argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-08
Topic: Health
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): I think the Secretary of State has got the message about the need to sort out the testing problem, not least to help councils such as Leeds that are working really hard to limit the increase in cases. I hope he will join me in paying tribute to the public health team and the council for the great efforts they are making. He knows that local contact tracing is the most effective. I understand that the figures in Leeds for contacts are in the high 90s when it is done locally, as opposed to a lower figure when done by the national system. Given the position in Leeds, can he commit to provide more support and resource to local contact tracing in the city, to help try to prevent a further increase in the number of cases?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-08
Topic: Health
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): In Wirral, there has been a sudden, sharp rise in covid-19 infections, with yesterday’s figures standing at 33 infections per 100,000. What extra assistance can the Secretary of State promise to my local authority, which is fighting hard to suppress this outbreak? On Test and Trace, if he does not want a reorganisation of Test and Trace because he thinks it will slow down progress, can he tell us why he is reorganising Public Health England in the middle of this dangerous pandemic?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-08
Topic: Health
Peter Christopher Dowd (Labour, Centre-left): Given covid, the Health Secretary said it was "mission critical" to prepare the NHS for the winter, as he unveiled the biggest flu vaccination programme in history; that is very Trumpian, I have to say. In the light of the lockdown delay, the PPE debacle, testing and tracing chaos—we could not get tested yesterday in my borough, with 300,000 people in it—not to mention, I will remind the Secretary of State, the 40,000 people already dead from covid on his watch and that of the Prime Minister against, and he is quite happy to compare internationally, 9,400 in Germany, why should we have any confidence in this bungling Government’s ability to get the flu vaccination programme in shape for this winter?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-08
Topic: Health
Emma Louise Lewell-Buck (Labour, Centre-left): The Government and the Secretary of State have messed up. The result has been loss of life and an economy in tatters. It is little wonder that my home, South Shields, is now seeing a rapid spike in cases, and we are approaching a potential lockdown that will irrevocably devastate us. Instead of just pointing the finger at our young people, will he take some responsibility and explain what extra direct support he is going to give us locally to help us stop this spread?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-08
Topic: Health
Barry Strachan Gardiner (Labour, Centre-left): On 3 July, the Secretary of State said that asymptomatic testing in residential care homes would give staff the confidence to continue their work. Yesterday, the Transport Secretary said that Public Health England now believes that asymptomatic testing might capture only 7% of those infected, leaving 93% of those infected to go about their business. If asymptomatic testing is as confidence-building as the Secretary of State says, and if a care home is a goose and an airport is a gander, why is the sauce of asymptomatic testing not good for both?
Palliative care at Primrose Terrace, Jarrow — House of Commons, 2020-09-08
Topic: Health
Katharine Helen Brooks-Osborne (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you again, Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to present a petition signed by more than 13,500 of my Jarrow constituents The petition states: The petition of residents of the constituency of Jarrow Declares that it is vital that high quality, compassionate palliative and end-of-life care is accessible across the country; further declares that each person who is nearing the end of their life should feel safe in the knowledge they will receive the very best care and be supported to die peacefully and painlessly; notes that in the Jarrow constituency, St Clare’s hospice collapsed into insolvency in January 2019 after more than 30 years, leaving the borough without an end-of-life care facility; and further notes that a petition requesting to keep palliative care at the Primrose Terrace site in Jarrow, rather than setting up an alternative site elsewhere within the borough, has received 13,500 signatures The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to support the NHS South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group in reopening the St Clare’s hospice site at Primrose Terrace, Jarrow And the petitioners remain, etc [P002595]
History Curriculum: Black History — House of Commons, 2020-09-08
Topic: Culture
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to the Minister for giving way again. I just want to ask him, as I asked the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers), whether he will meet a group of young people from my constituency who are campaigning on this issue and are desperately keen to have a conversation with him about their own experiences and why this is so important. They want every young person in this country to be proud of the contribution that their communities of heritage played in the history of this country, but that content is so often absent. Will he meet them?
