argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend very much; he is absolutely right to draw attention to defence spending. It is great that the German Chancellor also now sees the importance of that. For a long time, my hon. Friend and I have been campaigning for Germany to shoulder more of the cost of defence in Europe, and that is a good thing. We have seen massive increases in our defence spending, but we want to make sure it is targeted on things such as tackling cyber and disinformation and all the modern forms of warfare in which Putin specialises.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my right hon. Friend and the Defence Secretary on their brilliant work at this very difficult time. Mr Putin is a bully, and bullies recognise only one thing: military force. If we are to fight for the freedom that we claim to hold so dear, we have to pay to defend it. Will my right hon. Friend go back to the EU and NATO, in particular, and say that we have to raise our spending budgets to at least 3% to have more planes, more ships and more men to deter Russia and not to wage war, but to prevent one from happening?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): We have seen a 10% increase in defence spending in this country, and we will sustain that increase in defence spending. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right about the financing of Putin’s armed forces; the tragedy is that they have been financed from the proceeds of the sale of Russian oil and gas to western European nations. That is what has got to end.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
John Charles Baron (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the statement and commend the Prime Minister and his Government on their robust approach, but I hope that he will take away from today’s exchanges the strong cross-party support for tougher sanctions now, because they are what is needed. Given the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the fact that we have now entered a new era in the battle for democracy globally, will he now consider a substantial and sustained increase in defence spending, well above the 2.4% that is required to ensure stability and peace in our time? Jaw-jaw, if indeed there is room for it in future, will be more effective with stronger armed forces.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I am proud of the very substantial uplift that we have been able to provide in our defence spending. We are the fastest-growing economy in the G7 as a result of the measures that this Government have taken. I am confident that we will be able to continue to give our armed forces the investment that they need.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the Baltic states and Poland. As he knows, in Poland we have increased our support with another 350 Royal Marines from 45 Commando, and in Estonia we have doubled our presence in Tapa to 2,000. We are doing more in the high north, as well as in Romania and elsewhere, and we will continue to keep all these projects under constant review, but we and other European countries are stiffening the eastern frontier of NATO.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is completely right. One of the things that this House will have to consider in the weeks ahead, as we continue to lead the world in our support for Ukraine, is the blowback for this country. We must be absolutely frank that there will be cyber-attacks. We must understand that and be prepared for it, which is why we are investing massively in cyber-preparedness, with another £2.6 billion to help fortify our defences. As the House knows, there are many vulnerable parts of our system, and we must protect them.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
Fay Alicia Jones (Conservative, Centre-right): I commend the Prime Minister’s statement. There are significant numbers of UK armed forces personnel in Estonia as part of Operation Cabrit, and I know that everyone in this House is enormously grateful to them for their work. I am reassured that we have already increased our forward presence in Estonia, but will my right hon. Friend confirm that he will continue to give our armed forces all the resource they might need over the coming weeks and months?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-22
Topic: Defense
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, we certainly will. It was very good to talk to Prime Minister Kallas of Estonia the other day about Operation Cabrit and the UK troops at Tapa. She warmly welcomes them and the increase in their numbers, and she says that they are impeccably behaved—they are now, anyway.
Breast Cancer Screening — House of Commons, 2018-05-02
Topic: Health
Elizabeth Anne McInnes (Labour, Centre-left): I hope that the independent review will investigate this, but is the Secretary of State aware of any instances of GPs inquiring why patients who should have had a final breast screen were not invited to have one?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Health
Questions: Will the Home Secretary listen to the 50 organisations, including Save the Children and Amnesty International, that wrote a joint letter in The Times last week calling for the Ukraine crisis to lead to a rethink on the Nationality and Borders Bill, which discriminates against refugees depending on how they reach our shores?; Our failure to stop tens of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the English channel in the last few years has resulted in them being accommodated in hotels, often in completely inappropriate locations, including a site in Blackpool, at a cost of millions of pounds per week to the UK taxpayer. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that the Home Office can process the claims of those crossing the channel as soon as possible and reduce the huge cost to the taxpayer?; Scunthorpe and Ukraine have deep ties rooted in our steelworks and we are horrified by what is happening to our Ukrainian friends. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the support that she has just described will stay in place for however long it is needed?;   The Government should be rightly proud of the action taken to support our police officers, not least through the adoption of Harper’s law, which is due before this House later today. What more can my right hon. Friend do to ensure that police officers get all the mental health support they need, as advocated by the Green Ribbon Policing campaign?
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right in the case he makes about mental health, and I know that he is doing some great work on this as well. We are doing a huge amount in Government, working with the Department of Health and Social Care in particular, focusing on mental health support, such as the TRiM—trauma risk management—programme and things of that nature. I know he has a particular interest in this, and it is something I would like to discuss with him further.
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Culture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said earlier, we have a hit list of oligarchs that we are working through. My right hon. Friend the Culture Secretary is taking a very tough line on cultural activities, and we have seen a number of sporting events already cancelled.
