argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
BBC Funding — House of Lords, 2022-01-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Stephen Parkinson (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend makes two pertinent points on the basis of his considerable experience. As I said, it is not unusual for this much-loved, much-cherished national institution to attract political comment from all quarters from time to time. That is as it should be. We all do it from a position of wanting the best for the corporation and to ensure that it can survive and thrive for its next 100 years. My noble friend is right to reinforce the point that £3.7 billion from licence fee payers this year, at a time when people’s bills and costs of living are rising, is a fair settlement that enables the BBC to continue doing the excellent things that it does, but in a way that shows that it understands how businesses and households across the country are having to tighten their belts—looking at how they can do what they do more efficiently and get more bang for their buck.
BBC Funding — House of Lords, 2022-01-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Stephen Parkinson (Conservative, Centre-right): The number of people attending protests is often disputed by the people who take part, the police and the reports that are made of them, so I hope that my noble friend will forgive me if I am not drawn into my assessment of the protest or of the reports. The BBC is editorially independent. It reports the news in an independent way; it grapples with often highly politically charged issues as it does so, and it has a means for people who feel that its bulletins are not fair to make their voices heard and seek redress. That is one of the reasons why it is so cherished.
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-25
Topic: Other
Alastair Cooke (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Evelyn Waugh once said that the problem with the Tory party is that it "never put the clock back by a single second." Is it not rather wonderful that it is now putting the clock back by 11 whole years?
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-13
Topic: Mixed Topics
Syed Kamall (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, for the amendments and the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, for her opening remarks. I also thank the noble Baroness for her suggestion yesterday that it might make my life a lot easier if I just accepted amendments. I understand that advice, having just gone through a two-hour debate on the previous group A number of noble Lords referred to how these amendments relate to our previous debate on inequalities. I point out that that is sometimes not quite in the way that we would expect. We might think there is a direct connection, but sometimes the green agenda can be seen to be for those who can afford it—as I explained before, for the white, middle-class, patronising people who tell immigrant working-class communities what to do and push up their costs. Anti-car policies push up costs for those in rural areas, and there are higher fuel costs as we replace gas boilers with potentially more expensive heat pumps. We have to be aware of those issues. In the long term, I am optimistic. I look forward to the day when we have solar power and wind power, with storage capacity, which will reduce costs.
Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Thomas Ashton (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I have it in command from Her Majesty the Queen to acquaint the House that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill, has consented to her place her interest, so far as it is affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the purposes of the Bill Motion
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Other
Thomas Ashton (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, before we commence proceedings on the Bill, I will outline the plan for today. We will shortly begin the eighth day in Committee on the Bill. There is no other business, but we will take a short break around 2 pm. We will sit until 7 pm. At the outset, I thank the staff of the House for supporting this additional lengthy Friday sitting, both those here in the Chamber and those who do the enormous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to get the House up and running I fear that noble Lords know what I will say next. I do not want to deny the House the fullest chance to scrutinise this Bill. As over 40 hours have been devoted to that end, not even my fiercest critics could say that time for debate has been curtailed. However, we still have a lot of amendments to get through. I know, based on the experience of last Wednesday, that good progress can be made. I know that the Front Benches will work to ensure that their contributions are concise and to the point and I hope that all noble Lords will do the same We should perhaps bear in mind the late, great Nicholas Parsons and make our speeches without repetition, hesitation or deviation and perhaps for just a minute. This is a self-governing House, so all I can do is ask and implore noble Lords to respect the conventions and courtesies of the House to ensure effective and efficient scrutiny of this legislation.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rosalind Altmann (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I support the thrust of the amendments laid by the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett. I fully agree with her that there is a systemic problem in the care home sector In 1991, the community care Act reforms meant social care was transferred from a public sector function—or NHS function when it came to nursing homes—to what was called a mixed market. But, having observed the worsening care crisis, the financial engineering, the periodic failure of large care home operators and the inadequacy of regulation or oversight of their financial backing, I cannot help but urge my noble friends on the Front Bench to look urgently at the need for much greater controls. Southern Cross and Four Seasons Health Care have been in and out of insolvency or near bankruptcy for the past few years, but there are still inadequate controls on their ownership structure.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Other
