argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Transport (Tees Valley) — House of Commons, 2015-02-10
Topic: Transportation
Andrew Joseph McDonald (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend makes a good point. People need to get to hospital when they are ill or visiting relatives, and they need to get to work at the time their businesses need them and then get home again Almost finally, roads warrant an entire debate of their own, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) said, Tees Valley is crying out for an additional road crossing over the Tees. Several plans have been prepared over the years, and I would urge the Minister to have his officials consider them In conclusion, Tees Valley has a proud history of major contribution to the economic vitality of this country, and not only does it continue to make that contribution, but the capacity for even greater achievement is immense. However, that vast potential can only be realised if the Government understand and respond in appropriate terms. In addition, I ask that the core cities realise that the northern powerhouse story is not just about creating a London of the north, but about building interconnected communities and economies that provide inclusive prosperity for all
Transport (Tees Valley) — House of Commons, 2015-02-10
Topic: Transportation
Iain David Wright (Labour, Centre-left): I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald) for giving up some of his time to allow me to make a number of very brief points. I wholly agree with what he said about the governance of the transport board, which penalises, excludes and isolates our region from the rest of northern transport policy and procedures. I also agree fully about the importance of proper investment in our rolling stock. The Pacer trains to which he referred are unacceptable and no longer used in the rest of the country, so they should be considered unacceptable and unusable in Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and on to Newcastle, as well I shall concentrate, as I have on many occasions, on the inadequacy of our bus service. As my hon. Friend said, only re-regulation will provide a co-ordinated proper bus service for our region. In the past week, I have received correspondence from the principal of Hartlepool college, who said that inadequate transport provision meant that potential students from Teesside, North Yorkshire and South Durham were not able or could not afford to get to the college. Apprentices aged 16 or 17 from Hartlepool might not be able to take up the opportunities in Wilton or elsewhere Ensuring that the transport system, particularly the bus network, matches the routes to learning and employment, as well as ensuring that we can avoid social exclusion, are crucial. At the moment, that does not happen on Teesside. I therefore ask the Minister what he will do to ensure that we can provide a cheap, reliable and co-ordinated bus and transport network across Teesside so that people in our area have the opportunity to achieve their potential and make sure that the population and industrial potential are matched.
Transport (Tees Valley) — House of Commons, 2015-02-10
Topic: Transportation
Alexander Cunningham (Labour, Centre-left): Those who travel from the junction at Norton, where I live, on the A19 at 8.30 in the morning just join a queue for the next half hour. The real question is this: can we look forward to another crossing over the River Tees in the next programme that the Government plan?
Transport (Tees Valley) — House of Commons, 2015-02-10
Topic: Transportation
Philip Wilson (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to the Minister. I wonder whether he will raise with his Treasury colleagues an aspect of air passenger duty which affects Durham Tees Valley airport and the other airport in the north-east, namely its devolution to Edinburgh. It would be very beneficial if the Government gave some thought to what could be done to ensure that there is no loss to the regional airports in the north-east.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — House of Commons, 2015-03-20
Topic: Macroeconomics
Michael John Gapes (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State has referred to halving the deficit. Will he remind us of the policies his party was advocating in 2010, which should have eliminated the deficit by now? Will he admit that this Government are a total failure in respect of their own aims?
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — House of Commons, 2015-03-20
Topic: Macroeconomics
Nicholas Hugh Brown (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State has not mentioned local authorities in the north-east of England—inadvertently, I am sure. He also failed to answer the question put to him by my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah), and he has failed to make the case for the balkanisation of the business rate. Mrs Thatcher’s legacy was to have the business rate raised on the ability to pay and distributed on the basis of need—I am sure that I can remember her saying that to the House. Why is he allowing it to be balkanised?
