argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): I am disappointed that the hon. Gentleman did not listen to the answer I gave. The Attorney General will be here on the next sitting day. He will make a statement and answer questions. Then the hon. Gentleman and other right hon. and hon. Members can form a judgment on whether the motion that was carried by this House has been satisfied. My argument is that the Attorney General will meet the spirit and intention of the motion passed, but preserve the important constitutional convention relating to Law Officers’ advice.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): The right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer), the shadow Secretary of State, said during his speech: "I wanted the Government to see the good sense in putting the legal position before the House, for all the exceptional reasons that have been set out".—[Official Report, 13 November 2018; Vol. 649, c. 194.] Accepting that, is that not precisely what the Attorney General intends to do and will be able to do on Monday?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend, the Chair of the Justice Committee, is absolutely right. The right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) is more familiar than most with the position of the Law Officers and their role within the constitution. I would have expected him to do better.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Government Operations
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a simple but important point. If we start trying to subdivide the role of the Law Officers and create a rift in collective decision making, where will democratically accountable government end up?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: International Affairs
Victoria Mary Boswell Prentis (Conservative, Centre-right): I must confess that I remain as confused as I was on 13 November about precisely what is being requested. What differences are there between the position now and the position the Government were in when advice was provided concerning Iraq?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Government Operations
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend, who is a former Government lawyer, will recall that the circumstances of the publication of the Iraq advice were dramatically different from the current circumstances. In brief, extracts from the then Attorney General’s advice were leaked to the press during the 2005 election campaign, and in those exceptional circumstances, the then Labour Government took a collective decision that the Attorney General should publish the full text. That is the only time it has happened. It was an exceptional case that I do not think sets a precedent here.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
William James Quince (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the news that the Attorney General will be coming before the House on Monday, but does my hon. and learned Friend share my concern about the precedent that this may set for publishing legal advice? Where would that leave legal privilege, the cornerstone of our legal justice system?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Government Operations
Neil John O'Brien (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the Solicitor General agree that if Members have important questions about the Government’s legal advice or the legal position, they will be able to find out the answers to those questions by asking the source of the Government’s legal advice—the Attorney General—in this House? Does he further agree that this is about a very important constitutional principle? If all 6,500 pieces of legal advice are published, all official advice, not just legal, will start to be published and we will have a situation in which candid advice will no longer be given. It will not be written down and, whoever is in government, we will not have proper functioning of Government.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Government Operations
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that if Law Officers, and indeed civil servants, cannot provide candid advice in an unencumbered way, the quality of decision making will deteriorate, as will its transparency. That is deleterious to good government.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Edmund Francis Hughes (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that if the information given by a lawyer to a client is to be made public in future, that information is likely to be much more caveated and cautious, and therefore less useful?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right—the information becomes useless, actually, if that is the case. There are good reasons why privilege exists, but over and above that, there are constitutional reasons why the Law Officers’ permission has to be sought if, first, the fact that advice might or might not have been given is to be disclosed, and secondly, the content of any such advice is to be disclosed.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): I found some of the comments of the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) surprising, to say the least, given his former role as Director of Public Prosecutions. Does the Solicitor General share my concern at the precedent that the Government might be setting, by releasing legal advice in this instance, for the advice given by previous Directors of Public Prosecutions?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): I am here to answer questions on behalf of the Law Officers. Although I superintend the Crown Prosecution Service, it is an independent body, and I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the content of any advice that it may give.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Matthew Robert Warman (Conservative, Centre-right): It is easy and cheap populism to make the demands that we have heard today, but is the reality that this would undermine the ability of the Solicitor General and the Attorney General to do their job now, and the ability of all their successors to serve future Governments as well?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Nigel Paul Huddleston (Conservative, Centre-right): It is absolutely right that we hold the Government to account. We are doing that now, and we will do it again on Monday with the Attorney General. However, does the Solicitor General share my unease about the undermining of core principles that are accepted by the whole country, such as client confidentiality?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: International Affairs
William Grant (Conservative, Centre-right): We know that the good negotiator never shows his hand. Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that it would not be appropriate to reveal the Government’s legal advice while we are, in essence, still at the negotiating table, securing and protecting the national interest?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: International Affairs
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend knows that the documentation—the withdrawal agreement and the future relationship document—is all out there in the ether for the public and for informed and, shall I say, less well informed commentators to make observations about. There is a plethora of opinion, some of it legal, out there, and my hon. Friend makes that point very well.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Fiona Claire Bruce (Conservative, Centre-right): I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Is not maintaining the principle of legal privilege also essential to maintaining the confidence of every citizen in this country who seeks advice from a lawyer that they can expect the justice for which this country is globally renowned?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat (Conservative, Centre-right): Despite the Welsh origins of the Solicitor General, does he agree that there is no wizardry in legal advice, that it is simply the accumulation of the collected knowledge of our culture, history and agreed norms, and that in many ways we can read all that in the press that we are seeing every day? We may seek legal advice in this place, but I have been given tons for free by every lawyer in the country, as far as I can tell. Does he therefore agree that the Attorney General’s advice is relevant, but not essential?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: International Affairs
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman talks about backbone. It is time for him and his colleagues to show some backbone and to back a deal that serves the interests of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom in a way that could not be achieved by any other Prime Minister.
