argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) was right to point out that the clock is ticking. It is not going any faster than it normally does, but this statement is going rather slower, because questions have been rather long. When a question is long, the Minister has to give a long answer in order to answer the whole question. Therefore, let us all try to have shorter questions, so that the Minister can give shorter answers. In that way, everyone will get in. Otherwise, most people are not going to have a chance to say anything.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): If the hon. Lady has read the policy statement, she will have seen that when it comes to needs in our labour market and our economy, the points-based system will not only involve a scoring system, but with the Migration Advisory Committee we will look at the labour market as a whole across key sectors.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Virginia Ann Crosbie (Conservative, Centre-right): As a scientist, I welcome the Government’s intention to make it easier to attract leading scientists, engineers and mathematicians to come and work in the UK. Will my right hon. Friend confirm whether she has plans to cap the number of people who can qualify for tier 1 exceptional-talent visa status?
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary on bringing forward this points-based immigration system—another Conservative manifesto policy being delivered. As an NHS doctor, I have worked with many talented colleagues from around the world. Can she confirm that the new NHS visa will enable doctors from around the world to come and work in the NHS quickly and easily?
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Andrew Campbell Bowie (Conservative, Centre-right): Like my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire (Bill Wiggin), I represent a large rural constituency that employs many thousands of seasonal migrants. In welcoming the quadrupling of the seasonal agricultural workers scheme, may I ask my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary to keep a beady eye on the scheme, and to keep the door open to possible further increases, should that become necessary in future?
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Robert Henry Halfon (Conservative, Centre-right): I warmly welcome what my right hon. Friend is doing. Is it not the case that countries that have points-based systems have much stronger output and productivity per worker? Is it also not the case that all we are doing is saying that we should take control of our immigration policy and decide who comes here?
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. The pledge that we made to the British public is that the British Government will be in control of our new immigration system. He is also absolutely right that our aspiration is for a high-wage, high-skill and highly productive economy, and that is what we are working to deliver.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): I appreciate that the Home Secretary is providing full answers to very serious questions, but the House will have to forgive her if she gives quicker answers, and not criticise her for not providing full explanations; otherwise, everyone will not get a chance to speak—they will probably not get a chance to speak anyway.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Civil Rights
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): Is the Home Secretary as surprised as I am that those on the Opposition Benches support a scheme that discriminates against citizens outside the EU, and do not support a scheme that is fair to everyone?
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a valid point. We are ending discrimination, obviously. We are open for business and we are open to all countries and to all nationalities when it comes to immigration through the points-based system.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Felicity Christiana Buchan (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend confirm that we have already protected the rights of EU citizens who are in the UK, many of whom live in Kensington? Already, 3 million people have applied for settled status.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise the EU settlement scheme. She will have heard me say that so far 2.8 million people have been granted settled status, and there have been over 3 million applications.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): I would say the complete opposite. The system that we will bring in will end discrimination and show that we are being firm and fair. Everybody who has the right level of skill can come to the United Kingdom, and they will be treated equally and fairly.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on at last getting a grip on uncontrolled immigration to this country. Does she agree that flexibility is the key? I am sure that she can give the House an assurance that she will keep an eye on all sectors to make sure that flexibility is retained in the system.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): I hope the hon. Lady will recognise that the points-based system—she will have heard me say this in my statement, too—is welcoming those with the right skills and attributes, and that applies equally to their families.
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Immigration
Alicia Alexandra Martha Kearns (Conservative, Centre-right): Last week my office met representatives of the Russell Group, who were very clear that they welcome the new immigration system, because it allows them to recruit from every corner of the world. I moved to America because my husband was offered a job there. I applied for a spousal visa. If I got it, we would move; if I did not, we would not. This system will allow us to recruit people and pay them a decent wage. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Opposition do not like it because the British people do like it?
