argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee — House of Lords, 2020-11-16
Topic: Culture
Stephen Parkinson (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, first, I thank the noble Lord and the noble Baroness for their warm and enthusiastic welcome for the Statement and the announcement in it, and for the cross-party support they have given to the Government’s plans. It is not surprising but it is very welcome, and a fitting tribute to the unifying figure who is Her Majesty the Queen, as we come together to prepare to celebrate this milestone jubilee As the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter, said, the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 was indeed a very happy time. I remember it fondly although damply, having watched the Thames river pageant from a very rainy Southwark Bridge. We all hope for better weather this time around, although there was something distinctly British about it. They are right to point to its combination in that year with the London Olympics, which led to a truly special year for the United Kingdom. We want 2022 to be a landmark year as well. As the noble Lord said, we will also be seeing the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham that summer and we have Festival UK, which we will be celebrating throughout that year. We want 2022 to be a truly historic year to remember, celebrating all the things that make our nation so great. The noble Lord and the noble Baroness mentioned institutions such as our National Health Service and the BBC, which celebrates its centenary in 2022, and of course we want those institutions to form an important part of the celebrations. We will be liaising with them, along with the Royal Household, as the plans are firmed up The noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter, in particular, talked about the creative accomplishments of the country. I am pleased to say that, in relation to Festival UK*2022, this very morning the 30 selected consortia for the £3 million-funded R&D phase were announced. The 30 consortia that have been picked include an exciting mix from a number of different sectors, including organisations and individuals, freelancers and emerging talent from, as the noble Baroness said, the diverse communities that make up our nation—that is absolutely right—and from all four corners of the United Kingdom. They include universities, TV and film organisations, museums and galleries, tech companies and environmental organisations. The final commissions will be announced next year, but we can see already that plans are afoot for that to be a very special undertaking The noble Baroness is right: we want the opportunity for all of Her Majesty’s subjects to get involved in the celebrations, to pay tribute to the qualities that the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, mentioned in his question. The Queen is indeed a shining example to us all, and that is the reason why I am sure all of us, in a grateful nation, will want to come together to pay tribute to her as she reaches this Platinum Jubilee, and indeed to say thank you.
Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee — House of Lords, 2020-11-16
Topic: Culture
Stephen Parkinson (Conservative, Centre-right): The point I made earlier was about today’s announcement in relation to Festival UK*2022 and the consortia that have been selected for its R&D phase. Further announcements about the festival will be made over the coming months. The noble Baroness is right; as I said to the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, we have made the announcement now so that we can begin to engage with people at every level to have the sort of creative outpouring that we want to see in the run-up to, and at the celebration of, this important milestone.
Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee — House of Lords, 2020-11-16
Topic: Culture
Stephen Parkinson (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Baroness is absolutely right. We want heritage organisations to play an important role in the jubilee celebrations, commemorating our past, celebrating the present and, indeed, safeguarding everything that is great about this country for the future. She is right too that Her Majesty the Queen’s address during the darker days this spring when the pandemic was new was such an important thing for so many of us across the country. As we grapple with the pandemic, it is nice that we have something to look forward to in 2022. We all hope for celebrations that are befitting of such an important occasion.
Public Health Restrictions: Government Economic Support — House of Lords, 2020-10-15
Topic: Health
Joanna Penn (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I watched the Urgent Question in the other place and do not agree with the noble Lord’s assessment of the answers given, but I will do my best to supplement them. It is not correct that there is support for track and trace in tier 3 areas only, as £300 million has been provided across all local authorities in England to support local track and trace measures. In addition, up to an extra £465 million has been allocated to further efforts. That includes money for areas in tier 1 with high infection rates, and tiers 2 and 3. I believe that my right honourable friend the Chief Secretary addressed underspend well, but the 67% that workers in closed businesses will receive from the Job Support Scheme will be supplemented, for those on low incomes, by an increase in their universal credit. That could take their incomes up to 88% of normal. I think I have delayed the noble Lord enough.
