argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Police Funding Formula — House of Commons, 2015-11-09
Topic: Law and Crime
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The residents of Dyfed-Powys already contribute far more per head for their policing than those living in large urban areas in England. Will the Minister ensure that the new formula takes into consideration the extra costs of policing an area such as Dyfed-Powys, which covers two thirds of Wales, especially the extra infrastructure required to secure an effective emergency response?
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2015-10-28
Topic: Transportation
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In recent days I have received two parliamentary written answers from two different Departments on exactly the same vital question for Wales of Barnett consequentials for HS2. The reply from the Department for Transport provided a straight answer to a straight question and was very informative. Regrettably, the reply from the Treasury was not as useful, offering only a generic response that could be used to answer any question. What can be done to encourage the Treasury to follow the best practice of the Department for Transport when it comes to answering parliamentary questions?
Great Western Main Line — House of Commons, 2015-10-29
Topic: Transportation
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): One of the main reasons for escalating cost is schedule 4 compensation payments to train operators. Owing to the vast sums of public money involved, is it not in the public interest to publish the amount of schedule 4 compensation payments? That money should be spent on improving public infrastructure, not lining the pockets of shareholders.
Tax Credits — House of Commons, 2015-10-29
Topic: Social Welfare
Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Would the right hon. Gentleman also see merit in looking at the geographical distribution of the effects of these measures, given that as the Member for Birkenhead he will know that there are very poor communities where the effects will be very widespread? The result will be not just poorer people but poorer communities.
Cities and Local Government Devolution [Lords] Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-21
Topic: Law and Crime
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The Minister has talked about a bottom-up approach. From what I understand, Manchester is to be offered powers over policing. We had a bottom-up approach in Wales as a result of the Silk commission, which was sponsored by the UK Government, in which all parties agreed that policing powers should be devolved to Wales, just as they are in Northern Ireland and Scotland. However, the draft Wales Bill was published yesterday and the devolution of policing is missing from it. Can the Minister explain the ambiguity of the Government’s position?
Cities and Local Government Devolution [Lords] Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-21
Topic: Macroeconomics
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): In addition to the point made by the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones), does the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen) think there is a relationship between fiscal decentralisation and the geographical wealth of the countries that he mentioned, including the United States, which is far more balanced than the gross imbalances in the UK?
HM Courts and Tribunal Service — House of Commons, 2015-09-08
Topic: Law and Crime
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Does the Minister agree that the proposed closure of magistrates courts in rural areas, such as Dolgellau, where it is impossible to reach alternative courts in time by public transport, will in effect shift the cost of justice on to victims and witnesses, who participate in the justice system through no fault of their own?
Immigration Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-13
Topic: Education
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): I am glad to hear the hon. Gentleman say that his children are bilingual. English-language courses are, of course, free. Given that the Welsh language has equal status under the Welsh Language Act 1993, does he agree that the Government should ensure that Welsh-language courses should also be free?
Finance Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-26
Topic: Macroeconomics
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The hon. Gentleman has been inviting interventions on this issue. On new clause 9, why has he tied in the holy grail of a Budget surplus with asking for a review? As he has said, the Government proposals in the Finance Bill will make it more difficult to reach a Budget surplus.
Welsh Language — House of Commons, 2015-12-03
Topic: Social Welfare
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): In its general election manifesto, the Conservative party promised to safeguard the funding of S4C; yet last week, the comprehensive spending review outlined a further cut of 26% in the UK Government’s support for S4C. Is the Minister aware of his Welsh history and what happened the last time the Tories broke their promise in relation to S4C? Will he now consider the need to ensure that S4C is adequately resourced?
Armed Forces Bill — House of Commons, 2015-12-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): I thank everybody who has taken part in the debate. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion Clause, by leave, withdrawn. New Clause 5 Requirement to publish statistics on sexual assault and rape ‘(1) Each service police force must collect and publish annually anonymised statistics on the number of allegations of sexual assault and rape made by and against members of the armed forces (2) The Director of Service Prosecutions must collect and publish annually anonymised statistics on the number of cases involving allegations of sexual assault and rape made by and against members of the armed forces, including but not necessarily limited to— (a) the number of cases referred from the service police forces; (b) how many of these cases were prosecuted; and (c) how many convictions were secured."—(Mr Kevan Jones.) Brought up, and read the First time.
