argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Civil Liability Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-09-04
Topic: Transportation
Craig Paul Tracey (Conservative, Centre-right): Let me begin by declaring an interest, in my role as chair of the all-party parliamentary group for insurance and financial services. Before my election in 2015, I also spent more than 20 years working as an insurance broker, so I have had a lot of experience of dealing, in the front line, with claims such as those that we are discussing this evening I think it important for Members to understand the scale of the problem that we face, and I want to talk about that before dealing with the specifics of the Bill. Reforming this industry does not just mean tackling the cold calls that I am sure colleagues on both sides of the House have had to endure from people informing them that they have had an accident when, in many cases, they have not; it also means addressing the out-of-hand compensation culture that has been allowed to evolve in the United Kingdom. When so much money is at stake for the multi-million-pound personal claims industry, the reality of whether someone has sustained a genuine injury is often merely an obstacle to be overcome, rather than a barrier to the making of a claim Over the last decade, the number of personal injury claims resulting from road traffic accidents has risen by 40%, although vehicles have become safer, and there has been a long-term decline in the number of road accidents of nearly a third. The Department for Transport’s 2016 annual road casualties report showed a 3% reduction in the 2015 figure, and the 2016 figure was the lowest on record. Let me put that in context. According to data from the Compensation Recovery Unit, during 2017-18 the number of personal injury claims rose to 650,000 from 460,000 in 2005-06, about 85% of them being whiplash-related. In the last year alone, the insurance industry was able to identify 69,000 motor insurance claims that it considered to be fraudulent, and undoubtedly many more went undetected.
Civil Liability Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-09-04
Topic: Transportation
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): My interest in this area stems from a very minor accident that my wife and I had a few years ago, I think, on the M5. We had a minor collision, and for a year after that I was phoned on my mobile on almost a weekly basis by a claims management company trying to get me to submit a fraudulent personal injury claim. No matter how often I told them that I, my wife and my children had no neck injury, they insisted on trying to incite me to manufacture or claim that I had such an injury with the purpose of making a fraudulent claim. I was told, "You can get £3,000 for just saying your neck hurts." Even as recently as the past two weeks, my wife and I have both separately had automated phone calls—robo-phone calls—from claims management companies asking us to phone back if we think we have ever been involved in an accident That experience prompted me to look further into this subject, and colleagues have cited some of the figures. The hon. Member for Jarrow (Mr Hepburn) asked where the evidence is that there is a problem with widespread fraudulent claims. I have my own anecdotal experience of being personally incited to commit fraud, which obviously I did not do, but the figures are compelling. Over the past decade, the number of road traffic accidents has fallen by 31%, so how can it be that personal injury claims have increased by 50%? The answer is of course that these claims management companies are farming claims and inciting people to commit fraud, as they did with me.
Civil Liability Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-09-04
Topic: Transportation
Edmund Francis Hughes (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) I grew up in a household with five brothers, and we spent a lot of our time fixing cars: putting them back together and rebuilding them. In those days—the days of the Vauxhall Chevette—people could pick up a second-hand car for 50 quid, go down the tat yard, buy the necessary bits and pieces and bring it back to life Now, unfortunately, things are not quite the same. When someone takes a car to a garage, the mechanics do not look under the bonnet; they plug the car into a computer to find out what is going on. That is because cars are now bristling with safety devices, so much so that Volvo has claimed that, by 2020, people will not be able to have fatal accidents in its cars—actually, that is not quite true: the company said that it could not legislate for crazy people who deliberately tried to hurt themselves. But cars will be so safe that it will be really difficult to have accidents We live in a world where cars crash less often because they are clever enough to stop drivers crashing. However, there is also a high prevalence of mobile phones, which means that people are distracted and tend to bump into each other. What did this Conservative Government do? We doubled the fine from £100 to £200 and the points penalty from three to six to try to discourage people from driving and texting. As a Government—and it is not just this legislation—we are doing our best to stop people bumping into each other in the first place. But they still do it, obviously: there are 1,500 whiplash claims per day in this country. I personally think it would be a damn good idea if we did something to reduce that number I am disappointed that my hon. Friend the Member for Spelthorne (Kwasi Kwarteng) mentioned this, as I thought I would be the only one, but rates of whiplash vary depending on where people crash around the world. For example, according to a study, 91% of 130 accident victims with acute whiplash in Greece had recovered in four weeks. Imagine that! We need some Greek DNA in this country; perhaps we would have fewer whiplash claims. That is one of my policy suggestions for this evening Demolition derby drivers—people who crash into each other virtually for a living—suffer very little from whiplash; my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman) has done some demolition driving and he appears to have no neck problems. There must be some small element of truth in the notion that not all the whiplash claims in this country are always completely bona fide. If this evening’s debate does nothing other than send out the message that we are going to be cracking down and discouraging people from making whiplash claims, perhaps we will have achieved something. We will have saved some money, because insurances premiums will have gone down, and fewer people will be bothering the NHS with pretend illnesses, and as a nation we will perhaps be as safe as they are in Greece when they suffer a road traffic accident.