Public Health Restrictions: Government Economic Support — House of Lords, 2020-10-15
Topic: Health
Joanna Penn (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, a lot of work has gone into the Covid-secure guidelines for workplaces, to enable people to return to work in a Covid-secure way. The approach that the Government are taking is all around balance. National lockdown does not come without costs to people’s livelihoods and wider health costs. With the tiered approach we are trying to target measures more seriously in those areas with the highest transmission. We believe that this is the right approach in balancing the different interests that we must face.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
Patricia Morris (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, as the management of Covid-19 moves to localised decision-making, good will is going to be more important than ever to ensure that people observe the restrictions placed on them. I use my own circumstances as an example. I am currently living under, and fully complying with, extra restrictions because of the outbreak in the centre of Blackburn, yet I have a Bolton address, a Bolton telephone number and I live in Bolton. For me, as for hundreds of others, a random line drawn on a map places us on the far boundaries of Blackburn with Darwen. This geographical disconnect, which will be replicated across the country, risks undermining co-operation. I would be most grateful if the Minister could assure the House that, should local authorities have to take the difficult decision to impose extra restrictions or lockdown, they will be charged to do everything in their power to make them as narrowly focused as possible to ensure that the necessary element of good will remains.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Baroness is entirely right that these local outbreaks create invidious choices for local authorities, and the fine tuning of the boundaries is an important part of the lockdown process. We saw that in Leicester, where the boundaries of the lockdown were changed for the very reasons that she outlines, both to preserve trust and in order to be effective. However, I remind the noble Baroness that the movements of people within areas mean that the disease can spread. Therefore, the lockdowns do not necessarily apply only to those areas with high prevalence in any one period, and sometimes buffers need to be put around the infection area, which is why these areas can seem to be either unfair or overextended.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, local trusts have been urged for many months now to undertake a profound risk assessment of workers, particularly BAME workers, in order to understand where infection may have come from. Infection control teams in individual trusts are charged with the responsibility for delivering infection control plans. It is at that level that we can understand the detailed causes of infection because in each trust those causes can be quite different.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, local authorities have had daily Covid-19 containment dashboards, which include 111, 119, online triage information and positive case information at UTLA and LSOA levels, for more than two weeks. Data for directors of public health who have signed the data-sharing agreement requires data-sharing agreements as personally identifiable information, and is mostly for their teams. That data includes much more granular data, including sex, age, postcode, ethnicity, occupation, test date, pillar and test location type. This question of data is one that concerns us enormously. We have moved a phenomenal amount in recent weeks, and it is my genuine belief that those in local authorities, directors of public of health and local infection teams have all the data that they need to do the job.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Baroness raises an incredibly important issue and I pay tribute to Kate Bingham, who is running the Vaccine Taskforce. She is tackling exactly the issue that the noble Baroness raised. GPs are right to be concerned about capacity, which is why we are looking at ways of massively increasing the capacity to deliver such a vaccine. We will definitely look at resources such as returnees, pharmacists and other sources of people power to deliver the vaccine into the arms of the nation. On the anti-vaxxer groups, the fake news and wrong stories around vaccines are an area of deep concern. We are working with faith groups and other civic leaders to put right the arguments for a vaccine because, at the end of the day, any vaccine requires the participation of a large proportion of the country in order for it to be truly effective. It will cause huge disruption and personal suffering if trust is not maintained in the efficacy of such a vaccine.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I pay tribute to colleagues at Southampton, who have been managing this exciting trial of saliva-based LAMP testing. The LAMP process is extremely exciting, as it removes the time-consuming RNA extraction process from the testing; turnaround times are therefore dramatically reduced. Saliva is a much more accessible vector for the virus than swabbing and therefore has potential for mass appeal. We are extremely interested in the pilot of the OptiGene technology. It is, though, at an early stage. I would not want to raise expectations too quickly on this, but it remains one of a great many similar exciting technologies that our innovations and partnership team is looking at. I am extremely optimistic about the speed and scale of innovation in our test and trace programme, and I believe that we can move more quickly, at bigger scale and with more accuracy than we ever have before in the very near term.