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Defense
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, that sounds like a petition to the Chancellor about the Foreign Office’s budget, which I wholeheartedly agree with and support. My hon. Friend is right that this horrific invasion is a massive wake-up call to the west about our defence and the need to invest in NATO. I am pleased to see Germany committing 2% of its GDP to NATO. We need everybody to commit to that and we need to look at what more we can do to strengthen NATO, because we have taken European security for granted and we cannot do that any longer.
Sanctions — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Defense
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I discussed this issue with my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary this morning. We have a shipment, or rather a cargo, of medical supplies, and our Ministry of Defence is helping to facilitate that into Ukraine.
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Health
Steven John Baker (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Lady for that clarification. Like her, I would like people to have the freedom to get vaccinated, and I have said that throughout the crisis With apologies to my right hon. Friend the Minister—and he is a friend—I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman) and others. I commend to my right hon. Friend the Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick) just flirting with it—just get in that rebel Lobby with us. Let us say to the Government that actually this is going too far on noise. It is time to say, as the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Lloyd Russell-Moyle) vividly demonstrated, that yes protests are inherently noisy and annoying. If noise is ever used as a weapon, I am sure other instruments of law could be used.
Firefighters’ Pension Scheme — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Defense
Jane Marion Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I absolutely understand that, but this is about the discretionary element. As I see it, there is only one instance of this happening. The Prime Minister said at the time that the fire service could look at this, but the fire service does not believe that it can do so because of the rules and regulations. It is the discretionary element that I am interested in.
Firefighters’ Pension Scheme — House of Commons, 2022-02-28
Topic: Defense
Damian Patrick George Hinds (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. There is some limited ability under the rules for fire authorities to exercise some discretion on some decisions. That would involve, for example, determining whether a person was on duty or not at the time of an injury or death. However, the rules of the 1992 scheme do not provide a fire authority with the discretion to pay a pension to an individual who does not qualify for it.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-06-06
Topic: Health
Questions: Parents across Sevenoaks and Swanley are facing rising childcare costs. I know that there is a huge amount of support available, so can the Secretary of State update the House on what she is doing to simplify the system so that it is clearer to people what they are entitled to and easier for people to claim?; I congratulate the Minister on his campaign to increase the uptake of pension credit, which is a vital way of ensuring that our most vulnerable pensioner households get everything they are entitled to. Although more than 2,000 people in my constituency are already claiming pension credit, following recent announcements on cost of living support, where does my hon. Friend suggest that people look to check whether they are getting everything they are entitled to?
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid I just do not recognise the situation that the hon. Member mentions, and I do not know the basis of the academic report. What I do know is that we are getting more people into work. I do not know the status of health in Glasgow specifically, but I do know that it is part of the levelling-up mission of this Government to ensure that we reduce health inequality. In particular, I encourage her to continue to work with her public health authority to ensure that people are well prepared to go into work, but can also stay in work through occupational health services.
Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-02-02
Topic: Health
Lilian Rachel Greenwood (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is entirely right. The role of coroners is incredibly important, and there are a number of reasons why coroners are the right people to investigate such deaths. First, why should a baby’s death be treated differently from any other death? The coroner is an independent judicial office holder, and therefore the inquest will be truly independent and transparent. The coroner can address local issues at a particular hospital or unit, and they can refer to other statutory bodies, including the Care Quality Commission If a coroner makes a "prevent future deaths" report, it can be monitored closely. The family will be able to participate fully in the process, and not merely be consulted, and they will be able to have legal representation. The family will be able to attend the inquest to ask questions of the clinicians and managers concerned in the care, and they will receive full disclosure of all documents and policies in advance. A coroner’s inquest is heard in public, which ensures transparency of process and decision making. A coroner can of course recognise trends and, if necessary, impose improvement orders on provider organisations Jack and Sarah are concerned that the Bill commits to review, not to a definite change in the law, so I hope the Minister will listen carefully, acknowledge what the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has already said and not let down my constituents Speaking in the media, Jack and Sarah said that they want to make their daughter proud. They surely make us all proud. We owe it to them to make this change in the law. Please support this Bill.
