argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
PPE Manufacture: UK Businesses — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Mark Simon Eastwood (Conservative, Centre-right): I have been assisting manufacturers in Dewsbury, Mirfield, Kirkburn and Denby Dale to register as potential suppliers of PPE on the gov.uk portal. I am pleased that the Cabinet Office is now responding to those businesses. My right hon. Friend has just confirmed how many have registered on the site nationally. Will he confirm when those that have registered are likely to start receiving orders for PPE?
Covid-19: Armed Forces Support for NHS Trusts — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Luther Mercer (Conservative, Centre-right): As part of the national covid-19 response, Defence has supported NHS trusts in a variety of ways. We have distributed PPE and diagnostic equipment, we supported the planning, construction and staffing of Nightingale hospitals and we provided service personnel to conduct testing at regional and mobile testing sites. We also established a covid support force to assist wider Government, with 2,935 personnel in that force, as of this morning, currently deployed to assist civil authorities.
Covid-19: Armed Forces Support for NHS Trusts — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Luther Mercer (Conservative, Centre-right): We are carefully considering the appropriate ways to reward and recognise those involved in this unprecedented response. There will be a range of ways to mark exceptional contributions once we are through the crisis, including consideration of how the honours system might play a role. Departments continue to consider existing internal mechanisms to reward individuals and teams, with the recent example of Captain Tom Moore being appointed as an honorary colonel.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert Butler (Conservative, Centre-right): The extraordinary level of support that my right hon. Friend has described is certainly welcome in Aylesbury and it is undoubtedly assisting thousands of households. I join others in paying tribute to all the staff in the Department and branches of Jobcentre Plus for making that happen It would be helpful if my right hon. Friend could describe the ways in which these unprecedented levels of support from the DWP can help owner-directors of small limited companies, many of whom have written to me because they are mainly paid by dividends, so they are not entitled to the assistance scheme for the self-employed. To be clear, these are not multimillionaires, but hard-working hairdressers, make-up artists, decorators and electricians. They have lost their income and would really welcome her assistance.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Housing
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): I should point out to the right hon. Gentleman that we were trying to make a short-term increase, we went through with the Treasury how we could do this quickly, and the quickest ways were by increasing the local housing allowance and UC, rather than other benefits, as I have mentioned. On the situation in London, I am conscious that aspects of the housing benefit regulations went through a month ago, but not all councils have applied them. What we have done with the thresholds means that people in London should be able to see an increase in the amount of money they get in housing support, but otherwise it is not the Government’s intention to change the current threshold of the benefit cap.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): I wish to follow on from the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Rob Butler) about directors of small companies. The Government have done very well to protect people on PAYE and people who are self-employed, but directors of small companies fall through the cracks and it really is not good enough just to say, "They can fall back on universal credit", because in many cases they will not qualify and because we have protected other sectors. We must do better, and we must sort out how we are going to protect the directors of small companies.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Housing
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): May I join in thanking all the staff at the DWP, and indeed the Secretary of State and her team, and in particular, the staff at Epsom jobcentre, for dealing with the current crisis as effectively as they have? Will she look again at the issue of LHA for the areas immediately outside London, as there are still anomalies that particularly affect my constituency, and of course there will be a greater need for housing support. Will she look at the level of support to make sure that it really is related to the local rental market?
