argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Trade Union Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-16
Topic: Mixed Topics
Patrick Cormack (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I was very glad to add my name to the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Burns, because it seeks to translate into the Bill the substance of that admirable report that we debated in some detail a week ago. I said then that I had had my misgivings about whether it was right to establish a Select Committee with a very strict timetable; I also said that my initial reaction had been wrong, because the committee did an exceptionally diligent and thorough job and produced a very coherent and convincing report I have made plain all along my misgivings about these two clauses because of what I believed was their inherent—though, I am glad to accept, unintended—unfairness. I was gently chided last week by a colleague for wearing a red tie; I deliberately wear a blue one today because I believe that in what I say I am being entirely true to one-nation Conservatism and not in any way reneging on party commitments. I say to my noble friends on this side of the House, as I have before, that if our party and its philosophy stand for anything it is for fairness and choice. I believe that one should do to others as one would wish to be done by and I do not wish to be party to a move that would seriously disadvantage one of the great parties of this country, particularly at a time when it is going through its own special problems, which I hope will soon be over. But what the noble Lord, Lord Burns, is suggesting is fair and consistent with the recommendations of his report. There were two alternatives in paragraph 142 and, effectively, we are advancing paragraph 142(a), which was the majority choice of the committee. Clearly, paragraph 142(b), which advocates a long transitional period, is also worthy of consideration This is a sensible, modest proposal that the noble Lord, Lord Burns, is advancing and it deserves support in all parts of the House. It in no way invalidates the manifesto commitments of my party, which were somewhat loosely worded, as the noble Lord, Lord Burns, has made plain, and I do not think it damages in any way what the Government are seeking to do. The noble Lord, Lord Burns, has made it plain that he believes, as I do, that opt-in is the better solution. But we do not have to advance on that at such a pace that we seriously disadvantage one of the great parties of the realm and unbalance our democracy in the process. I very much hope that this modest amendment can be accepted by my noble friend the Minister without a Division but if a Division is called, my name is on the amendment and my vote will be with my name.
Trade Union Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-16
Topic: Other
Douglas Hogg (Conservative, Centre-right): That, truth to tell, is a matter of negotiation. My noble friend Lord Forsyth and I have often negotiated in the past. When one seeks a compromise, one negotiates: one sees what will meet the general will. I cannot go further than that. One problem with the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Burns, is that it does not contemplate an active moment when existing members will be covered by the new provisions. That matter also needs to be addressed and is wholly uncovered by the terms of his amendment.
Trade Union Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-16
Topic: Other
Douglas Hogg (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course I can—I am not the Minister, nor am I in the business of negotiating. When we were on the Front Bench together, we often had to negotiate about policy, one with the other. If I was in the business of negotiating, I would have a proposition to put forward. All I am saying to the Minister is that, if she were to be generous in her approach, I suspect that would get a lot of support in this House.
Trade Union Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-16
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrew Robathan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I shall be very brief in supporting my noble friend Lord Leigh. I wish to bring up one point. In the last debate, the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, reflected that the amounts we are talking about are trivial—less than 5p per member contributing to a pension fund a week. That is trivial, but the point is that the amount we are talking about is nearly £24 million a year, or nearly £125 million over the life of a Parliament. We should realise that these are not small amounts. They have an impact on the causes that my noble friend mentioned, and on donations to political parties or whatever. It is important that we bear in mind that this is a large amount of money and we should not dismiss it just because most people do not know that they are even paying into it.
Trade Union Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-16
Topic: Other
Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Conservative, Centre-right): I am just checking whether, if I withdraw my amendment, I can then retable it if, after consideration, that seems appropriate. I understand that if I make my intentions clear—which sounds like a good principle—I can bring it back. I will certainly withdraw it today and look at the provision in the way that I have suggested. But I give notice that I will return to it because it is an important provision that tries to respond to the concerns of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, on which I know the noble Lord serves I have said that I will reflect further on the technical reporting requirements to ensure that they do what we intend. I have set out why I do not believe that a further review of reporting requirements on top of the excellent work done by the Select Committee is necessary and I have agreed to hold the government amendment over to Third Reading. In the circumstances, I hope that noble Lords will not press their amendments.