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: International Affairs
William Nigel Paul Cash (Conservative, Centre-right): The Solicitor General was in post at the time and will know the answer to this question. Did the Prime Minister ask the opinion of the Attorney General, as laid down under the clear requirements of the ministerial code, which insists that, in respect of critical legal considerations, all Ministers must ask the opinion of the Attorney General "in good time" before the considerations are implemented by the Cabinet? I ask that both in respect of the Chequers proposals on 6 July, when the Cabinet was clearly bounced, and in respect of the incompatibility of the withdrawal agreement with the withdrawal Act and the express repeal of the European Communities Act 1972, before the signature of the withdrawal agreement over the weekend?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Government Operations
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): I hope that the Solicitor General is correct in his interpretation of the Humble Address motion and the Government’s response to it, but if he is wrong, the House might well bring proceedings of contempt against the Government, which is the most serious charge that the House can bring. When was the last time that a Government were held to be in contempt of the House of Commons?
Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): Can my hon. and learned Friend confirm that, as every lawyer knows, advice depends on the quality of the questions sought? Can he therefore assure us that he or our right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General will set out on Monday all the questions in respect of which advice has been given to the Government, so that we can be sure that all the right questions have been asked?
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nigel Paul Huddleston (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with everything that the Minister is saying about the improvements that can come from moving to a multi-academy trust. What practical support do schools get from Government to make that transition, which can sometimes be quite difficult, including financially difficult for some?
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend raises an important point. Grants are given to schools to help to fund the conversion process. About two thirds of secondary schools now have academy status and a significant proportion of primary schools—the figure is, I think, just under one third—have now converted to academy status.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): The reasoning behind that decision is, of course, that the deficit arose during the period in which the school was under the control of the local authority. That is why the deficit remains with the local authority on conversion.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are spending record amounts on our schools—£42.4 billion this year, rising to £43.5 billion next year—and the national funding formula ensures that deprivation and disadvantage are a priority in the additional needs element of the formula.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): The national funding formula ensures that all areas of the country, including York, are funded on a fair basis. Pupils will receive the same amount wherever they go to school, on the basis of an initial single figure that is the same throughout the country. That represents about three quarters of the national funding formula. The other quarter is determined by the additional needs of the pupil, so a significant element of it is based on disadvantage, whether it relates to the income deprivation affecting children index, free school meals, low prior attainment, or a child who has English as an additional language. Where a particular area fits into the rankings of other local authorities will depend on the number of pupils with additional needs. That is a fair system. It should have been introduced when the Labour party was in office, but Labour left it to us to make a controversial decision to ensure that we have a fair funding system.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): It is our determination to ensure that every part of the country has higher levels of social mobility, and that every part of the country has high academic standards. We have 12 opportunity areas around the country where we are focusing extra resources and extra attention from our national campaigns to ensure that those areas improve their academic standards. We are also rolling out schemes such as the English hubs that I mentioned, which ensure that we spread best practice in the teaching of reading. We have maths hubs, which ensure that we spread best practice in the teaching of mathematics, and we are spreading best practice in the teaching of modern foreign languages. Wherever there is a gap in attainment, we take action to close that gap, and we take swift action to deal with schools—wherever they are—that are underperforming and not providing the quality of education that parents want and that we want for our young people.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nigel Paul Huddleston (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Minister for giving way again. He is being generous with his time I wholeheartedly support not only the goals for improving standards, but the fairer funding formula. Schools in my constituency are funded in a similar way to those in the constituency of the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell). We really appreciate the efforts being made to improve school funding in my constituency, because it does make a difference, and I hope that they will be fully implemented very soon.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Theresa Anne Villiers (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that, among high-performing schools, that can include pupil referral units? There is an excellent pupil referral unit in my constituency called the Pavilion, and I would welcome my right hon. Friend’s affirmation that these units can provide excellent education, which is not always recognised by the general public.