Leaving the EU: Agriculture Policy — House of Commons, 2017-01-25
Topic: Agriculture
Questions: Sixty- eight per cent of Welsh exports, including those from the Welsh agricultural sector, go to the European Union. Perhaps the Minister can tell us how leaving the single market and the customs union will lead to a better deal for Welsh exporters.
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Last Friday, I visited Trewen farm in Botwnnog with the Farmers Union of Wales. This dairy farm has contributed over £150,000 to the local economy in the last three years, yet only three years from now Welsh farmers are set to face a perfect storm. Can the Minister reveal what transitional arrangements will be put in place to safeguard our rural economy?
New Partnership with the EU — House of Commons, 2017-01-17
Topic: Foreign Trade
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The Secretary of State talked about bumps in the road, but this threatens to be a head-on car crash for Wales, where trade with Europe supports 200,000 jobs. Does the Secretary of State have any idea how many jobs will be lost in Wales as a result of the Government’s chosen path?
Leaving the EU: the Rural Economy — House of Commons, 2017-01-17
Topic: Agriculture
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Diolch yn fawr iawn. The Government amendment mentions continuity and certainty to 2020. That is three years away. People fear uncertainty, and the rural communities I represent are afraid that the certainties that underpin their way of life are to be swept away Farming is a difficult profession, requiring a commitment to a lifestyle that is almost unmatched. Yet, the economic impact of farming in communities in my constituency is far wider than is possibly appreciated. In Wales, upland farm profits fell last year to £21,900, meaning that about 60% of farms either made a loss or would have done so without farm support. However, despite their economic hardship last year, the 10,000 or so farm businesses in Wales paid employees and other businesses about three times as much as they made. Many Welsh communities are dependent on the rural economy for their year-round existence. The Welsh language, culture and traditions of Wales are rooted in these communities and their future is at risk That brings me to my next point, which is the much maligned—today, before and probably afterwards— EU common agricultural policy. Undoubtedly, this financial support mechanism is not perfect and its administration could clearly be improved, but what we have heard so far from the Government does not offer us much hope of an improved CAP-style model. Of course, farmers do not want to have to rely on direct payments, but a legacy of 60 years of policy making aimed at cultivating a plentiful, cheap and secure food supply means that the returns from the market are simply too low to sustain most livestock businesses. If we slash and burn the support mechanisms that we afford our already struggling farms, we risk not only our food supply, but the future of our rural communities and the industries they support Wales has about 5% of the UK population, but receives about 12% of the EU funds that flow to the UK. That is a result not only of its considerably more rural society, but of the less profitable livestock hill farms of Wales receiving a far greater share of CAP payments compared with the crop farms of southern England. Those farms, which are vital to our rural and national economy, must receive guarantees now that they will not suffer any loss of support. I call on the Government to do something radical—to slow down and think. Policies must be evidence-based, rather than the product of idealistic aspirations and clever-sounding buzzwords. A "clean Brexit" chimes with a clean break, but no rhetorical flourish will ring true for those who end up broken. I therefore call on the Government to maintain direct payments and budgets, to ring-fence the moneys until we have found a realistic way to replace farm incomes, and to guarantee that there will be no power grab from the nation of Wales. As I was told recently, "if they want to do to rural communities what was done to the miners, let them…do so with their eyes open."
DWP Policies and Low-income Households — House of Commons, 2017-01-17
Topic: Macroeconomics
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that the latest rise in UK inflation will hit poorest families hardest? Surely the Government should be doing much to counteract its effect given that it is a direct result of the fall in sterling following the Brexit strategy.
Changes in US Immigration Policy — House of Commons, 2017-01-30
Topic: International Affairs
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): "We should seek to engage with our American friends," the Foreign Secretary repeated over and over in his statement. He justified that, with no sense of irony, on the grounds that engaging with such powers is the most effective way to influence them—this from the man who led, with great gusto, a campaign to persuade us to turn our backs on our closest and largest economic relationship Our actions in this place are inherently passive. As we heard earlier, this is an echo chamber. Passivity is easy. Passivity is amoral. Passivity means risking nothing. However, our passivity will weigh heavily on many others. It will weigh heavily on the people who are trapped, the people who cannot see their families, the people who are stranded, and the people who are fleeing with nowhere to go. This is not even just about the immediate physical ramifications of the policy. The atmosphere of hate, fear and anger that it feeds also stokes the flames of radicalism. It is not a policy that builds peace and security. We are told that this is a relationship that is worth holding on to, but a relationship in which one party stands by and watches with automaton-like levels of dispassion as another wreaks calamitous harm is not a healthy—never mind special—relationship by any stretch of the imagination The Government’s approach to the Trump Administration’s draconian policy is, perhaps, a product of their own making. "The only way you're going to make a deal you want is if you are coming from a position of strength". Those are not my words, but the words of the new leader of the so-called free world. Boxed into a corner by the Government’s self-imposed Brexit boundaries, we are forced to creep, cap in hand, to people whose values now run directly counter to those professed by the House. I will therefore not be compelled by duty to kowtow to Mr Trump and his prejudiced Administration if he is invited to address us. I hope that the Minister will listen to the 1,469,828 signatories of the petition that is lengthening with extraordinary speed even as we speak, and will decide that perhaps this visit should be treated in a different way It strikes me that at present the Chamber is, for once, dominated by women, which would be an interesting observation with which to end my speech, but let me end with a question: how many of their great British values can the Government sacrifice in their quest for a new special relationship?