Litvinenko Inquiry — House of Lords, 2016-01-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Patrick Cormack (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, my noble friend has rightly paid tribute to the courage and dignity of the widow and the bereaved son. Can he give the House an assurance that he is utterly confident of their security in this country and of their financial security for the future?
Litvinenko Inquiry — House of Lords, 2016-01-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Michael Bates (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a very good point, and it is characteristic of my noble friend to focus on the humanitarian aspects of this matter. I do not have a sufficient understanding of the situation but I give an undertaking to ensure that it is on the agenda when the Home Secretary meets Marina and Anatoly Litvinenko to make sure that any personal needs they have are met.
Litvinenko Inquiry — House of Lords, 2016-01-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the Minister has outlined the carelessness with which this material was treated here in the United Kingdom. With regard to how this material came to enter the country in the current security context, can he say whether there are proposals to review the systems that we have in place? We are used to being checked thoroughly as we go out of the country but it seems that we do not have any systems for checking that people do not enter the country with this kind of material. Do we need any such systems?
Litvinenko Inquiry — House of Lords, 2016-01-21
Topic: Other
Michael Bates (Conservative, Centre-right): The report does not go into that level of detail—or certainly not the parts that I have read. That is something that will be examined very carefully because, again, that would ratchet up this issue to a further level of deep concern.
Women: Businesses — House of Lords, 2016-01-21
Topic: Civil Rights
Patience Wheatcroft (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply. Her determination to increase women’s input into the economy is clear, and I have no doubt that she will succeed. I thank everyone who has taken part in the debate today; we have heard some excellent speeches on a wide-ranging band of experience We have also heard two brilliant maiden speeches. When I made mine, I took the opportunity to apologise to anyone in this House whom I might have offended by what I had written in a previous incarnation. However, the noble Baroness, Lady Lane-Fox, was not a Member at that stage, so I take this opportunity to apologise to her. It was clear from her speech today that such is her passion for getting more women involved in tech, and for spreading the tech gospel, that it would be impossible ever to overhype the noble Baroness I know that the clock is against me so I shall wind up there. I thank all noble Lords for taking part.
Enterprise Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2016-04-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord for his very constructive response and reiterate my thanks to all noble Lords who have engaged in this. I look forward to our further debate On fees, the adjudicator has a power to give advice, so that will not have a charge. Once a referral is made, a fee of £200 is due. I will look further at the detail of what the noble Lord has said, in case there is something I can add. I will also write on the point that he raised about the detail of the adjudicator, so that that is entirely clear as well I believe that the changes that we have made, as I think the noble Lord has said, to the SBEE Act legislation and to the draft Pubs Code regulations should mean that all concerned can support these measures as a balanced package to deliver greater fairness—a word that he used—in the relationship between tied pubs and the pub-owning businesses. I very much hope that the industry and the tenants can look forward to a prosperous future.
Enterprise Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2016-04-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
James Peter Hymers Mackay (Conservative, Centre-right): I associate myself with a good deal of what the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, has said. In particular, strengthening the rights of those in the retail trade in relation to Sunday trading is very important. I am glad that, however it has come about, it has ultimately been a government proposal which I hope noble Lords will agree to very quickly.