Civil Liability Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-09-04
Topic: Law and Crime
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): What does the Minister think of the idea that we might tweak the system so that periodic payment orders became the default setting unless a judge agreed that there was a good reason to do otherwise and make a lump sum payment?
Cycling: Gilligan Report — House of Commons, 2018-09-04
Topic: Transportation
Alexander Jesse Norman (Conservative, Centre-right): I can only congratulate the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) and his talent for inaccurate precis when he makes the point that he has two minutes of the time of the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) when in fact he has four minutes of my own, which means, I am afraid, that I have limited time to respond to the main motion. I am very grateful to have a chance to talk on this issue surrounded as a I am by a phalanx of cycling gurus from the all-party cycling group, and it is a delight to congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this debate on the Gilligan report As the House will know, Andrew Gilligan was an outstanding cycling commissioner when he was in London—he was punchy, energetic, fearless and highly effective. This report is a very serious and useful piece of work. It may contain inaccuracies and infelicities, but its general thrust is extremely constructive, detailed, gritty and intelligent, and I hugely welcome it. Many of its suggestions, ideas and insights, as the hon. Lady has mentioned, have much wider potential applicability across the country. What is so exciting, as a Cycling Minister, is to see how the local entities—in this case one hopes that Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes will swear by this report, but previously Manchester through Chris Boardman and there are other cities—have picked up the baton of using cycling and walking to create better places in their own cities and environments, and I absolutely welcome that. I look forward to other authorities coming forward with the same kind of vision and energy that they have shown.
Cycling: Gilligan Report — House of Commons, 2018-09-04
Topic: Transportation
Andrew Edmund Armstrong Selous (Conservative, Centre-right): It is obviously wonderful to see Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes having these great plans, but will the Minister say a little bit about market towns such as Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable and Houghton Regis? How will we get cycling into some of our market towns? It cannot just be the preserve of people who live in our larger cities, can it?
Cycling: Gilligan Report — House of Commons, 2018-09-04
Topic: Transportation
Alexander Jesse Norman (Conservative, Centre-right): That is absolutely right. I would not have expected a man geographically located as my hon. Friend is to fail to pick up the linkages. The fascinating point here is that, although some things are being funded at the moment through energies at a civic level, there are opportunities nevertheless—and we have seen this through other pots of funding—for smaller authorities to take the opportunities that this whole sequence of events requires, but they have to step forward. One thing that we are trying to do with our local cycling and walking infrastructure plans is to reward and encourage local authorities that are prepared to think creatively and constructively about these opportunities in the way that they take these things forward It is important to say that I personally am very strongly committed to increasing cycling and walking and making our roads safer for vulnerable uses, and of course that includes cyclists, pedestrians, horse riders and the rest. When the cycling and walking investment strategy was launched in April 2017, it was an attempt to gather together and create a coherence out of a wide range of existing pots, the purpose being to proclaim an ambition to make cycling and walking a natural choice for short journeys or, indeed, as part of a longer one. Interestingly, the Gilligan report says that there are many advantages to cycling, as the hon. Members for Oxford West and Abingdon and for Cambridge have mentioned. Cycling always brings cheaper travel, better health, better air quality, increased productivity, increased footfall in shops, better community and lower congestion, and it creates vibrant and attractive places and communities. These are all things that Andrew Gilligan recognises in his report It is striking that Andrew Gilligan’s report rams home the point that cycling is a serious mode in all these cities, particularly in Oxford and Cambridge—less so in Milton Keynes, although the figures are rising—but he says that it is not taken seriously enough. It has been suggested that the Government do not take cycling seriously enough, which I certainly do not think is true; we take cycling very seriously. The report also points to the importance of local leadership. Now, Oxford has a growth deal and Cambridge has a city deal, so there is plenty of scope for those local authorities to continue to show leadership in responding to the kind of challenges that have been articulated by Andrew Gilligan in his report.