Rosalind Altmann (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, and I too commend the noble Baroness, Lady Deech—my noble friend, really—for all her work in this area. I particularly thank my noble friends the Minister and Lord Bethell, who I know have listened carefully and responded in the most compassionate and caring way. They have done a great service for many women across the country. I thank my noble friend for these amendments.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Joanna Penn (Conservative, Centre-right): I believe it is being conducted this year, but I will check that and come back to my noble friend and all other Members of the Committee, because I know there is significant concern on that point On the timing of the restrictions on television, Ofcom research suggests that children’s viewing peaks in the hours after school, with the largest number of child viewers concentrated between 6 pm and 9 pm. In this period, half of children’s viewing takes place during adult commercial programming. We do not therefore believe that introducing advertising restrictions only on the weekend is sufficient to meet our policy objectives We are committed to ensuring that businesses are supported now and when the regime comes into force. We will, of course, consult on the secondary legislation and guidance, which should give stakeholders more clarity. However, in response to Amendments 245, 255, 256, 257 and 317, we believe that the overall policy direction has been set out effectively and we do not think that there is a need to add the kind of gap between publication of final guidance and implementation, as proposed by my noble friend’s amendment In response to Amendments 249A, 252A and 257A, I can assure your Lordships that we will conduct a post-implementation review five years after implementation. This is intended to be based on the variables set out in the impact assessment, published in June 2021. However, the Government believe that further tying down of the criteria at this stage would be counterproductive. We will also use this opportunity to look at any displacement of advertising to other media not covered by the restrictions, such as outdoor advertising However, in response to Amendment 244A, there is insufficient evidence at this stage of the influence of further national advertising restrictions in other media on calorie consumption in children, which is why these restrictions focus on TV and online only. We would also advise against adding a sunset clause, as it would pre-empt this evaluative work and could undermine compliance. We have heard quite a bit from noble Lords about the need for certainty on the Government’s approach in this area. I say to my noble friend that a sunset clause on these regulations would undermine that case.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Michael Ian Grade (Conservative, Centre-right): Before my noble friend sits down, can she give the House some sense of what the Government would regard as success as a result of the advertising ban? Is there some target of reduction that they expect to see at the end of five years as a result of this ridiculous ban?
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Other
Joanna Penn (Conservative, Centre-right): I believe that I said that the criteria for measuring the success of this policy have been set out in the impact assessment. I will happily send that to my noble friend. I do not think that it is a finalised list. We have discussed in this Committee the difficulty of assessing success, so we would not want to preclude new research or information that would help us to assess our approach better in future. My noble friend was right in anticipating that I was about to conclude. This has been a substantial group of amendments—
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Other
Joanna Penn (Conservative, Centre-right): The date that I have for the commissioning of the work is 2016, which means that we are even further down the road on that piece of work. I am well aware of the time that has passed since then. I will undertake to see if I can provide any update beyond "in due course", but I do not want to raise noble Lords’ hopes too far on that I hope that I have been able to provide noble Lords across the Chamber with assurances as to our plans and, therefore, that noble Lords will feel able not to press their amendments.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Other
Frederick Richard Penn Curzon (Conservative, Centre-right): I hope that my noble friend will forgive me but, as he was not here at the beginning of the debate, strictly speaking it is not permitted for him to speak. If he could make his remarks brief, I am sure that would be appropriate; I do not want to stop him mid-flow.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Other
Frederick Richard Penn Curzon (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I rather wish it were my noble friend Lord Kamall handling this group because he is the Minister, and I am not. However, what I can do is undertake to bring the request of the noble Lord to his attention—I am sure I do not have to—and I am sure he, in turn, will wish to respond as soon as possible to that request.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Michael Morris (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I have never smoked and I have no wish to smoke, but I am a marketing man by profession. We have here a legal product, the consumption of which has been steadily falling, particularly in recent years, in every age group throughout the country.