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): It may appear from the outside that there are differences between the devolved nations and England, but my experience is that the four-nations approach to combating Covid has been extremely united and effective, and that we have worked extremely well together. It is true that we move at a different pace on some subjects, but we are generally moving to the same destination and in the same direction, and for that I pay tribute to my colleagues in the devolved nations.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): Anyone who has stood at the Dispatch Box to answer questions on PPE, as I have done, will feel extremely proud of the fact that we have managed to purchase a very large amount of it under very difficult circumstances. We have also responded well to the challenge of a global collapse in the PPE supply chain. Despite appearances, we have substantial stockpiles of both near-term seven-day and further-term 90-day PPE resources; by that, I am very pleased. Competition does not necessarily guarantee either quality or delivery. I pay tribute to colleagues in the NHS, in the Cabinet Office and at DH who have, under extremely difficult circumstances, thoroughly checked out the delivery and bona fides of the contracts we have signed while working closely with the NSA to avoid fraud. We continue to work closely with both domestic and overseas suppliers, which I would argue has delivered a valuable result for the country.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not quite sure of the 190 million number. I think that is possibly an aggregate number of different vaccines. However, the practicalities of vaccine research are extremely expensive, and there are eight, nine or 10 potential runners and riders in the global vaccine market. It is the practice for countries to contribute to those research costs up front in order to have access to the vaccine should it be successful. That is the practice for medical research of many kinds, and these are the practical costs of trying to break the difficult mystery of the disease and providing security for ourselves and for our children.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Baroness is entirely right that track and trace on its own, with or without an app, is not enough to prevent a second wave. The only thing that can do that is the behaviours of the British people themselves. Commitment to hygiene, distancing and isolation is the best bulwark we have against this horrible disease. In terms of community testing, given the current level of technology, mass testing of the entire nation on a weekly basis is beyond the resources of our technology, testing capabilities and, frankly, the tolerance of the British people. However, as I said in answer to an earlier question, the technology is moving incredibly quickly. It has already moved a long way in the last few months, and I am hopeful that technologies such as—but not only—the OptiGene technology may offer new opportunities. However, they have to be validated, invested in and developed: they are not on the near-term horizon.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the relationship with local authorities is extremely good, and I recommend that noble Lords do not believe everything they read on this subject. I completely commend those who work closely with PHE, the test and trace programme, the joint biosecurity team and all the sectoral parts of government that reach out to local authorities, DPHs and local infection teams. A very strong bond is forming, and we have a very large number of outbreaks up and down the country that you never read or hear about, and which are not celebrated either for being good or bad because that partnership works well. The intelligence and data are put into the hands of the people who need them, and the teams move quickly and effectively to deal with the outbreak. I am extremely grateful for this; a huge amount of progress has already been made, and we continue to invest in those relationships.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it is put to me week in, week out that our relationship with directors of public health is in some way troubled. I reassure noble Lords that, every single day of the week, we are in contact with dozens of directors of public health in amicable, constructive dialogues that lead to concrete action, local interventions and sharing of data. These conversations happen in a cordial and friendly fashion. The message may have got through to some noble Lords that there is some huge acrimony and difficulty between us, but that is not the perspective that I have. The data has got through. It is a hell of a thing to have put up a huge track and trace system in a few months. That we can get such detailed data to a large number of people within the envelope of reasonable data security legislation is nothing short of a miracle. I am extremely proud and pay tribute to those involved.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the obesity package that the Prime Minister announced today is one of the most ambitious, impactful and thoughtful of any Government in recent history. We will see how it plays out and consider new measures when the time is right.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
Ian McColl (Conservative, Centre-right): Covid-19 and obesity are so often a fatal combination, and it explains the high mortality in the UK, with its dense population and the fact that two-thirds of people are either overweight or obese. Is it not therefore time for those strangers to the truth in the media and in politics to stop demoralising the public with their repeated false news, including blaming the Government for the high death rate? Should we not expect the media and politicians to use their power to support the country and the Prime Minister’s campaign to reduce obesity and its complications, in order to minimise the number of deaths from the next pandemic?