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The UK supports regional trade and development by improving infrastructure and cutting red tape through our flagship programme TradeMark East Africa, which has helped to reduce import times at the Mombasa port by 50%. We will also support the region by ensuring that there is continuity in market access arrangements post-EU exit.
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Andrew Hanson Jones (Conservative, Centre-right): In the past decade more than 1 billion people have been lifted out of poverty, largely thanks to free trade. Owing to my commercial experience, I have seen for myself the quality of the produce from the agricultural sector in east Africa, and I am not surprised that it has found a strong export market. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best and most sustainable way out of poverty is through trade?
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree wholeheartedly. The greatest progress that has been made towards the first global goal has resulted from the liberalisation of world trade. We want to move more nations from aid to trade, because that is where their future lies.
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Transportation
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): Absolutely. I congratulate the hon. Gentleman and thank him for the work he does on a critical issue that results in an enormous number of deaths every year. I think there will be a greater onus on us to provide technical support for developing countries, and cutting the number of road deaths is clearly an area in which that technical support will be needed.
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Stephen Crabb (Conservative, Centre-right): Key to boosting east African trade is continuing to break down non-tariff barriers between East African countries, reduce transportation costs and reduce import-export clearance times. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the TradeMark East Africa programme has an important continuing role in helping to boost trade even further?
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend. Frictionless trade is a good thing, and the corridor that TradeMark East Africa has provided has cut border times dramatically, as well as cutting corruption. We are funding the second leg of that trade corridor, and it has done amazing work for the region’s prosperity.
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I have frequent dialogues with colleagues throughout the Government. As the hon. Gentleman will know, 70 of my staff are embedded in the Department for International Trade to deal with these issues, particularly in respect of developing nations, but if he knows of any specific cases and will pass them on to me, I shall be happy to look at them.
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The fact that we will be able to make our own trade arrangements with developing countries will be of massive advantage to those countries, and the nations with which we work are incredibly excited about the possibilities that will result from our leaving the EU. I think that we should be optimistic about Africa’s future, and its leaders are optimistic, but as well as promoting trade we must help them to combat illicit money flows. If we add up everything that goes into those nations, we see that it is tiny by comparison with what leaves them as a result of corruption and illicit flows. We will deal with both.
East Africa: Trading Opportunities — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): Because at the heart of our trade strategy as we leave the EU are developing nations—we want to give them preferential treatment and support them in their ambitions. I would point to the evidence that since we announced that we are leaving the EU, we have made huge progress on initiatives like the Sahel alliance and a greater focus with bilateral partners including France on our work together in Africa. I urge the hon. Lady to be optimistic about the future.
Technology — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): Investments from our aid budget in technologies are saving and changing lives all over the world. Half our research budget this year is for new technologies in developing countries in health, agriculture, climate, clean energy, water and education and for humanitarian response in emergencies.
Technology — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Environment
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is right to highlight this issue. She will be aware of the announcements we made alongside so many of the small island states at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in April to help them with technology to adapt to the changing climate, and also the additional £61 million announced by the Prime Minister to tackle the scourge of plastics in our oceans.
Technology — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Foreign Trade
Antoinette Geraldine Sherratt (Sandbach) (Conservative, Centre-right): The development of the M-Pesa payment system in Kenya with the help of DFID has absolutely transformed the economy, particularly for small traders. What other steps and similar developments can my hon. Friend outline that would improve the Kenyan economy?