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Housing
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): LHA is done on the basis of certain housing areas, and the Chancellor announced a significant change in order to bring this up to the 30th percentile. I say to my right hon. Friend that councils across the country have been receiving discretionary housing payments—separate from the hardship fund. That was ongoing, and we added £40 million to it for this financial year prior to this situation. I encourage anyone who is still struggling in his local area to go directly to the council for some support.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): The way that advance payments are recovered is by treating it in effect as a phasing issue, so that people have 13 payments over a year, instead of 12. As a consequence, elements will be removed from the following 12 payments so that the annual total is the same.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): First, I thank my right hon. Friend for praising staff at the DWP. He is right to do so, and I thank him for that. I am very aware of the issue he is bringing to my attention, and I am actively looking at that particular scenario, where people, not realising some of the eligibility rules, have then made the application and are no longer effectively going to receive working tax credits. I cannot give an answer to my right hon. Friend or the House today, but I assure him that I am looking very carefully into what changes we could make to address that situation. I have already asked for the website to be updated, so that people are crystal clear when they apply.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Housing
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): As I have already said to the House, there may be claimants who could benefit from a nine-month grace period, where their universal credit will not be capped if they have a sustained work record. On other raises that have happened in terms of housing, changes have been made that should help people, particularly in central and outer London. However, in general, the principle is not to remove the benefit cap.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Other
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We know that it is not a well-targeted system, and that is why we will continue to say that it is not the approach that this Government will take. May I also wish a belated happy birthday to my hon. Friend, who turned a significant age at the weekend?
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): The Department supports a number of schemes around the country; I am not aware of the specific one to which the hon. Gentleman refers. They will continue, I am sure, to be supported more broadly, but each and every one will be evaluated, because we need to make sure that the money that we have has the best reach. I am sure that he will continue to lobby for that case in South Yorkshire.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Housing
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): On the question about the self-employed, where people have assets—for example, savings set aside for paying tax—they need to check carefully and go through that as they make their claim, because it will not be considered part of savings with regard to the £16,000 threshold. On housing, we have increased the local housing allowance, and I am sure that the discretionary housing payments have gone to Ealing Council. It is open for councils to come back to central Government if they would like that to be raised substantially.
Covid-19: DWP Update — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Thérèse Anne Coffey (Conservative, Centre-right): We did have telephony issues, but I am led to believe that they have been significantly addressed, particularly with the "Don’t call us—we’ll call you" campaign. I recommend that the hon. Lady considers asking her constituents to use the journal when necessary. I appreciate that they do not all have internet access, but the average waiting time should now be considerably lower. The last I heard, it was, on average, about five minutes. I ask her to look into that.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Before I call the spokesman for the Opposition, I should draw to the attention of Members in the Chamber and who are going to participate by electronic means that there will be a time limit of five minutes on Back-Bench contributions. I have to adhere strictly to that timetable in order to make these proceedings work in this unusual way, so please do not look for leniency. I also ask Members who are participating from home to have some way of checking whether they have spoken for five minutes. I now call Justin Madders, who I ask to speak for no more than eight minutes.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-05-04
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): We have concluded this session a few minutes earlier than expected—not through bad arithmetical calculation, I would like the House to know, but because a few people who had indicated that they wished to speak and had been on the list to speak decided at the last minute not to. I therefore suspend the House for rather more than 30 minutes, until 7.30 pm.
Istanbul Convention — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): The United Kingdom signed the convention in 2012 to reaffirm our strong commitment to tackling violence against women and girls, and, as required by the Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017, we published the latest annual report on our progress towards ratification on 31 October. I can assure the hon. Lady that in forthcoming legislation we will include the necessary measures to cover all parts of the United Kingdom to ensure compliance.
Istanbul Convention — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): I can reassure the hon. and learned Lady that not only is the United Kingdom committed both internationally and domestically through legislation—I know that she actively supported that back in 2017—to implement the convention, but in many respects we are ahead of the obligations that the convention places upon us, and we are among the leaders of the world in our support and in our approach to violence against women and girls and the victims of sexual abuse. We should not be complacent about that, but it is worth reminding ourselves of how far we have come.
Deradicalisation of Prisoners: Longer Sentences — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Lucy Claire Leigh (Frazer) (Conservative, Centre-right): We were very happy to receive the right hon. Member’s review in 2017 on ethnic minority individuals in the criminal justice system and have acted on many of its recommendations. We recently published an update on progress across the Lammy recommendations, which demonstrates a range of work. I am very happy to meet him. I do not make that offer on behalf of the Secretary of State—[Interruption.] I hear that the Secretary of State is also happy to meet him to discuss the very important work on this area.