Pension Schemes Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2017-01-30
Topic: Labor
Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): I am grateful to the Secretary of State, but—if I may use that word—would he accept that the Bill is a missed opportunity to put right the severe problems in the plumbing and mechanical services industry pension scheme? For example, my constituent Chris Stuhlfelder wants to pass on his business to his employees after a lifetime of work in the industry, but he risks losing the lifetime rewards of that work just in order to secure the pension scheme for liabilities that are not directly his. Will the Minister table amendments to deal with that?
HMRC Estate — House of Commons, 2017-01-10
Topic: Government Operations
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): HMRC Porthmadog is earmarked for closure, and in all likelihood the Welsh language unit will be centralised in Cardiff, four hours away. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how these services can best be provided in a region where 71% of the population can speak Welsh and where Welsh is the working language of a county administration?
European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-02-01
Topic: International Affairs
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): I want to make a few brief points about this Bill. Of course, Wales is a net beneficiary of the EU, receiving £245 million, or £79 per person, more than we pay in. In rural constituencies such as mine, that funding makes an impact way beyond what this figure implies. For rural communities, the common agricultural policy is the most important financial contribution that the EU makes, yet the Conservative party stands ready to switch off these vital support mechanisms that are essential to our already struggling isolated communities, with no indication of how it will make good the damage, or even whether it intends to I shall spend a few sentences exploring the increasingly divisive and much-misused word "freedom". It was its antonym, "control", that dominated the leave campaign’s market-tested propaganda, but it was an almost messianic pursuit of this most emotive of concepts, freedom, that drove us to break free from Brussels. [Interruption.] "Freedom to" and "freedom from" are the opposing and disputed understandings of liberty that have arguably underpinned the political divide for centuries. However, if we strip away much of the leave campaign’s divisive and reprehensible rhetoric, we find that it is its dogmatic belief in a freedom from Brussels that catalyses its distrust of the EU. In its polarised, simplistic view, now that we are free from the Eurocrats, once again the sun will never set on our shores. [Interruption.]
European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-02-01
Topic: International Affairs
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): I am most grateful for that intervention. We do not have many days to discuss this, and there are many of us who have waited in this Chamber all the while to do so, as we were required to. The least we can do is listen to each other’s contributions From what are we truly free? From workers’ rights and employment protections; from greater unity with our friends and neighbours; from free trade; and from progress. In reality, our so-called freedom from the EU will undermine our freedom—our freedom to achieve our potential. Our businesses will no longer have the freedom to export and import the goods we rely on. Our children will face greater challenges if they are to work and live in the countries that we have had the unfettered freedom to enjoy. The freedom to take back control? We have gained nothing but the illusion of control My party will always work in the national interest of Wales. My colleagues and I will therefore vote against this Bill on the grounds that this Government have failed to ensure Wales’s national best interests. Our economy and the role of devolved legislation are disregarded in this Bill. I am confident that the people of Wales did not vote for poverty and did not vote for our economy to bear the brunt of Brexit.
Article 50 — House of Commons, 2017-01-24
Topic: International Affairs
Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The Welsh Labour Government and Plaid Cymru, as the official Opposition, have come together in good faith to establish our Brexit aims, which were published yesterday as a White Paper. Why will the Secretary of State not do likewise?
Wales Bill — House of Commons, 2017-01-24
Topic: Macroeconomics
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Does not the Secretary of State share my concern that the needs-based factor will be based on sums ascertained in 2009-10, which will be effectively 10 years old when it comes into effect? There should be a review before it starts.