Enterprise Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2016-04-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Amendment 30 removes the provision, introduced on Report by the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, regarding the Green Investment Bank. I pause to pay tribute to the noble Lord. I am very grateful for his thoughtful and well-reasoned proposal, which requires a special share to be created to protect the green purpose of the bank when it leaves public ownership. We were all in the same place on this objective and he helped the Government find a way through As the noble Lord and I have discussed, there is a significant risk that mandating this structure in the legislation itself would prevent the bank moving to the private sector, so the Government needed to remove the provision from the Bill. However, there will instead be a special share held by a separate company, independent from Government, which will have the right to approve—or, equally importantly, reject—any proposed change to the bank’s green purpose as set out in its articles of association I can confirm that the Government have consulted with the Office for National Statistics, the body which determines whether an organisation is classified to the public or private sector, on the basis of internationally agreed rules. The ONS Economic Statistics Classifications Committee has formally opined that this special share should not prevent the bank moving to the private sector once it is sold. The noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn, has suggested an amendment to bring out the ONS decision more clearly and I look forward to hearing his views on this. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Kelvin, for his leadership of the bank and, as chairman of the bank, for updating noble Lords on progress in putting this special share in place. Those letters are in the House Libraries Noble Lords will be aware that the Government launched their sale of the Green Investment Bank last month. In launching the sale, we made very clear to the market and potential bidders that this special share model will be in place. We laid a report before Parliament on 3 March, which included details of our plans to create a special share as part of the sale process. I therefore commend Amendment 30 to the House, and I beg to move Amendment to the Motion on Amendment 30
Enterprise Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2016-04-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am grateful for the response and for the support for these amendments. Similar to the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government can now determine how they want to take forward arrangements in relation to devolved bodies and workforces. The devolved Administrations will be responsible for putting forward their own regulations and listing relevant bodies in scope. As I made clear in introducing the amendments, they will enable Welsh Ministers to make regulations in respect of exit payments where they have devolved legislative competence for exit payments under the Government of Wales Act 2006. Therefore, the situation is different from those issues, which we will no doubt come on to debate later this afternoon The noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn, asked about the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority—a point that we have touched on before. Interestingly, as we discussed in relation to the previous amendment, the ONS is involved. It determines whether a body falls within the public sector by reference to objective criteria, based on whether the governance, funding, ownership and function of these bodies demonstrate that they are controlled by government. Organisations within the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority carry out important public work, acting as agents of and under the direction of the NDA and operating only through a licence issued by the Office for Nuclear Regulation The majority of funding provided to the NDA comes from the Exchequer and amounts to about £2 billion a year. Regulations, not the Bill itself, will set out who is within the scope of the cap, and I can reassure the noble Lord that the Treasury will release both the guidance and regulations in the summer in order to consult with stakeholders. We expect the regulations to come before this House later this year and to be in force from October 2016 at the earliest. NDA employees due to exit before this date will not be affected. From the point when the regulations have been made, Ministers will be able to relax the cap and may wish to consider whether exceptionally it should be relaxed for certain individuals or even organisations To conclude, as I said earlier, the Bill supports the UK’s position as the best place in Europe to start and grow a business. The amendments made in the other place make a series of changes to further support our aim, adding measures on apprenticeships, Sunday working, Wales, tidying up the pubs and on the Green Investment Bank, and making a number of technical changes. I thank all noble Lords who have spoken in the debates in this House and of course in the other place.
Enterprise Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2016-04-19
Topic: Other
Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord. My understanding is that the situation is different but we will no doubt have a debate later today—as I have already indicated. I do not think that we can spend further time in relation to this provision, which is clear cut and fully supported. I finish by thanking all those who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to facilitate the Bill’s passage through this House, including the House’s authorities, the Lord Speaker and the Bill team, who have worked so hard to get us to this place.
Trade Union Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Gummer (Conservative, Centre-right): I can get extremely angry about some things in this House. One thing I get angry about is when the obvious does not seem to be obvious quickly enough, so it is a great pleasure to say to my noble friend that this did become obvious quickly enough. That is very good However, I hope that we will not use this word "modernise" too often. I cannot understand why it is a more modern system to give money to the banks for a direct debit than to have it so much more conveniently done on the check-off system. There is nothing non-modern about the check-off system and I never understood why that argument was used. The crucial issue about all this is to enter into the lives and ways of living of the people who are affected by the legislation that we pass. I do not think that I could let this go by without pointing out that it was this House, with all the criticisms that are made of it, that more readily and clearly saw what the effect of this would be. Not only should Ministers take considerable comfort and credit for the changes that they have made, this House ought to take credit for the fact that this is what we are best at—saying, "I am not thinking about the politics or the arguments. I am just thinking about how this affects the people who will be involved in this particular Act" Earlier today I had to say to one of my noble friends, rather toughly, that I am unhappy about some of the supposed restrictions on how people should use government grants. The reason for that is that I try to enter into people’s minds, and I am not at all sure that I understand how you make the sort of distinctions which the Government are seeking to make. I could not understand why people could not use this system rather than another and I am thrilled that the Government have taken that on board. They have done so very generously and I pay considerable credit to them and to my noble friend Lord Balfe; throughout these debates he has shown understanding and clarity, and we are all indebted to him.
