argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): It is essential that we have the most powerful possible public health organisation in this country. The Joint Biosecurity Centre now needs to come together with Public Health England to deliver what I believe will be a better service for this country. In fact, the change to which the hon. Lady refers does not happen until next year, but we are getting it under way now.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Mohammad Saqib Bhatti (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that the Prime Minister is a true libertarian and must have agonised over today’s decision and those taken over recent months. My constituents in Meriden are concerned about a second national lockdown, with schools closing and businesses shutting down. Does my right hon. Friend agree that individual responsibility is more important today than it has ever been? Will he confirm that he will do everything he can to avoid a second full national lockdown?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The whole objective today is to avoid that second national lockdown—nobody wants to see that. My hon. Friend is right to point the finger at us: we can do this together if we take responsibility for the way we behave, the way we enforce the rules and the way we act in public places. That is how we will get the R down collectively and defeat the virus.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady raises an important point, and I am grateful to her. As Members from all parties have said, these are not easy decisions—nobody wants to curtail the right of restaurants and other businesses to go about their lawful business. What we have seen from the evidence is that, alas, the spread of disease tends to happen later at night, after more alcohol has been consumed. This is one way that we see of driving down the R without doing excessive economic damage. That is the balance we have to strike.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Mark Andrew Menzies (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the measures that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has laid before the House today. People who are vulnerable to covid are also extremely vulnerable to seasonal flu, a disease that killed more than 11,000 people last year in the UK alone and is one of the biggest sources of winter pressures on NHS. In the summer, the Government promised one of the largest flu vaccination programmes in history; will my right hon. Friend update the House on what is being done to deliver it?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, indeed I can. The biggest flu vaccine programme is going ahead as we speak. Thirty million people will be able to have a flu jab this autumn, and I thoroughly advise Members to get one.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I think everybody in this House wants to see the people of this country and help the people of this country to obey the law of the land and get the virus down. That is the objective of this Government.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): What we have done, as the hon. Lady possibly knows already, is to target testing and enhance protection for those in frontline groups, many of whom come from black and minority ethnic groups. What we are also doing, to stop the spread of infection in some communities, is working much harder with local government and local communities to get the messaging into those communities about the risks of transmission and the basic rules about hands, face, space. Those are among the things that we are doing.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The right hon. Gentleman is spot on about what has been happening in schools. Sadly, in many cases we have seen a rise in demand for tests because people are, reasonably, unable to distinguish between the symptoms of covid and a seasonal cough or cold. We are trying to address the situation as fast as possible. The one consolation we have is that children are much less likely to suffer seriously, if at all, from the disease, and it seems that they are much less capable of spreading it.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Lucy Allan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Prime Minister for his statement and for his steadfast service to our country during this very difficult time. He understands the long-term harm that a second lockdown would cause to people across the country—to their health, their lives and their livelihoods—as they try their best to get back on their feet. Will he consider targeting protective measures at those who are most at risk, rather than deploying the blunt instrument that is lockdown, which causes so much suffering and offers no hope of a cure?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right. We are doing everything we can to protect people, particularly those in care homes, who are so vulnerable, as we saw during the early stages of the pandemic. We have massively increased the winter action plan for care homes: putting in another £546 million; stopping movement between care homes; and taking the tough decision to stop visits to care homes in lockdown areas, which is very difficult for elderly people in care homes. The reason that we are taking those and other difficult measures now is that we want to avoid another national lockdown of exactly the type that my hon. Friend also rightly wants to avoid.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Despite the massive increase in testing that we have seen, with a 10% increase in capacity just in the past 10 days or so, we are seeing 64% of people getting their results in 24 hours. I do want to get that up as fast as possible to 80%. I can tell the right hon. Lady that we will double our testing capacity by the end of October, to 500,000 tests a day, and we are already testing more people than any other country in Europe.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): Thank you, Mr Speaker I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement and clear statement of purpose to conquer this terrible virus. One key concern locally has been the failure to comply with the regulations on the wearing of a face covering in shops and on public transport. Clearly, with these new restrictions coming into place, one key issue will be ensuring that people comply with the requirements. Equally, people do not want to get to a position where they are forced to wear a face covering in the open air as they are just going about their normal business. Will he state for the House what he is going to do to make sure that the message gets across to people that failing to comply with these rules is selfish and potentially places others at risk?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Paul Bristow (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Prime Minister for his statement and for his leadership during this crisis, but will he also commit to a vote in this House prior to any further steps towards a full second national lockdown?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his question. We are continuing to expand testing and tracing, and it is by driving down this virus that we will be able to take the country forward to a much, much brighter future. If people focus on the measures we have outlined today, particularly on obeying the guidance on social distancing, together we will defeat covid.