Healthcare Higher Education Funding — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Lilian Rachel Greenwood (Labour, Centre-left): Nursing and midwifery students are required to undertake 2,300 hours of clinical placement to qualify. Maintenance grants were reintroduced in England in September, but those student nurses and midwives who just graduated or who are about to, and who stepped up in the first wave of the pandemic despite the personal risks, have huge debts because the Government abolished their bursaries in 2016. What will the Minister do to acknowledge their tremendous contribution and ensure that they do not begin their careers in caring feeling undervalued, taken advantage of and carrying this massive financial burden?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): Order. Before we get too carried away, until we get the Prime Minister back we will continue with the questions. Is it all right with the Health Secretary to pick up the answer that we lost halfway through?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Secretary of State impart my question to the Prime Minister? Can I beg him at this late stage to change his mind? This is a national emergency, and his policy announced today will end up with critical and perhaps tragic results for my constituents and for our country. I represent Huddersfield, in Kirklees, which is a classic average typical town in Britain, and we have worked better and harder than anyone else to get the rates down under the tier system, but we have not been successful. Under the national plan, however, we have started to get there. We only have to keep ourselves under restrictions for a few more weeks, and then we will have the antidote. Please change your mind, Minister. Change your mind, Prime Minister. We must stop deaths occurring that could be avoided.
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Kevan David Jones (Labour, Centre-left): Thousands of jobs have been lost and will be lost in the pub and hospitality sector. At the beginning of the crisis, the Prime Minister said that Government action would follow the science. At a recent meeting, the national health director was clear that there was no science behind the 10 o’clock—soon to be 11 o’clock—curfew and said that it was a policy decision. If there is no science behind this decision, what are the reasons for it?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Katharine Helen Brooks-Osborne (Labour, Centre-left): I direct my question to the Prime Minister or even the Chancellor, but I ask it to the Secretary of State. With the infection rates still high across the north-east, it is looking likely that the region will come out of this national lockdown in a worse position than it was in going in. When the tier restrictions were last implemented, local leaders had to fight the Government for a fair amount of funding for our region. Can the Secretary of State assure us that this time the north will not be left behind again? In line with their levelling up agenda, will the Government ensure that all businesses and people receive the correct level of the financial support that they desperately need?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Ruth Margaret Cadbury (Labour, Centre-left): I talked to Hounslow’s director of public health this morning. She welcomes the opportunity to have rapid lateral flow testing under her local jurisdiction, and we both welcome the fact that the Government have finally recognised that local health and public health professionals are essential to the successful tackling of infections such as covid. However, councils and health trusts cannot roll out rapid testing for vulnerable groups, employ, train and enforce in the way described by the Prime Minister and roll out the vaccination programme without significant additional resources. The Army has been helping with the rapid testing in Liverpool, but will the Government adequately resource local authorities and local health trusts to deliver what is needed?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
John Derek Twigg (Labour, Centre-left): Although I am pleased that the Prime Minister and Secretary of State have listened to representations from me and other colleagues about the importance of reopening gyms, golf and collective worship, I am disappointed that we heard nothing from the Prime Minister about helping small business people and small businesses in my constituency who have received little or no help whatsoever; they have been financially excluded, and the Government should look again at that. Following a freedom of information request, through my local clinical commissioning group, I compared the GP referrals from September this year with those from September 2019 and found that there has been a huge drop in the number of people referred, for example, for cardio, gastric, trauma and orthopaedics. Although we have heard from the Government that they will put extra financial resources into the NHS, how will the Secretary of State provide the extra doctors, nurses and specialists to get the waiting lists down and to meet the surge in referrals?