Conduct Committee — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Civil Rights
Patrick Cormack (Conservative, Centre-right): At the end insert "and as its first task it seeks to ensure the protection of freedom of speech so that nothing can prevent the full and frank exchange of honestly held opinions in the course of Parliamentary proceedings."
Conduct Committee — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Civil Rights
Guy Mansfield (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, very simply, this is a question of jurisdiction. If the current practice of the House is that we have—certainly before I was a Member—given jurisdiction, whether knowingly or not, to the commissioner to investigate, that is absolutely contrary to Article 9 of the Bill of Rights. He now has power under this to investigate. If we have done this by some sort of side wind, that power must be taken away. He must not have the jurisdiction to do it. Unless it is following a complaint, it is done on the Motion of the House, specifically on a case-by-case basis. As I understand it, it is open to this House to direct that there be an investigation into the conduct of a Member, but that must not happen simply because someone, somewhere, makes a complaint. It is an important jurisdiction question. This power should be taken away from the commissioner, unless in a specific case he or she is asked to investigate as a servant of the House. But it must be case by case. It should never happen and should not relate to things which are said in the House unless they are clearly out of order, offensive, criminal or something else.
Nationality and Borders Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Immigration
Thomas Ashton (Conservative, Centre-right): That it be an instruction to the Committee of the Whole House to which the Nationality and Borders Bill has been committed that they consider the bill in the following order: Clauses 1 to 8, Schedule 1, Clauses 9 to 22, Schedule 2, Clauses 23 to 28, Schedule 3, Clauses 29 to 41, Schedule 4, Clause 42, Schedule 5, Clauses 43 and 44, Schedule 6, Clauses 45 and 46, Schedule 7, Clauses 47 to 84, Title.
Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Daniel Hannan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I have a great deal of sympathy with the amendment that the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, just moved, and I say that as somebody who was not a fan of the Belfast agreement when it was signed. I opposed it, I hasten to add, not on orange or green grounds but on democratic grounds—being Ulster Catholic on one side and Scots Presbyterian on the other, I always felt I had a bit of a personal stake in power-sharing. However, I did not like the way that there was no proper opposition, the way it enshrined all the parties being in office, and the implication that things would become a scramble to reward supporters of those parties with public sector positions. I lost that argument—Northern Ireland went in a different direction and there is now a consensus behind it However, having gone down that road, it seems, as the noble Baroness says, that this is closing a loophole. We have decided to create these two positions as effectively coequal. The only difference between them is one of nomenclature, and if that is causing a sense of inequality or, if you like, forced competition in elections, as the noble Baroness said, it seems a quite small alteration that this amendment would address. Of course, I understand that the Bill is primarily about something else but I reiterate her call and hope that my noble friend the Minister will keep it under consideration.
Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Daniel Hannan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I have not heard anyone really deny the central point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey. I have heard some brilliant and enlightening speeches but even that gorgeous threnody of the noble Lord, Lord Bew, for past agreements, his great melody against it, did not defy the central point that cross-community consent was supposed to be the basis for every major decision. The pact that we made with the communities of Northern Ireland was that important constitutional issues of this kind would not be decided by simple majoritarianism but would require the consent of both communities. As the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, says, that was the basis on which the whole previous dispensation was overturned, so we cannot in conscience arbitrarily withhold that principle on this one issue. I will therefore support the noble Baroness’s amendment.
Subsidy Control Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Other
Michael Bruce Forsyth (Conservative, Centre-right): I know we have had Covid, but I can still ask a question at Second Reading, even though it is unusual. Can my noble friend explain why the guidance and the information that he is describing has not been made available before we got to Second Reading?