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Derek Gordon Thomas (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. He is right to say that it is the co-operation and good sense of the British public that has seen the spread of this difficult outbreak curtailed. My constituents will continue to do exactly what is required of them, but the truth is that Cornwall has a very low rate of covid-19, and that has been the case throughout. What message of hope can the Prime Minister give to teenagers going to schools and colleges who are being asked to wear face masks when not in class, to churchgoers who have been blocked from freedom of worship, and to businesses that have yet to open and are continually frustrated from doing so?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Churchgoers will continue to have freedom of worship under the proposals. We want life, as far as we possibly we can, to keep going as normally as possible. We want the economy to keep moving. The best hope I can offer my hon. Friend’s constituents, for whom he fights so valiantly, is that we get this virus back under control, take the country forward and keep the economy moving. That is the best prospect for our country.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I don’t, and I think the continual attacks on local test and trace and what NHS Test and Trace has done are undermining and unnecessary. Actually, there is an important difference between our country and many other countries around the world: our country is a freedom-loving country. If we look at the history of this country over the past 300 years, virtually every advance, from free speech to democracy, has come from this country. It is very difficult to ask the British population uniformly to obey guidelines in the way that is necessary. What we are saying today is that collectively—I am answering the right hon. Gentleman’s question directly—the way to do that is for us all to follow the guidelines, which we will strictly enforce, and get the R down. That is the way forward.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Robert Joseph Roberts (Conservative, Centre-right): Appreciating the frustrations of people who currently have symptoms and are finding it difficult to get tests, does my right hon. Friend agree that with capacity going up by over 10% in the past few weeks, four new labs coming online and hundreds of additional staff, we can reach our target of half a million tests a day by the end of October? Does he agree that that would be an amazing achievement against a virus that we were only first learning about a few short months ago?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): It will not surprise my hon. Friend that I fervently agree with the way he characterises the achievements of NHS Test and Trace. His optimism and encouragement of NHS Test and Trace could reasonably be echoed by those on the Opposition Benches.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The most important thing is that the students who are now back at university in large numbers should, like everybody else, follow the guidelines. It is also important that, where there are outbreaks in universities, students should not be going home to infect their older relatives.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Huw William Merriman (Conservative, Centre-right): The districts of Wealden and Rother, which comprise my constituency, have in the past week each recorded just four covid conditions per 100,000 of population. The Prime Minister said that palpable progress will need to be made if the new measures are not to last six months. Will he consider freeing areas with lower rates from the restrictions earlier, if progress is made across the nation?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I have to say that I think the hon. Lady is grossly undermining the huge effort of local authorities, which are an integral part of NHS test and trace. They are doing a magnificent job and I thank each and every one of those individuals for what they are doing. We are putting another £300 million into supporting our local authorities deliver test and trace, and of course it is right that we should reach out across the entire UK economy, and our armed services, to help them and us deliver on this enormous project, and we will continue to do so.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The sectors that my hon. Friend refers to have in many respects already been provided for and supported, but clearly there will be further demands. I know that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will be applying his imagination and creativity to helping those sectors in the months ahead, but the best thing for them is to get back to life as close to normal as possible by getting this virus down. That is the point of the package of measures that we are announcing today.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Christopher Mark Clarkson (Conservative, Centre-right): My constituency is one of several under local measures, and has been for several weeks, so I would like to pay tribute to my constituents—the businesses, individuals and families who have made great sacrifices to keep this country safe. In welcoming today’s statement, may I ask the Prime Minister for an assurance that this represents a circuit break and not a hard-wiring of policy, and that as it is reviewed we will follow all the scientific data to ensure that we get back to normal as soon as possible?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Suzanne Webb (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking all those on the frontline at the covid-19 test centres and in the labs? They are working incredibly hard to keep up with the unprecedented demand as we grow our testing capacity to 500,000 a day by the end of October.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, indeed. I thank each and every one of the people involved in NHS test and trace. They are doing an outstanding job, in spite of the massive increase in demand, and I am delighted that my hon. Friend has paid tribute to them just now.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Every child with symptoms should automatically get a test—that is, everybody with symptoms should get a test. I can tell the hon. Lady that we are massively expanding testing across the country. I repeat the points that I made earlier: it is one of the few things for which we can be thankful in this epidemic, that the virus affects children and young people—the youngest of all—much less than older people, and there is much less evidence that they pass covid on in the way that other people do.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Marco Longhi (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to support our heroic staff at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, as well as care staff and indeed residents in care homes, is to reinforce the central message of washing our hands, maintaining social distancing and wearing face coverings where appropriate?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I have already mentioned that we have done a great deal to target measures to protect those in frontline jobs, including many from black and minority ethnic groups. I thank and pay tribute to those public servants, many of whom have done such a fantastic job throughout this crisis at great personal risk. I really thank them for what they are doing, and we are doing everything we can to protect them. Where there are vulnerable communities that need to understand the guidance about coronavirus, we are doing everything we can to get the messages home. Those are just some of the things that the Government are doing.