Trade Union Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-19
Topic: Other
James Stopford (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I ask the noble Baroness to give way. She knows as well as I do that this is Report stage of the Bill, and she can question the Minister on a material part of the Bill but she cannot make another speech.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2016-03-10
Topic: Other
John Taylor (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I will make a short Statement about business My noble friend the Leader of the House has today made the usual Written Statement to announce that Her Majesty the Queen will be pleased to open a new Session of Parliament on Wednesday 18 May. Parliament will be prorogued in the usual way on a date to be announced once the progress of our remaining business is certain. It may also be for the convenience of the House if I make some remarks about recess dates. To save noble Lords clutching for their diaries, a note of the dates will be available in the Printed Paper Office. I stress that I make this Statement with the usual caveat that these dates are subject to the progress of business—they are provisional dates We will adjourn for the early May Day bank holiday at the end of business on Thursday 28 April and return on Tuesday 3 May. For the Whitsun Recess, we will rise at the end of business on Thursday 26 May and return on Monday 6 June. Additionally, the House will adjourn at the end of business on 15 June and return on Monday 27 June. The House will rise for the Summer Recess at the conclusion of business on Thursday 21 July and return on Monday 5 September. We will then adjourn for party conferences at the end of business on Thursday 15 September and return on Monday 10 October. That concludes my business Statement.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-10
Topic: Domestic Commerce
John Horam (Conservative, Centre-right): I am with the noble Lord on manifesto fundamentalism: I, too, think that we should not go too far down that path, but he was asking people the other night to accept, not a cash discount but an equity loan. If people have expected a cash discount from the manifesto, I do not think they will be very pleased to get an equity loan. That is the problem, if I may explain it to the noble Lord, in terms of popular understanding.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-10
Topic: Housing
John Horam (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I would not, because, frankly, they have not done it and they would not. That is the dilemma that the Government are in: if you are really to make this work, I am afraid it is inevitable that you have to make it mandatory otherwise it will not happen. The question then is how you do that and how you translate it into more social housing.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-10
Topic: Housing
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I will make a very brief contribution to this debate as we enter another controversial section of the Bill, which has at its root, as the noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, said, a section of the manifesto. He warned us to beware of manifesto fundamentalism. What he calls manifesto fundamentalism other people might call democracy—namely, delivering the commitments that one made during an election. If I was still in another place, going back less than a year, I would be slightly cautious about saying, "I’m very sorry but we’re not going to do what we said because that would make us guilty of manifesto fundamentalism". Given the low esteem in which politicians are held, one has to be quite cautious before one abandons manifesto commitments. In this case, the manifesto was quite clear: "We will fund the replacement of properties sold under the extended Right to Buy by requiring local authorities to manage their housing assets more efficiently, with the most expensive properties sold off and replaced as they fall vacant" That is a perfectly practical policy, although I understand from most of the contributions so far that it is fiendishly unpopular with local authorities. In fact, the policy has been softened a bit, as they do not have to sell the high-value assets; if they have other ways of meeting the levy, they can do that. As a former local councillor myself—
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-03-10
Topic: Housing
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): Not surplus but vacant—in other words, as a tenancy comes to an end, the property then becomes vacant. I accept all the arguments we have heard so far that there may be people who want to move into it, but "vacant" means that no one lives there. That is relatively clear Having said that, I recognise that this is a fiendishly unpopular policy in this House, but all the debate so far has focused on one side of the coin; namely, the removal of the assets from the local authority. To get the argument slightly more balanced, one needs to look at where the money goes. The proceeds will be reinvested in housing, either by helping housing association tenants to buy their homes with the discount—homes that are then going to be replaced. All the homes that are disposed of by local authorities will also be replaced; all the money will go to regenerate brownfield sites so that they can be available for housing. Therefore, all the existing housing stock remains in place, still part of the existing assets of the country, but the proceeds that are generated will generate new supply.