Wales Bill — House of Commons, 2017-01-24
Topic: Macroeconomics
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): I am sure that the House will join me in wishing the best to my hon. Friend the Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards), who is expecting the imminent arrival of the latest member of his family. [Hon. Members: "Hear, hear."] I sympathise with all MPs who have to balance family life and parliamentary duty I, of course, welcome to an extent the fact that a fiscal framework is on the verge of being in place, giving the Welsh Government a degree of financial accountability that is intrinsic for any functioning democratic Parliament. Judgment is still very much out, however, on whether it can really deliver the economic accountability and levers for growth that are required in this tumultuous time. I therefore want to start with a few brief comments about the framework’s ambition, or lack thereof. I then want to ask the Minister a specific question about how the framework will operate before finally discussing the capital expenditure limit outlined in amendment 9 Despite finally having this fiscal framework in place, we still lag behind every other devolved Administration in terms of powers and responsibilities. Earlier today—like most days—we were embroiled in the Brexit conundrum and all its unravelling economic implications, but the Government’s insistence on a patchwork approach to devolution means that Wales will not have the real levers for growth that it needs at this most difficult of economic times. If the Conservative party wants to talk about the real opportunities that a single market and customs union exit brings for Wales, it should be looking at the fiscal levers for growth, including VAT, the most important tax for Wales, and how it could be devolved. I hope the Minister will indicate that he plans to review the framework in the light of recent developments to ensure that Wales has such fiscal levers I briefly want to touch on a technical point that my party colleague, Adam Price AM, has already raised with the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Finance Secretary. The much trumpeted relative need provision of the fiscal framework—the 115% rule, which is referred to as the Holtham floor—was based on a set of criteria that determined Wales’s relative need in 2009-10. There seem to be no plans to conduct a review of that relative need when the floor is set to be implemented approximately three years from now, meaning that those relative needs will be based on figures that are 10 years out of date. This was discussed briefly in earlier interventions, but the 115% rule surely cannot be set in stone for all time, so I ask the Minister to propose a review to investigate that.
Wales Bill — House of Commons, 2017-01-24
Topic: Macroeconomics
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): I welcome those comments about periodic reviews as opposed to using 10-year-old statistics. I also have some concerns about the framework’s dispute resolution mechanism, but there may not be the time to discuss them here. We may be able to resolve that problem in future discussions I want to finish by emphasising the fact that both Governments lack ambition. In the Lords, Plaid Cymru called for a £2 billion capital expenditure limit, which was supported by Labour. However, under pressure from the devo-sceptic Tory party, we can see in amendment 9 that we are left with a capital expenditure limit of exactly half that. Although I am pleased that a fiscal framework is finally in place, I cannot avoid the observation that Wales is once again being short-changed through a lack of vision and ambition.
Wales Bill — House of Commons, 2017-01-24
Topic: Environment
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): I rise to speak to the second group of amendments, led by amendment 10. My noble Friend Lord Wigley originally welcomed the Government’s announcement that they would devolve power over water, and in Committee he eloquently outlined how an historic wrong could be righted. He set out in great depth how the drowning of Welsh valleys has motivated his politics and the emotions of so many people in Wales, and how 50 years ago in Capel Celyn the compulsory eviction of families from their homes and land meant the destruction of whole communities. Llyn Celyn and Afon Tryweryn are in my constituency The high-handed way in which Westminster treated the people of Tryweryn still has repercussions in this place, as well as in communities across Wales. Amendment 30, in which the so-called water protocol is outlined, embodies the entrenched Tory resistance to addressing this injustice in any meaningful terms. What format the so-called protocol may take has never been fleshed out. In this Bill, we do not have a protocol or a draft protocol, and for that matter we do not have an outline of a draft protocol or a protocol by which to arrive at a protocol. However, despite that lack of clarity, the Government are willing to include clauses watering down this already thin provision Lords amendment 31 explicitly charges Welsh Ministers with the interest of English consumers when it comes to any changes to our water supply. It is important to note that the amendment specifically references English consumers. We are not concerned with communities or individuals even, but consumers matter and Wales’s natural resources are still not ours to dispose of to our best advantage. That is because the Government are prioritising the primacy of competition over the interests of Wales. The amendment refers us to the Water Industry Act 1991 to define consumers, but that Act was based on promoting competition. Does this mean that the protocol will be based on the Thatcherite dogma that the wellbeing of the consumer—in this case, the water consumer—is tied up with the tenets of free market competition?