Points-based Immigration System — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I am sorry; I know that more people wanted to speak—[Interruption.] There is no point in the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Angus Brendan MacNeil) making gestures at me. Members will be aware that we have a lot of business tonight. I promise you that if I let this statement go on, you would not thank me at half-past 11 this evening, when you would still be here to vote. Mr Speaker and I hope that people will realise that a statement should be followed by questions, not speeches. We really must make these things work much faster in future. Let us see if we can do the next statement rather faster.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for updating us on the steps that the Scottish Government have taken. Scotland has been less severely affected than other parts of the country by the recent floods, but there have been some effects—there have been some flooding incidents The hon. Gentleman made a point about insurance. As I said, we have introduced the Flood Re insurance scheme to ensure that people with properties who were unable to get access to insurance because of a flood risk are now able to.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I remind the House that, as we said in the last statement, statements are followed by questions, not speeches. We must have short questions; it will not harm the Minister or the Chair if we have long questions and speeches, but it will harm the people who do not get a chance to be called, so I ask for some courtesy and brevity.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Neil Quentin Gordon Parish (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to his new post; it is well deserved Flooding is going on and it comes very suddenly, so we will have to manage it in the future. Some rivers need to be slowed down, and for some we need to increase the flow as they get to the sea With Flood Re, there is a cut-off date of 2008. Many people who bought houses after 2008 cannot necessarily get insurance. It is time that we looked at that again, because Flood Re has worked but many people cannot actually get access to it.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I am conscious of the point that my hon. Friend makes, and indeed that was made to me by residents when I visited York with the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) at the weekend. For houses built in recent years, we have known about potential flood risk, and that should have been factored in in the planning system. So it would be rather extraordinary for there to be modern-built houses where the risk is so high that they cannot get insurance.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman will be aware that flooding and response to floods is a devolved matter and therefore in the first instance is a matter for the Welsh Government, but I am aware that he and others have raised some concerns about funding, and of course if the Welsh Government were to approach my colleagues in the Wales Office that is something that could be considered.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that point, and I am of course more than willing to meet him, other residents and local authority leaders in Calder Valley. I have also undertaken to hold a summit in Yorkshire to discuss flood concerns more generally. There are a number of important projects in the Calder Valley, including at Hebden Bridge and Brighouse. Some of them have concluded, while others have not yet been completed, for reasons that I know he is aware of.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): We will, during the course of this week, be issuing local authorities with more detailed guidance on the flood resilience fund. Our view at the moment is not to give it to people who have already claimed it, since they have already invested to make their homes more resilient.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): Flood response and dealing with the result of floods is a devolved matter, but we have arrangements across the UK to support one another when one area is particularly affected. If the hon. Lady would like to write to me with her suggestions, I will be more than happy to discuss them with colleagues in the Welsh Government.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Maria Frances Lewis Miller (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement and pay tribute to the emergency services, who have worked across our country to bring relief in these very difficult times. Parts of my constituency are subject to a groundwater flood alert issued by the Environment Agency. Groundwater flooding is a hidden threat. Can he confirm that the Environment Agency will continue to regularly monitor boreholes in areas subject to groundwater flooding, so that residents can have confidence that they will receive proper and timely alerts?
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I was pleased to be able to visit the hon. Lady’s constituency on Sunday, when this was one of the matters we discussed. There has been some frustration that the flood resilience programme has not been delivered as quickly as possible there, but she will be aware that we have been reviewing the performance of some contractors. The worst of all worlds is for us to spend money on putting in place measures that then prove to be ineffective due to cowboy contractors.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Neil Peter Hammerton Hudson (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend join me in recording my gratitude to the teams from the Environment Agency, the emergency services, local councils and the amazing volunteer groups, such as the Appleby emergency response group in my constituency, who have been working around the clock to protect people and their properties from flooding?
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I am more than happy to join my hon. Friend in commending the Environment Agency staff, local authority staff and our emergency services, including the fire brigade and the police, all of whom have been working incredibly hard to protect people in their homes and, if necessary, to assist them in evacuation.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend and I were involved together in the 2014 floods—I remember that well and the incidents we had in Somerset. It is the case that we absolutely want to hold water upstream using nature-based solutions. When it comes to speeding up water downstream, it can sometimes be complicated. Sometimes, it is the right thing to do but, sometimes, if it is a very tidal area, racing water at high speed when there is an incoming tide can cause concerns, and indeed, that was one of the concerns that we had in Gloucester and Tewkesbury last week.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): There is not a specific 1:8 requirement for flooding schemes—it is just that, overall, that is the average return on flood schemes. When we assess where we are going to direct capital, it is predominantly based on the flood risk of a given area and the number of homes that a particular scheme will protect.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Andrew Theakstone Percy (Conservative, Centre-right): My constituency is largely on land recovered by Dutch engineers and is therefore probably the most flood-prone constituency in the country. We have seen flooding this time on the other side of the border in Selby, due to the Aire washlands overtopping. My hon. Friend the Member for Selby and Ainsty (Nigel Adams) is helping residents there but obviously cannot speak today from the Back Benches. I urge the Secretary of State, given the particular risk that we have in my area, to look very closely at the proposal for a national flood resilience centre in Scunthorpe. The council has done its part in providing the land. The University of Hull and the Humberside fire service are providing funding. We need the Government to step up and provide funding so that we have a proper national centre.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): We are all conscious of the terrible history related to this issue. I can confirm that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales met the First Minister this morning and that this was one of the issues discussed. We reiterated our offer of help and there will be a joint approach to the issue of flood risk in coal areas.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Daniel Robert Kawczynski (Conservative, Centre-right): The devastation in Shrewsbury, our town in Shropshire, is appalling. I hope the Secretary of State will take time out of his busy diary to see the extent of the misery my town is facing. I wrote to him today asking him to visit Shropshire to meet local Environment Agency staff and Shropshire Council, as they have a long-term solution for managing the River Severn, which runs through 18 constituencies. Rather than piecemeal flood defences, which just push the problem further downstream, we need a holistic approach to managing the whole river, including through wet washland schemes.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an important point. The Severn has been the most affected water catchment in this most recent event. The demountable barriers at many places along the Severn have proved crucial in preventing more properties from being flooded, but of course I am more than happy to visit Shrewsbury and his constituency to meet the local Environment Agency staff.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): The Secretary of State has really been thrown in at the deep end. I congratulate him on his appointment. I can testify to how hard he and the local flood resilience teams have been working on this issue. The Rivers Severn, Avon and Teign always flood. We are more resilient than we were 10 years ago, but he knows that we still need some new schemes, so will he meet me as soon as possible to discuss the schemes that the Environment Agency has drafted for Tenbury Wells and Severn Stoke?