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — House of Commons, 2015-03-20
Topic: Macroeconomics
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): I will come on to that very point in just a moment if the hon. Gentleman is willing to be patient. He will have seen what Councillors Keith Wakefield and Peter Box have said about the new Leeds city region deal. Peter Box described it as "disappointing", which I would call one of the kinder comments. What has really got up the noses of the existing combined authorities is that Labour’s offer of 100% retention of business rate income growth has been made to Manchester and Cambridge but not to the other existing combined authorities. Why is that For all the Government’s rhetoric about the "northern powerhouse"—now running a close second to "long-term economic plan"—the truth is that the most deprived parts of the country have faced the biggest cuts in local authority funding. Yes, Labour will change the formula because what the Government have done is unjustifiable. There is nothing empowering about taking a load away and then giving a little less back.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — House of Commons, 2015-03-20
Topic: Macroeconomics
Nicholas Hugh Brown (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The abolition of the development agency was the largest single blow dealt to economic development in the north-east of England. The Government did it quickly. Governments make most of their mistakes in their first six months. Certainly, on economic development in the north-east of England, this Government did make most of their mistakes in their first six months As I said, the tragedy is that we do not disagree about what needs to be done. Resources need to be focused, and the work needs to be led in an authoritative, clear-sighted way. The coalition’s structural changes do not deliver for the north-east of England. Abolishing the RDA was a big step backwards, and the local enterprise partnership is not working for us—it has not even had a chief executive for the past year. If the North East local enterprise partnership had achieved anything, surely the Secretary of State would have told us about it, but he did not have anything to say about it. When I intervened to give him a chance to tell us about it, he still did not have anything to say, apart from generalisations. The money spent over the past five years on regional economic development in the north-east is less than it was for one year under the previous Labour Government’s arrangements There is a further regional danger: the unprotected budgets that are lined up for public expenditure cuts disproportionately hit local councils in the north-east. Separately, there have been at least two attempts to redistribute within the budgets that the Chancellor has protected. There are proposals to take £230 million out of the north-east’s health budget and redistribute the money to wealthier parts of the country The Chancellor said that we are all in it together. However, on the cost of living, job opportunities, local government budgets and a workable economic development strategy, it does not feel that way in the north-east of England.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — House of Commons, 2015-03-20
Topic: Education
Gavin Shuker (Labour, Centre-left): The right hon. Gentleman makes his case clearly and in a statesmanlike manner, but I was in this House when he was taking through the legislation on fees. There were 91 speakers over those two days. I did not have the opportunity to speak but I was one of only about 10 Members of Parliament who knew what it was like to graduate with a large amount of student debt. I can tell him that it is paralysing and that it puts people off going to university.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — House of Commons, 2015-03-20
Topic: Labor
Andrew Francis Slaughter (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend agree that the Conservatives are taking exactly the same view of the living wage as they did of the minimum wage? That is shown by the comments of the Tory peer Lord Wolfson, who, as head of Next, paid himself £4.6 million last year, but says that the living wage is "irrelevant". It is not irrelevant to my constituents.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — House of Commons, 2015-03-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend agree that it would be an improvement in the law if there was corporate liability for the criminal acts of individuals within companies? In other words, if someone behaves dishonestly on behalf of a company, the company itself should be liable. If that law were in place, as it is in the United States, it would help with prosecutions in this country for fraud and dishonesty.
Body Image Altering Software — House of Commons, 2015-03-20
Topic: Technology
Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (Labour, Centre-left): I rise to present a petition on behalf of pupils at Dame Allan’s school in Newcastle. The petition was organised by pupils at the school who feel that the use of Photoshop and similar image software to alter photos of people in magazines, newspapers and the internet is having a negative effect on the self-esteem of young people. A similar petition was signed by more than 150 people The petition states, The Humble Petition of the organising group of the pupils of Dame Allan’s School, namely Diane Rasul, Ria Barber, Virginia Barbour and Amarah Latif Sheweth that the Petitioners are campaigning to abolish the use of Photoshop and other image altering software programs from use on images of people Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House will urge the Government to actively encourage regulators to put an end to the use of these programs which enable the spread of an unrealistic body image And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c. [P001464]
Private Sector Pensions (Automatic Enrolment) — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Labor
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): But will the Minister advise the House of his estimate of the number of workers who are excluded from the benefit of auto-enrolment because of the changes in the threshold over the past five years, and of what proportion of those workers are women?