Subsidy Control Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): I will reflect on that, speak to officials and write to the noble Lord about the appropriate definition, is that is okay with him I will respond to the question from my noble friend Lord Trenchard, the noble Lord, Lord Fox, and others about transparency thresholds. Regarding thresholds at which subsidies are uploaded to the database, I listened carefully to the debate in the other place and the comments from noble Lords this evening. In our view, the current transparency provisions seek to strike a balance between reducing the administrative burdens and costs to public authorities and ensuring that the necessary information on subsidies is available. In our view, this is vital to ensure that interested parties are able to challenge potentially harmful subsidies. However, I accept that there is a legitimate debate about the level at which those thresholds are placed Let me conclude by reaffirming what I said in my opening remarks. In our view this Bill creates a robust yet agile system that allows public authorities to provide subsidies where they are needed most. At the same time, it will allow us to maintain a competitive free-market economy as we build back better from the pandemic, and to chart a new course as an independent trading nation. I look forward to discussing many of these points further in Committee, but in the meantime, I commend this Bill to the House.
Downing Street Event — House of Lords, 2022-01-11
Topic: Other
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, first I will address what the noble Baroness said in the opening part of her remarks, which will strike a chord with the whole House. Frankly, there is not a single Member of this House—including me, if I may say so—who will not have experienced peculiar personal sadness in the unparalleled circumstances of Covid. We should take that as a fact to which we pay due honour and respect. So far as the event to which she alludes is concerned, I can only repeat that investigations are taking place and the findings of those investigations will be made public.
Downing Street Event — House of Lords, 2022-01-11
Topic: Other
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it will not please the noble Lord opposite, but I repeat that a fair truth in a democracy is that it would not be appropriate to comment on or prejudge the outcome of an investigation. I agree with what was said by the leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, who stated on air that we should let the investigation play out and take its course.
Downing Street Event — House of Lords, 2022-01-11
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I would answer in a similar tone to that in which I replied to the noble Baroness. I pay huge respect to the role of the clergy and faith leaders of all faiths and to their support for people. I understand, as does everyone, the collective pain that has been suffered, but there is also due process, and it is important that the investigation be allowed to run its course and the facts laid out. A number of people are alleged to have been involved in these incidents; let us see the outcome of the investigation.
Downing Street Event — House of Lords, 2022-01-11
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I believe it is a wise course in human events and in life generally to act on the basis of full facts. I have assured the House that the investigation is being conducted swiftly. It will establish the facts, and if wrongdoing is established, there will be requisite disciplinary action. However, I agree with what Sir Keir said, that the investigation should be allowed to run its course.
Building Safety — House of Lords, 2022-01-11
Topic: Housing
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I commend the Minister for his tireless work over the past few months, which has led to this very welcome initiative. Will he clarify two points that arose from the exchange in another place yesterday? First, when asked about costs relating to fire doors and external wall insulation, the Secretary of State said that "the freeholders, as the ultimate owners of these buildings, will be held responsible for all the work that is required, and we will make sure that leaseholders are not on the hook." He then confirmed this in a subsequent reply to Matthew Offord, saying: "It is our intention that the ultimate owner of a building is responsible for all of the safety steps that are required, and we will use statutory means in order to ensure that that happens."—[Official Report, Commons, 10/1/22; col. 301.] I read that as saying that leaseholders are protected for all safety steps, not just dealing with cladding. Secondly, while the Secretary of State repeatedly promised statutory protection for leaseholders, it is not clear what they should do about bills sitting on their mantelpiece for work completed or under way but not paid for. Do those leaseholders have statutory protection?
Building Safety — House of Lords, 2022-01-11
Topic: Housing
Stephen Greenhalgh (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend always asks very pertinent questions and he knows this issue inside out. Rather than obfuscating this, I will give the straight answer. Of course, in protecting the leaseholders, someone else has to pay—that is the thrust of the question from my noble friend. When it comes to cladding, there is now funding in place and a plan to deliver that without touching anyone beyond the polluter, if we can get back the money put up by the taxpayer. Some leaseholders have obviously borne the brunt of the costs as well and that is regrettable. We cannot apply these protections retrospectively but, by having the reset statement issued by my right honourable friend, we can ensure that we protect many thousands—potentially hundreds of thousands—more leaseholders from being affected in the future by having those statutory protections in place.