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend’s constituency was the first hit, and one of the hardest hit, in this most recent bout of events, and I am of course willing to meet her. I am aware there is a proposed scheme for Tenbury Wells that is awaiting additional partnership finance, but I will obviously talk to her about how we can progress that.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
John Alan Redwood (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Government give new guidance to planning inspectors to take flood risk very seriously and be more careful about building on flood plains? In my area, the risk has been greatly increased by people ignoring that.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Housing
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend has made an important point. Under the planning system, the Environment Agency is a statutory consultee for a very good reason, and local authorities should follow its advice unless they have a very good reason not to. As I said earlier, in the overwhelming majority of cases—more than 97%—the advice of the Environment Agency is followed.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): As we have already heard this afternoon, Shropshire has been badly hit by Storm Dennis. About half the houses affected are in my constituency, on both the River Severn and the River Teme. Upstream from Tenbury Wells, Ludlow has had floods. What we need there are flood defences similar to those that are available elsewhere on the River Severn. As we speak, householders in Bridgnorth, Clun and Shrewsbury are expecting water levels higher than those of Monday last week. That is an immediate challenge. In the aftermath of the floods, will my right hon. Friend, as he considers the next phase of flood defences, also consider towns such as Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Clun in my constituency?
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): Demountable defences, which can be temporarily placed alongside key rivers such as the Severn, have played an important role, but, as my right hon. Friend says, we are not out of the woods yet. Water levels will continue to rise, and some towns, including those that he mentioned, continue to be at risk.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Housing
Laurence Anthony Robertson (Conservative, Centre-right): It is, of course, wrong to build in flood risk areas, yet just this morning I took photographs—which I will send to my right hon. Friend later—of an industrial digger actually in water, preparing the land for house building. Permission had been given not by the local authority, but by a previous Secretary of State on the advice of the inspector. This is madness. Will my right hon. Friend have discussions with our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to stop this from happening?
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Housing
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I should be happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss those issues. During my visit to York, I realised how complicated the position relating to such schemes can be. Some people are asking "Why are things not already happening?", while others are nervous about impacts on access to the river, for instance, or about noise. Getting the schemes right means consulting communities, and going through a planning process that can take some time.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Andrew Griffith (Conservative, Centre-right): The Arun River valley in my constituency has experienced severe flooding from Storm Dennis and, before that, Storm Ciara. The Environment Agency has done a magnificent job in responding in inclement conditions and at antisocial times, but it has recently announced plans to cease flood risk management activities in many parts of the river. Will the Secretary of State join me in calling on the agency to delay, in the light of recent floods?
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I should be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss his concerns further. Last week many flood alerts were in place, including severe flood alerts. The standard approach is that when a flood risk goes down such alerts are dropped, but if my hon. Friend writes to me expressing his specific concerns, I will look into them.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): There are a number of examples of projects that use lagoons to manage surplus water during times of flooding, including one at Salford. Either I or another ministerial colleague will be more than happy to meet the promoters of the scheme that the hon. Member has mentioned.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Peter James Guy Aldous (Conservative, Centre-right): May I urge the Secretary of State not to forget the devastating impact of recent storms on coastal communities such as Pakefield on the Suffolk coast? A few months ago there was no worry about the homes there, but now their very existence is at risk.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend, who represents a coastal community, highlights an important issue. It is important to recognise that it is not just fluvial flooding that is a threat, and that coastal flooding and coastal surges are also a major threat to our coastal communities.