by the European Court of Justice?
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Macroeconomics
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): It is important that none of us talks up the risks and dangers to the economy. We need to be clear-sighted about the risks and challenges, but we should not be doing anything at the moment to talk down the British economy. The truth is that our economy is fundamentally strong: we have record numbers of people in work and, as we have seen from the announcement by Boeing today, continued investment in creating new jobs in our economy.
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): Nothing fundamentally has changed since the outcome of the referendum: the economy continues to perform well and, as I said, we need to be careful that we do not do our bit in talking down the economy at the moment. I agree with the hon. Lady that there is a very real systemic issue with DB pension schemes that we need to look at, and my Department will be discussing it further in the months ahead.
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Macroeconomics
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): One thing that we do know has happened is the fall in the pound. That has resulted in making our exports much cheaper and imports more expensive. Employers have already said that that will lead to more business and jobs. Does the Minister agree that that would be helpful to him in reducing the number of unemployed?
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Macroeconomics
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): The truth is that right in front of us now, since the outcome of the referendum, we have a mixture of opportunities and challenges. It is incumbent upon us to turn those challenges into opportunities, and we are determined as a Government to do so. If the Opposition want to do their bit, they can stand up and not talk down the British economy at this time.
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): On previous occasions I have set out the broad approach I take to welfare reform. With regard to issues in Scotland, with which I know the hon. Lady is primarily concerned, she should be aware that I had a very constructive meeting last week with her colleague Angela Constance, the welfare Minister in the Scottish Parliament. We remain absolutely committed to giving the Scottish Government the new welfare powers agreed to in the Scotland Act 2016.
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): Any big project, whether it is the introduction of universal credit or the roll-out of PIP, carries substantial risks, and I think the IPA report recognised that fact. In the past four months, since I have been in the Department, I have been committed to driving through improvements to the PIP process. PIP still commands broad support across disability organisations, which recognise that it is a much better benefit than the old-style disability living allowance.
Policy Implications of Leaving the EU — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): The Department has clear plans in place for any significant increase in unemployment, whether in a particular local region or right across the UK. We have contingency plans for dealing with up-ticks in unemployment. However, we need to be really careful that we do not exaggerate the bad news that the hon. Lady might think is out there. There are opportunities for this country in terms of trade deals and of securing new investment, such as the investment from Boeing that was announced today. There are also serious risks and challenges, and we need to be clear-sighted and prepared for those.
Workless Households — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
James Michael Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): In Rhyl and district, the number of people requiring support through the Work programme for the long-term unemployed has dropped from 400 to 150 over the past 18 months. That is good news, but jobseeker’s allowance and employment and support allowance claimant rates in parts of Rhyl remain concerning, and the Work programme delivery company has recently closed its principal office in the town. Can the Minister assure me that the new Work and Health programme will take particular account of individuals who are less receptive to intervention and who need more intensive input?
Workless Households — House of Commons, 2016-07-11
Topic: Labor
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. The new Work and Health programme is being designed precisely to help those people who face multiple and complex barriers to getting into work. Beyond that, our upcoming Green Paper will look at the additional ways in which we can reduce the disability employment gap in the longer term. Of course, GPs play a key role in supporting those people, and I look forward to meeting my hon. Friend and his GP colleagues to discuss these important issues further.