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is right. We have published our vision document for alternative provision. We want the right pupils in the right provision. Like her, I can point to excellent examples of alternative provision. The London East Alternative Provision School in Tower Hamlets provides an ordered, calm environment where young people can get their education back on track, and half the pupils who attend that unit manage to achieve a GCSE in maths or English. The Wave Multi Academy Trust in Cornwall is a chain of alternative provision schools which provide an excellent second chance for young people who have lost their way sometimes in education. Since 2012, WISE Academies—a mainstream schools multi-academy trust in the north-east—has taken on nine sponsored academies, all of which previously had significant performance concerns. The trust reduced teacher workload through more efficient lesson planning and the creation of shared resources, and introduced new ways of teaching such as maths mastery techniques brought over from Singapore. That has contributed to every school that has been inspected since joining the trust being judged as good or outstanding This is a Government who for more than eight years have been unflinchingly driving up standards in schools with a reform programme that is already delivering more good schools, better-quality qualifications, children reading more fluently, improved mathematics, higher expectations, more control for teachers over pupil behaviour, and more than 800,000 new school places. Opposite we have the serried—or sparse, today—ranks of Labour MPs, whose party opposed our reforms every step of the way, opposed the phonics check and opposed the EBacc, which is giving opportunities of study to the most disadvantaged that are routinely enjoyed by the most advantaged. It is a Labour party that is the enemy of social mobility and the enemy of promise, and that in office presided over declining standards, grade inflation and a proliferation of qualifications that had little value in the jobs market. And it is a Labour Party that would scrap the free schools programme: a programme that led to the establishment of Dixons Trinity Academy, Bradford, which was eighth in the country last year for Progress 8 and 82% of whose pupils were entered for the EBacc; and the Harris Westminster School, which tells us that, with 40% of its pupils from a disadvantaged background, 18 pupils went to Oxbridge last year The contrast between the two parties has never been starker: improving education standards delivered by a Conservative Government; and low expectations and falling academic standards, the hallmark of Labour’s approach to education.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman was paying attention to the Budget, but £400 million of extra capital was given to schools to spend this year, and another £508 million was given to schools to fund the pay award over two years.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): I said in my speech that, in 2010, 66% of pupils were attending schools that were then graded good or outstanding. Today, 84% of pupils are attending schools that are graded good or outstanding. If we multiply that out, we get the 1.9 million figure that the hon. Gentleman has cited.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Social Welfare
Neil John O'Brien (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman continues to refer to early years cuts, which I find extraordinary, given that spending on early years will rise to a record £6 billion by 2020 and given that we have introduced new things such as the 30 hours’ free childcare offer, tax-free childcare and the offer of free childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Nicolas John Gibb (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who has been extremely generous to me and my hon. Friends. I shall try to make this the last intervention. He might have missed the statistics that came out this morning, which showed that this year we recruited 8% more people, or over 2,000 more, into teacher training than we did in the previous year.
Improving Education Standards — House of Commons, 2018-11-29
Topic: Education
Jeremy John Elton Lefroy (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady makes a fair point. I am a pragmatist. I accept that schools in Stafford will receive less than schools in London, Birmingham or Stoke-on-Trent, but it should not be that much less. I accept that there are variations across the country that need to be taken into account, and that we cannot have an absolute hard and fast rule, but I also recognise the problems the Government face, because 650 MPs will be claiming to have special circumstances. We need to have some rules somewhere, but we also need some flexibility. Given that we all pay tax and national insurance at the same rate, certainly in England, it seems similar to the situation with healthcare. By the way, the discrepancies in healthcare are much, much greater— my clinical commissioning group has a discrepancy of £400 per head compared with some of the highest-funded CCGs in the country, and that is on a much lower level per head than education, so the percentage discrepancy is much greater. There should not be huge discrepancies in funding for public services. There will be discrepancies, but they must be modest and moderate I recognise the additional pressures that teachers and schools currently face, and I want to mention areas other than finance, because it is not all about money. The pressures include, for instance, the pressure of social media both on teachers and on students and pupils in schools and colleges. Teachers are sometimes anonymously attacked through social media, and they have to put up with stuff that we in this House are perhaps used to, but that they should not have to put up with in any way, shape or form I am glad that some schools in my constituency have taken to banning smartphones, and I think that ban should be universal in schools. President Macron, whom the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs quoted in French earlier this morning, has a very good policy in which he proposes to ban smartphones from primary and middle schools in France. I think all schools should consider such a ban.