Disability Confident Campaign — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Labor
Grahame Mark Morris (Labour, Centre-left): What support is the Minister offering to specialist and locally based employment organisations such as Northern Rights in my constituency and the East Durham Employability Trust? They have a proven track record of supporting disabled people and people with multiple barriers into work, but have frequently found it very difficult to access funding from the Department for Work and Pensions.
Personal Independence Payments — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: What assessment he has made of the implications for his Department of the High Court ruling in June 2015 on delays in personal independence payments.
Dennis Edward Skinner (Labour, Centre-left): What a difference a weekend makes. On Saturday, thousands of disabled people marched in protest against cuts in their benefits. The Minister comes here today, trotting out his sunshine stories, while in the real world disabled people are losing benefits left, right and centre. He can remedy that today by saying, "This Government will not cut the benefits of any disabled person throughout this Parliament." Come on, say it!
Apprenticeships — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Labor
Robert Charles Douglas Flello (Labour, Centre-left): While there are indeed some excellent apprenticeships—there is no doubt about that—sadly, all too often there are employers who use them as, in effect, a rebranded youth training scheme or youth opportunities programme-type arrangement. What will the Minister do to publish details of employers who abuse the apprenticeship system, or does the scrutiny simply not allow for that?
Apprenticeships — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Education
Questions: On a recent visit to Fuel Conservation Services in Hednesford, I saw the impact that access to apprenticeships and high-quality training has on young people entering the workplace. Will my right hon. Friend join me in praising the work of businesses like FCS in offering apprenticeships to young people? [Interruption.] Does she recognise the role that businesses can play in working with the Government on initiatives to tackle youth unemployment?
Gisela Stuart (Labour, Centre-left): Having served an apprenticeship under a dual system of high-quality apprenticeships, I ask the Minister to accept that employers have to play a much larger role in providing the skills space for our apprentices, and that just expanding level 2 apprenticeships is not sufficient.
Disability Benefits — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: What his policy is on maintaining the level of (a) employment and support allowance, (b) personal independence payment and (c) attendance allowance for disabled claimants.
Madeleine Moon (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Secretary of State for his condolences My advice surgery has received people who are terminally ill, people with life-ending degenerative conditions, people who have been found fit to work despite both conditions, and those on attendance allowance have been told to use their attendance allowance to pay for their second bedroom, so that they are not affected by the bedroom tax. There is huge fear out there in the disabled community. May we have an assurance that those with disabilities will not be further affected by more cuts in welfare benefits?
Disability Benefits — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: What his policy is on maintaining the level of (a) employment and support allowance, (b) personal independence payment and (c) attendance allowance for disabled claimants.
Katherine Anne Green (Labour, Centre-left): Disabled people do not want kindness; they want justice, and access to the benefits that can help them to live their lives. Will the Secretary of State give them a cast-iron guarantee that there will be no cuts in their benefits, no cuts in tax credits, and no cuts in the disability premiums that tax credits can bring? Disabled people need those assurances, given that, we understand, the Secretary of State has now agreed with the Chancellor that we are to expect welfare cuts amounting to £12 billion.
Disability Benefits — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: What his policy is on maintaining the level of (a) employment and support allowance, (b) personal independence payment and (c) attendance allowance for disabled claimants.
Katherine Anne Green (Labour, Centre-left): Labour will be tougher in cutting benefits when that is a response to the wrong drivers of those benefits. What we will not tolerate is cuts in benefits for people who are in work and who need those benefits to enable their work to pay. May I ask the Secretary of State about some of the work-related benefits for disabled people? Will he confirm that there will be no cuts and no downgrading of the payments to people on employment and support allowance in the work-related activity group, and will he tell us whether industrial injuries disablement benefit will be protected from cuts?
Carers: Financial Support — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (Labour, Centre-left): Young carers in our society perform a vital role, often balancing their responsibility of caring with work or study, yet young carers in full-time education are not entitled to carer’s allowance. What will the Secretary of State do to remedy that injustice?