Reoffending Reduction — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for that question. She can be reassured that in April 2019 we implemented new prison education contracts which deliver services designed by prison governors and staff to best meet the specific needs of their prisoners and local labour markets. Indeed, we will be developing a new prison education service that will build on further commissioning, improving the range of training available to prisoners that is directly linked to real jobs on their release.
Reoffending Reduction — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Antony Higginbotham (Conservative, Centre-right): As someone who used to mentor young offenders, I saw at first hand the impact that not having somewhere to go after release had on them and their chances of getting into meaningful employment. What steps is my right hon. and learned Friend taking to ensure that those who leave prison have somewhere safe to live?
Reoffending Reduction — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Housing
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend speaks with authority on this matter. It is simple: a home, a job and a friend are the path away from reoffending. Through the Government’s rough sleeping strategy, we are investing up to £6.4 million in a pilot scheme to support individuals released from three named prisons: Bristol, Leeds and Pentonville. I am sure that that work can be scaled up to offer released prisoners a real opportunity to have stable accommodation.
Reoffending Reduction — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Housing
Richard Michael Bacon (Conservative, Centre-right): Is the Lord Chancellor aware of the work of the Community Self Build Agency in helping ex-offenders to create their own dwellings, which they can then rent at an affordable rate and possibly buy in the future, and the startling effect that that has had on recidivism rates? Given that the National Self Build & Renovation Centre is in his constituency, will he consider working with the Right to Build Task Force on a project to scale up models that have already been demonstrated to work in this area?
Reoffending Reduction — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Housing
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to mention the National Self Build & Renovation Centre. I am very interested in modern methods of construction and how they could be developed on the secure estate as a real contribution to our housing supply issue, and I would be very interested to work with him and the organisation he mentions to make that more of a reality.
Public Protection Sentences: BAME Backgrounds — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What estimate he has made of the proportion of people serving imprisonment for public protection sentences that are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Lucy Claire Leigh (Frazer) (Conservative, Centre-right): No one should face any discrimination. I am pleased to have been able to answer this question earlier by stating that we welcomed and have acted upon the Lammy review. The proportion of BAME and IPP prisoners is lower than the proportion of BAME prisoners as a whole: 23% of IPP prisoners are from the BAME backgrounds, compared with 27% of the overall population.
Early Legal Advice — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Alexander John Gervase Chalk (Conservative, Centre-right): In a nation of laws, access to justice is a fundamental right. Legal aid for early legal advice remains available in many areas, such as for asylum cases. In addition, legal aid is available under the exceptional case funding scheme in any matter where failure to provide it would breach or risk breaching someone’s rights under the European convention.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Housing
Robert James Buckland (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman will be glad to know that we intend to bring that Bill forward very soon indeed—well before Easter—so that we can debate it. He made a point about local government services; no doubt, he will have welcomed the announcement on the local government settlement that was made yesterday. He will know from his own experience of local authorities, as indeed I know from my local authority, that choices can be made to offer direct assistance. For example, with women’s shelters and refuges, decisions on non-domestic rates can help the funding of those services. Important decisions were made about how homelessness and housing support was given to make sure that the interests of those centres were put first and foremost, because they are not just shelters but places of rehabilitation and support.
Tax Avoidance and Evasion — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Stephen Paul Barclay (Conservative, Centre-right): As my hon. Friend will know, before coming to the House I worked in the field of trying to prevent money laundering in our financial institutions. As a principle, we are always keen to look at that, but he is right to draw attention to the measures that we have taken, including on the professional responsibilities of advisers, whether that relates to the property business—in businesses linked to his previous senior business experience —or accountants, lawyers and others.
Social Care — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Other
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I have. As the hon. Member knows, my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Gillian Keegan) was my Parliamentary Private Secretary, and we talked about this a lot, so I welcome that work. Indeed, the amount of work from various Select Committees and groups in this House has been considerable, as my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) made clear earlier. There has been an awful lot of reports and of very good work, including the work to which the hon. Member has contributed.