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): It is up to all of us to obey the guidance and to urge everybody in this country to obey the guidance and follow the rules, because that is the way we will defeat the virus.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Ian Levy (Conservative, Centre-right): Blyth Valley has recently faced tighter restrictions as an immediate response to a rise in local cases. I know that these measures are necessary in controlling this deadly virus, but they have a real impact on families, businesses and local communities. I welcome the decision yesterday by my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary to lift the ban on informal childcare; I know that that move will be a relief to many of my constituents. May I ask my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to continue to do all he can to support families through this tough time?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Timothy Paul Loughton (Conservative, Centre-right): The last six months have been tough for our country, and it sounds as though the next six months will be too. It is vital that we take our constituents with us and that they have confidence in and understand what is being asked of them. At the beginning of the lockdown, the Prime Minister looked into the camera and said, "I need to level with you, folks," and the nation sat up and listened. Can we have more of those "level with you" moments, where the Government give clear and consistent data, with clear explanations of how the regulations are working and why, rather than leaving the people at the mercy of covid deniers, so-called independent experts and professors of hindsight?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): We are not only fixing the problems; as the hon. Gentleman will know, we are building four more Lighthouse labs. On the machines in question that needed to be supplied, we have secured them, and we are moving forward. I am confident that we will have the capacity to do 500,000 tests per day by the end of October. That is an extraordinary thing. On the ambition for mass testing, I think that is a great thing, and the Government will support it.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Laurence Anthony Robertson (Conservative, Centre-right): The last lockdown, which was quite severe, did succeed in reducing the spread of the virus, but it did not eradicate it. What confidence can we have that these measures will actually eradicate it to the extent that we will not be in this Chamber in six months’ time discussing further lockdown measures? What discussions has the Prime Minister had with scientists and health experts to find a proper way forward?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend asks a most important question. The virus is not one that is readily capable of being eradicated, and what we have to do is drive it down as far as we possibly can, keep it under control and restrict outbreaks as fast and as far as we possibly can. Riding to our rescue and to the rescue of the economy will be several things. First, I think that we will be able to continue with the measures that we have to control the virus and to get the R down, provided people obey—
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I increasingly think it is disgraceful that the Labour Opposition continue to blame NHS Test and Trace for the resurgence of the disease. There is a complete hiatus in their logic. They are talking absolute nonsense. Testing and tracing has very little or nothing to do with the spread or the transmission of the disease. The spread and the transmission of the disease is caused by contact between human beings and all the things that we are trying to minimise. Of course NHS Test and Trace is vital, but the way to fix the problem now is for the whole country to follow this package of guidance, drive the R down and allow both education and the economy to continue. There is a complete flaw in the Opposition’s logic.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Andrew Edmund Armstrong Selous (Conservative, Centre-right): Constituents who have spent a lifetime in public service wrote to me over the weekend saying, "We are on the point of giving up". Churchill said he had nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat, but Jeremiah 29 talks about giving us hope and a future. What can the Prime Minister say to people to give them hope over the next six months as we deal with this dismal pandemic?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I think we have every hope. You cut me off, Mr Speaker, when I was going to answer an earlier question—quite properly. The answer is that we have every chance, if we follow this package of measures, of driving the R down, keeping our economy moving and keeping education going. Science is helping us every day. Dexamethasone, trialled in this country, is now reducing the number of deaths. We have the prospect of a vaccine. All the medical guidance I have is that, by next spring, things will be vastly improved. I do not deny for a minute that things are going to be tough for our country and our people for months to come, but we will get through it, and we will get through it well, particularly if we follow the package that we announced today.
United Kingdom Internal Market Bill — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Alun Craig Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady. May I just touch on alcohol pricing? Of course, that would not change much. At the moment, if alcohol is dispatched from England, Wales or Northern Ireland, minimum pricing does not apply in Scotland, so what would the Bill actually change on alcohol pricing? It does not apply at the moment if dispatched from other parts of the UK to Scotland.
United Kingdom Internal Market Bill — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Nigel Martin Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): Sir Christopher, you have made your point very well, and my advice is the same as I gave to Sir Desmond: if there are any of these orders that you are opposed to, please feel free to shout "Object", and I will take the objection and there will be a deferred Division tomorrow. I have absolutely no doubt whatever that in this very fast moving situation that we find ourselves in—we had a statement today—there will be other statements made in this House over the coming days, weeks and months that will give opportunities for Members to question Ministers, Secretaries of State and, indeed, the Prime Minister, as they had the opportunity to do today. I have no hesitation about that happening whatever. I will put the motions on public health now, and then, as I say, I will take any deferred Divisions and objections.
Business without Debate — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Nigel Martin Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): Okay, we will take motions 5, 6—7, as well—and 8 on their own, and then we will take motions 9 to 18 together Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 118(6)), Public Health That the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions on Gatherings) (North of England) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 828), dated 4 August 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 4 August, be approved.—(Michael Tomlinson.)