Carers: Financial Support — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Creswell Timms (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State referred to the shadow Secretary of State; I am pleased to tell the House that she gave birth to a baby boy last Wednesday and that mother and baby are doing well. The Secretary of State referred to disabled people and the effect on them of the £12 billion benefit cuts. It now appears that the anxiety and uncertainty facing carers will be extended, because we will not get the full list of cuts on 8 July; we will have to await a further statement in the autumn. When the final list of £12 billion is announced, will carers be protected from those cuts?
Carers: Financial Support — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Creswell Timms (Labour, Centre-left): The absence of any reassurance there will give rise to a great deal of concern among carers. May I ask the Secretary of State about working families on lower and average incomes? Will they be better off or worse off once his £12 billion of cuts have been announced?
Social Landlords (Direct Rent Payments) — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: What consultation his Department has undertaken with social landlords on the potential effects of the introduction of universal credit and the benefit cap on direct rent payments to landlords.
Matthew Thomas Pennycook (Labour, Centre-left): Section 96 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 stipulates that the level at which the total benefit cap is set will be determined by reference to estimated average earnings. How do the Government justify breaking the link between the cap and average earnings by reducing the rate to £23,000?
Food Banks — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Helen Catherine Goodman (Labour, Centre-left): May I welcome the Minister to her new role? Before the election, we had a most unsatisfactory debate on benefits sanctions with her predecessor. I have to say, Mr Speaker, that in a disappointing election for Labour, the result in Wirral West was one bright spot One person in four is now being sanctioned, and sanctions are cited as one of the top reasons for people visiting food banks. Will the Minister take steps to make sure that DWP staff apply the good reasons code correctly and end these vicious and arbitrary sanctions?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
John Healey (Labour, Centre-left): In his speech today, the Prime Minister talked about the causes of welfare spending. He had next to nothing to say about low pay, yet the financial modelling I conducted on Labour’s plans for raising the national minimum wage shows that we could save three quarters of a billion pounds on housing benefit and tax credit costs. Surely getting to grips with the root causes is a better way to control rising welfare costs than attacking the incomes of the poorest?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Labor
Stephen Creswell Timms (Labour, Centre-left): We welcome the Government’s belated decision to consult on a charge cap for savers withdrawing their money from pensions. Will the cap apply only to exit fees, or will it also cover recurring charges on investment and income drawdown products? Which? says that that sort of cap could save £10,000 out of a typical £36,000 pension pot, and before her appointment, in March, the new Minister for Pensions said that that sort of cap was needed to protect savers. Will the wider cap be the subject of the Government’s consultation?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2015-06-22
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: I was pleased to meet with Disability Support Torbay on Friday to discuss the advocacy, support and advice it gives to many local people. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is crucial to work with employers to make sure that they are aware of work the Government are doing, such as the Access to Work programme, to help them to employ and retain people with disabilities?; Following the shameful failure of the Front-Bench team once again to answer a question today, may I ask again why the Government are refusing to publish—even though the Information Commissioner has instructed them to do so—the up-to-date statistics relating to the number of people who have died, having been found fit for work at their face-to-face assessment?; The latest employment statistics show that under this Government record numbers of women are in work, yet there are 2 million more women who would like to be in employment but are not. What discussions has the Minister had with colleagues to ensure that the barriers that those women face are being removed?; My hon. Friend the Member for St Helens South and Whiston (Marie Rimmer) is right. Given that on 5 June the High Court found the Department’s actions—this time on PIP delays—unlawful, does the Secretary of State think that he and his Department are above the law? Why does he refuse to publish the details of the number of people who have died within six weeks of their claims for incapacity benefit and employment and support allowance, including those who have been found fit for work?; In my constituency rents are almost double the English average and the housing benefit bill rose by 50% during the previous Parliament. Does the Secretary of State think that subsidising private landlords to such a degree is a good use of public money?
Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth (Labour, Centre-left): My constituent, Mr Geoffrey Thomas, found that the DWP was deducting £8.43 from his ESA because it falsely claimed that he had taken out £400-worth of social loans. Does the Secretary of State agree that this is a disgraceful way to have treated my constituent? Will he make urgent inquiries to make sure that this is not happening to any other people across the country?