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Richard Burgon (Labour, Centre-left): When the Prime Minister announced the end of the first lockdown in late June, the Office for National Statistics weekly survey estimated that about 25,000 people had covid, but after the Government ignored their own scientists’ call for immediate action in September, cases skyrocketed. The latest ONS data estimates that there are now more than 600,000 people with the virus. Cases will soar again if the Government keep repeating the same old errors, including the failed tier system, which is what they are doing, driven by the pressure of their own right-wing Back-Bench MPs, not by public health needs. Today’s measures risk a third wave. Will the Government take responsibility for the thousands of deaths and all the pain of the bereavements that that would cause?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): Wales is already out of its successful circuit-breaker. When England comes out of lockdown into a tiered system, will the Prime Minister ensure that people who live in tiers 2 and 3 are not in a position to make non-essential travel out of those regions into other English regions or into Wales, in order to contain the spread of the transmission of the disease?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Catherine Jane Smith (Labour, Centre-left): Under the previous tiering system, my constituents in Lancaster and Wyre were frustrated that, although they had infection rates at the bottom of the Lancashire table of infections, they were bound by the rest of the county when it came to the tiering system. Will the Prime Minister reassure my constituents and businesses that operate in my constituency that district councils will be taken into account and consulted when deciding which tiers we are going into?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister said that he plans to extend mass testing. Some 2,000 military personnel were needed to deliver mass testing in Liverpool, and they were not able to extend it to the rest of the five boroughs in the city region. They are now due to return to other duties. Meanwhile, other public sector workers are flat out on the crisis already, so what is the plan for rolling out mass testing? Would it not be better to concentrate on getting contact tracing right?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Liam Dominic Byrne (Labour, Centre-left): On Friday, I met online with nurses in Birmingham who said that they had never seen so much death on the wards. They have had to bid goodbye to colleagues who have left the hospital in hearses. Many are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. We owe it to them to play by the rules to save our NHS, but we have to save livelihoods, too. I have read the action plan that the Prime Minister has published. There is one mention of the self-employed on page 39, but in the west midlands, half the self-employed are not eligible for the Government support scheme—that is 121,000 people. They are not going to be helped by VAT cuts, bounce back loans or the art and culture schemes. What they need is eligibility for the self-employment scheme, so will the Prime Minister bring forward changes to the scheme, or is he hell-bent on starving our entrepreneurs this Christmas?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome much in the Prime Minister’s statement. Thankfully, Greater Manchester is seeing a downward trend in infections in all 10 boroughs, but we will have been in some form of restrictions now for four months. Clearer rules and better enforcement are welcome, but I still do not understand the logic of pushing people out of covid-secure, well-regulated, responsible hospitality businesses into illegal covid-insecure gatherings to drink. That would be counterproductive, would it not?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): Hull has had the highest covid infection rates in the United Kingdom. Two weeks ago, it was promised 10,000 lateral flow tests, but today they still have not arrived. When governing during a global pandemic, should the Prime Minister not focus on delivering on the ground what has already been announced, rather than on grand new promises lifted from the Downing Street public relations grid?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Zarah Sultana (Labour, Centre-left): Last week, the Health Secretary told "Good Morning Britain", "We don’t have parking charges in English hospitals" for NHS staff "and we’re not going to for the course of this pandemic." But that is not true, because they were reintroduced for staff at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire in June, as they have been elsewhere. I have written to the Prime Minister about this matter, and I now ask him whether he will live up to the Government’s promise of free parking throughout the pandemic for NHS staff in Coventry and across the country.
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Justin Piers Richard Madders (Labour, Centre-left): Those areas that are placed in tier 3 will be keen to get any help they can receive to get themselves out of that. Can the Prime Minister tell us how many of the reductions in infection can be directly attributed to the mass testing scheme in Liverpool, and what level of population buy-in is needed for that system to be effective?