National Security Bill — House of Commons, 2022-06-06
Topic: Defense
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): Definitions are important, of course, but on a case-by-case basis much of the work will link to the activity and the intelligence that is provided about the individual. All sorts of elements could come together to make that case. As I have touched on, much of this will be done on a case-by-case basis; it will be based on intelligence, on the conduct of the individual involved, on the impact they would have on our national security and on the threat they pose The Bill will create two offences relating to access to prohibited places—sites that are vital to our national security. One will require a person to be acting for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK; the other, which carries a lesser sentence, applies to unauthorised conduct. There are sensitive sites that are particularly vulnerable to threats from foreign powers. We need greater scope to respond to new tactics and particularly to technology. The Bill will give us that ability There is a serious threat from state-linked attacks on assets, including sites, data, and infrastructure critical to the UK’s safety or interests. The sabotage offence will likewise apply where a person knows, or ought reasonably to know, that their conduct is prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK and where the foreign power condition is met. It, too, comes with a maximum sentence of life Starting on 27 February last year, at least 17 different Chinese-linked threat actors simultaneously took advantage of flaws in Microsoft Exchange. They were able to access email accounts, acquire data and deploy malware. The attacks affected more than a quarter of a million servers worldwide. Victims included the Norwegian Parliament and the European Banking Authority It is completely unacceptable for the integrity of our democracy to be threatened by state threats. In January, I made a statement to the House about an individual who knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist party and targeted Members of Parliament for a number of years. As I said in January, "this kind of activity has recently become more common, with states that have malign intentions operating covertly and below current criminal thresholds in an attempt to interfere with our democracy."—[Official Report, 17 January 2022; Vol. 707, c. 23.] The individual in question had links to the United Front Work Department, which is part of the Chinese Communist party, and had not been open about the nature of these links. Meanwhile, China has sanctioned critics of its regime, including Members of this House. That is not remotely conducive to open and honest discussion made in good faith.
National Security Bill — House of Commons, 2022-06-06
Topic: Defense
Priti Sushil Patel (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention on this very point. This is an area of great interest, primarily because of the type of cases we have seen. There is no question about that. I am afraid I have been subject to too many examples of cases of this nature. I am more than happy to speak to him and others about this. We need to get the approach right, and we will. People do move forward and change in life, but that is a separate issue. As was mentioned earlier, currently we are trying to address specific lacunae This Bill will amend the Serious Crime Act 2007 to better protect those in the security and intelligence agencies and the Ministry of Defence when discharging vital national security functions. It will also enable more effective joined-up working with international partners to improve not only our operational agility, which my right hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes) has already touched on, but how we can be flexible going forward to address the changing landscape of threats It is worth remembering that things and situations can change for the better, as well as for the worse. Some of the UK’s closest allies today are countries with whom we have fought wars in the past, and we regularly develop new tools to keep us safe. The point is that none of this happens by chance. We should all reflect that when the Berlin wall fell back in 1989, some people thought that liberal democracy had won and history as we knew it then was at an end, yet this year, as we all know, Russia launched an unprovoked war against a neighbour It is right that we are vigilant, and we have to be vigilant every day, all the time. We cannot think in terms of just keeping up—we have to be several steps ahead. That is why the Bill is state-agnostic, but we need to be ready to face threats from wherever they may emanate, and the threat landscape is changing Keeping our country safe is not exclusively a matter for Government. It is also a matter for us as legislators. It is vital to come together on these measures and, as I have said several times, the measures in the Bill were drawn up after extensive consultation. They will mean that our courageous law enforcement and intelligence agencies will have the powers they need to keep us safe. We will have the ability to bring those who mean us harm to justice and, at the same time, to evolve and respond in an agile way to those threats. I urge the whole House to send a clear message to our adversaries that we will put the safety of the British people first by getting behind the Bill. I commend it to the House.
National Security Bill — House of Commons, 2022-06-06
Topic: Defense
Robert William Henry Seely (Conservative, Centre-right): If I understand correctly—perhaps my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis) will be able to help me on this—the Ministry of Defence is covered by the Defence Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the agencies and the Intelligence and Security Committee, but who covers Director Special Forces? That seems to be a bit of an oversight black hole. Where does it fit in? This does not seem to be arousing people’s attention thus far.
National Security Bill — House of Commons, 2022-06-06
Topic: Defense
Robert William Henry Seely (Conservative, Centre-right): I am talking about the oversight of the DSF—Director Special Forces. Arguably, at the moment, it does not fall within the remit of the Ministry of Defence. It does not fall within the remit of the Foreign Affairs Committee and it does not fall within the remit of the Intelligence and Security Committee. Does my right hon. Friend think that it needs oversight, and how would he provide oversight of that rarified world that exists between the agencies and traditional defence?
Capita — House of Commons, 2018-04-24
Topic: Defense
Wayne David (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the Government’s recognition that Capita is not delivering on its contract for Army recruitment, but rather than Capita simply introducing an improvement plan, would it not be better for the Government to consider bringing contracts back in-house so that Army recruitment is conducted by the Army? That is what the Army wants.
GKN — House of Commons, 2018-04-24
Topic: Defense
Gavin Shuker (Labour, Centre-left): Workers at GKN’s Luton plant in my constituency are world leaders in ice protection systems for flight-deck windows and fast-jet canopies, and I believe they will share my dismay that the assurances the Secretary of State has put in place amount to little more than the new management picking up the phone and informing him before it does things that damage our national security and national interest. Is not the reality of the quasi-judicial nature of the decision-making process that he and future Secretaries of State will always veer on the side of caution, rather than face the prospect of being challenged in court when a takeover goes through?
National Security Bill — House of Commons, 2022-06-06
Topic: Defense
Steven John Baker (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. The other question was, where are these sites, and why are they necessary? What is the standard of the places in which people are being detained? I could name some forts and other secure places owned by the Army. Is that what we are talking about, and if so, why?