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it is not the feeling in the Government that we should duck hard questions about performance, and we embrace those who ask difficult questions about how things have gone. None the less, the noble Lord is entirely right that the country has a difficult challenge that it needs to face up to: that of obesity. It has had a profound effect on the health of the nation for a generation and we have been caught out by Covid, as obesity has undoubtedly had an impact on our total death rate. It is a point that the Prime Minister made powerfully in his video earlier today. That is why we have put together the package that we have, and we look to all civic leaders and the media to support us.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, PHE publishes detailed statistics which give a gender breakdown. I recommend that the noble Lord has a look at the data. We express our sadness and regret for all those who have passed away and our support for all those mourning them.
Covid-19: Response — House of Lords, 2020-07-27
Topic: Health
Michael John Dobbs (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Public Health England has been including in its death totals those who once had Covid, recovered, but have since died from other causes. So, if you once had the virus but no longer have it, and get hit by a bus, you still get listed as a Covid casualty. How can Ministers and others reach sensible policy decisions when the basic statistics provided to them seem so flawed? Has this bizarre practice now stopped? Have Public Health England offered any justification for it?
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-09-16
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful for the noble Baroness’s questions. In terms of European rates, Britain is way ahead of many of its fellow countries in Europe. On Friday last week, we did 240,312 tests. It is a massive number and, I believe, the highest we have done on any day. This is a huge achievement and I pay testimony to those in the NHS and in test and trace who have contributed to that figure In terms of tests being sent abroad, our testing environment and economy are part of an international system. Reagents, swabs, consumables and machines are regularly exchanged between countries and I pay tribute to the enterprise and energy of the NHS and the test and trace scheme for using whatever schemes they can find in order to process the tests accurately, efficiently and promptly. I will be glad to send the noble Baroness details of the rates which she asked for In terms of the increase in prevalence among the middle-aged—yes, we are deeply concerned about this. As I have said at the Dispatch Box before, as night follows day, rates progress from the young to the middle-aged and, I fear, to the elderly. We are keeping a close eye on this progress.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-09-16
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am indeed an avid listener of "More or Less," although I have not heard the episode to which the noble Lord referred. Can I just explain that not all tests need to be done within 24 hours? There are tests that are done for surveillance, to support clinical trials and to help our investigation into vaccines and therapeutics. Those kinds of tests have a much longer turnaround time, and that is entirely appropriate and will be built into the numbers to which "More or Less" referred. Some 89.6% of in-person test results were received the next day after tests were taken; those are the ones that need fast turnaround times and the ones that will be delivered promptly.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-09-16
Topic: Health
Richard Balfe (Conservative, Centre-right): I want to talk about care homes and hospital in-patients, many of whom have been marooned for literally months. One of the problems is the testing regime. Could I ask the Minister, first, to give priority to relatives of people in care, so that they can be tested and go in and see their loved ones? Secondly, there is clearly a problem with a lot of the staff, because they are moved around a lot. Can the Minister undertake that his department will consult UNISON, the main trade union for those staff, and see what it can do to open things up so that people in care homes and hospitals are able to be visited again?
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-09-16
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I note my noble friend’s comments. However, I flatly deny that the social care system and social care homes have been in any way marooned. We have made a profound commitment, particularly in the testing environment, to supporting social care. One hundred thousand tests a day out of our capacity of between 200,000 and 250,000 are ring-fenced for social care and delivered to social care every day. Many of the challenges that we have for walk-in and drive-through testing centres are exactly because we are so committed to the ring-fenced testing for social care. That is a commitment that we are proud of and remain committed to I want to clarify with my noble friend that it is not an appropriate use of government test and trace capacity for relatives to use test and trace as a convenient method to find out whether they have the disease before they go to see relatives. That is not an appropriate use and not in the guidance As for UNISON, we are very much engaged with the union and are supporting staff in every way we can. However, I very much take on board my noble friend’s notes, and we will maintain that correspondence.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-09-16
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): I completely support the noble Lord’s commitment to mass testing. We are looking at ways in which to use less sensitive machines to provide the kind of prophylactic testing to which he alludes. I thank very much indeed all universities for their contribution to our testing programme.