Covid-19: Winter Plan — House of Commons, 2020-11-23
Topic: Health
Tulip Rizwana Siddiq (Labour, Centre-left): My constituents are excited about seeing their families over Christmas, but they are also nervous about putting their elderly relatives at risk. Will the Prime Minister consider using the expanded testing capacity to allow families to get a covid test ahead of visiting elderly relatives at Christmas, even if they do not have symptoms?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
Kevan David Jones (Labour, Centre-left): At the weekend, Mrs Helen Perry, one of my constituents, contacted me to say her son and three of his flatmates at Northumbria university had tested positive for covid. They are all self-isolating, but despite that are being bombarded up to 10 times a day by NHS Test and Trace. It is the same story for Mr Brian Sayer and his family, who are self-isolating because a family member has tested positive. In Brian’s words, "We’re not stupid people; we don’t need pointless telephone calls every other day", and Mrs Perry says, "What a waste of time and money." When will the Secretary of State admit that the national system has failed, and when will he hand over testing and, more importantly, tracing to local directors of public health, who know their areas and their communities and know how to do test and trace properly?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
Antonia Louise Antoniazzi (Labour, Centre-left): As the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on cancer, I thank the Secretary of State for a recent meeting regarding the Catch Up With Cancer campaign. I, too, pay tribute to those delivering frontline cancer services throughout the pandemic, but the 63% figure that he mentioned does not reflect the totality of the backlog, as the NHS has announced new figures since then. In August, the number of people waiting more than 52 weeks in England continued to surge to more than 110,000—the most in 12 years. The only way that the backlog will go away is through action and resources being deployed to tackle it. What progress has he made to address the need for a boost to cancer services, so that cancer does not become the forgotten "c"?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
Mary Elizabeth Twist (Labour, Centre-left): Earlier this year, at the start of the pandemic, the Government committed to give the NHS whatever resources it needed to deal with coronavirus. The NHS has that money for dealing with covid-19, but it will need more to enable it to catch up on all the conditions that need to be treated now that treatment is taking place. Will the Secretary of State commit to provide the funding and resources needed to carry out those vital treatments?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
Barbara Mary Keeley (Labour, Centre-left): A number of families in my constituency are worried about the impact that isolation is having on their family members with dementia who are living in care homes with no visits allowed. In one case, a constituent’s mother phones her daily and threatens to take her own life because of the lack of contact with her family. The Minister for Care, the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately), told the Select Committee on Health and Social Care last week that there would be a pilot for visiting in care homes, but that could be months away. The Secretary of State has talked today about visits when restrictions are reduced, but this situation is desperate for some families, so can he tell us when we can have regular meaningful visiting for every care home resident?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
John Derek Twigg (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State said at the Dispatch Box last Tuesday, in support of the new three-tier system, that "we are now acting to simplify and standardise the rules at a local level."—[Official Report, 13 October 2020; Vol. 682, c. 198.] At that point, Liverpool was put into tier 3, and the gyms were closed in Merseyside and Halton, but when Lancashire went into tier 3 on Friday, gyms there were allowed to remain open. What is the reason for that difference? He should straight away authorise the reopening of gyms in Merseyside and Halton. There is no evidence to support keeping them closed.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): The Health Secretary really should admit that Serco has failed. If it was shared fairly across the country, the £12 billion for Serco would mean £300 million for the Liverpool city region alone. When will he give that level of funding to local public health teams, and when will he instruct Dido Harding to give local teams the data that is currently held by Serco, so that they can do the job that Serco has failed to do?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
Julie Elliott (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State has had a good relationship with local authorities in the north-east and Sunderland, which I represent, but once again the request for funding for Test and Trace and for financial support has not been answered. He gave me a commitment last week that he would get an answer, as did the Prime Minister, and it still has not happened. In the meantime, people are nervous and businesses are on the brink of going under in the north-east. It is a very worrying time. Will the Secretary of State please talk to local authorities in tier 2 about the support that is needed on the ground to help communities and businesses survive this terrible crisis?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): To prevent further restrictions being placed on York, we have to lock down this virus, not lock down people and the economy. We know that the key to this is local contact tracing, and the reality is that the shadow contact tracing undertaken by my local authority has been more accurate, more effective and more responsive. That is the key to getting on top of this virus, so when will the Secretary of State release all the data to local authorities and give them the resources they need so that they can do the job properly and get on top of the virus?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
Richard Burgon (Labour, Centre-left): People will have seen images of packed rugby stadiums in New Zealand last week after the country announced that it had effectively ended domestic transmission of coronavirus. It followed a zero-covid strategy and has had a tiny number of cases over the recent period. As we face another wave of unnecessary deaths here, life is returning to normal there, so is the Secretary of State embarrassed that other countries have managed to drive down cases while his Government are failing?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-19
Topic: Health
Alison McGovern (Labour, Centre-left): Can I return the Secretary of State to care homes? He knows the utter dilemma that the care homes, their staff, their residents and all of their families face between allowing the infection into the home and causing such damage to the welfare of residents by not allowing visitors. He said earlier, in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley), that he was empowering directors of public health, which in some ways is welcome, but it needs a much more thought through plan than that and the Department of Health should be offering much more policy support. The Opposition have worked hard on a plan for care homes, so will he say what his Department is proactively doing?