Technology — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): This is another great example of how UK Aid can work to unlock a payment system that in many ways leapfrogs what we have here in the UK: people can pay from their mobile phone for a range of technologies and goods. Recently we had a solar fridge in DFID, and M-KOPA Solar is helping poor people in Kenya and other countries to pay for those fridges by using that technology.
Technology — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Energy
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): Along with colleagues in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, we are doing a lot to encourage many of these countries not only to power past coal and fossil fuels but to invest considerable amounts in renewable energy. I share the hon. Gentleman’s aspiration to work with developing countries to power past fossil fuels.
Venezuela: Vulnerable People — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): We are deeply concerned by the worsening crisis in Venezuela. Too many Venezuelans are suffering the consequences of the Maduro Government’s mismanagement. While we are urging the Venezuelan Government to accept humanitarian aid, we are deploying two humanitarian advisers to the region in support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s efforts to push the Government of Venezuela to meet the needs of their population.
Venezuela: Vulnerable People — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Andrew Richard Rosindell (Conservative, Centre-right): The Minister will be aware of the United Nations human rights report that details the complete erosion of the rule of law and human rights in Venezuela. Will he explain to the House what the UK is doing to support economic reform and stability in the region, to ensure that the money is spent in the right place while the Venezuelan Government still refuse to acknowledge that there is a humanitarian crisis?
Venezuela: Vulnerable People — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): We are providing support in the crisis and to the region through the funding of key UN and humanitarian agencies, but, as my hon. Friend says, this is limited because of the Venezuelan Government’s refusal to admit the seriousness and reality of the situation. We are urging them to address the most urgent needs of their own population.
Orphanages — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Social Welfare
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): DFID’s primary focus is to tackle the underlying drivers of institutionalisation. We address these through poverty reduction programmes and through our strong focus on education, nutrition, health, economic development and social protection. Through UK Aid Match, we are funding charities such as Hope and Homes for Children, which supports children into family-based and community-based care.
Orphanages — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Social Welfare
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady touches on a subject close to my heart. When I was an aid worker in the former eastern bloc, I worked in the hospitals and orphanages there. Many of the children were not orphans as we would understand the term; they had families. We believe that the best way to care for and develop children, whatever their circumstances and whether they have a disability or not, is in a family or community setting. The disability summit that is coming up will afford us the opportunity to focus on the needs of the specific group that the hon. Lady refers to.
Orphanages — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): We will certainly do that. DFID does not, as a policy, fund these types of institutions. We have traction with other donors around the world, and we will certainly try to move them on to share our policy.
Orphanages — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): This is a complex area, and I thank the hon. Lady for raising it. In addition to the efforts we are making with the Saudis and the Emiratis to try to get supplies into Yemen, we are also aware of in-country issues with moving supplies around, including basic vaccines and so forth. My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Middle East is in frequent contact with all parties, as am I.
Orphanages — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): Our aid programmes in India are limited to investments on which we make a return and to technical support. We do not do traditional aid programmes in India, and we certainly do not fund the types of institutions to which my hon. Friend refers. If he thinks we should be doing something that we are not, he can write to me and I will take a look at it, but that is our policy.
Access to Education — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): I am delighted to hear about the hon. Lady’s wonderful trip to Malawi and look forward to meeting her to discuss it in more detail. I can confirm that we are doing extensive bilateral work in Malawi and that many young people from the UK go out with the VSO’s International Citizen Service.
Access to Education — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: Education
Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (Conservative, Centre-right): I pay tribute to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s work on the girls’ education agenda around the world. We are considering the feasibility of that international financing facility for education, and we are going through the technical detail, but we are not yet in a position to support the proposal.
Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh — House of Commons, 2018-07-04
Topic: International Affairs
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): The UK has helped to lead the international response to the crisis. We are working with the Government of Bangladesh and humanitarian partners to improve shelters, provide water and sanitation, vaccinate against deadly disease and pre-position emergency supplies.