Social Care — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Housing
Jacqueline Doyle-Price (Conservative, Centre-right): The issue is that local authorities are commissioning care from local care providers and paying the rate that the individual resident is incurring. It is about what they are prepared to pay for that bill and not the local authorities paying living wages directly to employees. However, that is pushing the risk on to care providers, and we need to acknowledge that there will be workforce challenges for those providers. They will be competing more and more for people. While there is that downward pressure from local authorities on what they are prepared to pay and the upward pressure on wages, the risk is being borne by providers. Part of the solution is also not just about who pays. We need to be a lot more imaginative about this. We all know that we will live longer—beyond 70—and that we will have more years in life in retirement. Just as we make plans for our pensions, we need to make provision for our homes and how we are going to live in old age. The simple fact is that our housing requirements when we are in our 40s and are raising a family are rather different from what we might require in our 90s. We know that falls are one of the biggest burdens on the NHS, so the fact that we are not encouraging people to make sensible lifestyle decisions about their homes is causing additional cost to the NHS, as well as, potentially, the need for more long-term residential care. One reason why we have that issue is that we have allowed, collectively over decades, so much wealth to be stored in our housing stock that we have encouraged people to behave in a way that makes them want to cling to it. I would like us to look more imaginatively at incentives through the tax system to encourage people to downsize and look at different ways of living. We want to use the planning system to encourage the development of retirement villages where people can purchase extra care.
Social Care — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Housing
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Some people like to care for relatives at home, and it is not uncommon to create a small annexe within or adjacent to the property for an older relative to be cared for, but currently, the council tax system means that if that relative passes on, after that—within two years—people will be charged double the council tax for that part of their dwelling. Does my hon. Friend think that that is something that we can improve on and change to encourage people who wish to look after their relatives in their properties to do so?
Social Care — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Housing
Jacqueline Doyle-Price (Conservative, Centre-right): The key words the hon. Member just used were "in their home". There is no public policy challenge that does not come back to having the right kind of housing solutions. Many of these issues arise from our not investing in the right kind of supported housing environments that would enable more people to live independently. That has to be part of the solution. Local authorities and the local NHS need to come together to commission the right kind of service As we are short of time, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will end there, but it is high time we gripped this once and for all.
Social Care — House of Commons, 2020-02-25
Topic: Other
Huw William Merriman (Conservative, Centre-right): I will give way to the hon. Lady, because a couple of years ago when I made the point that I hoped we could work on a cross-party basis, the talk back to me was, "Actually, that cost you the election, and we wouldn’t work with you on that basis." I found that response rather frustrating, so I hope for more.
Rail Fares — House of Commons, 2020-03-12
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Christopher Heaton-Harris (Conservative, Centre-right): We are going to change the franchise model—the Williams review is absolutely going to change how our franchise model operates—but my hon. Friend will have to wait a bit longer to see how that is going to happen. We have strong views on the direction of travel and look forward to informing the House shortly.
Covid-19: Public Transport — House of Commons, 2020-03-12
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Paul Christopher Maynard (Conservative, Centre-right): Yesterday, we saw welcome support in the Budget for small and medium-sized enterprises to deal with coronavirus, but ferry companies and airlines are very much at the forefront of that challenge. What financial support and liquidity are available to these companies? Will the Secretary of State update the House on what progress he has made on reforming slot allocation, and will he meet me and sector representatives to discuss the adequacy of the Government’s support so far?
Airport Expansion: Paris Climate Change Agreement — House of Commons, 2020-03-12
Topic: Mixed Topics
Kelly Jane Tolhurst (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. He will know—I believe he spoke about it last week—that we will potentially see the first electric flight this year. We have invested £300 million in the future flight challenge fund. We are committed to working with everyone across the industry to ensure that we have the technology and the skills and can deliver on our target.
Electric Vehicles: Charging Infrastructure — House of Commons, 2020-03-12
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question and for what is happening in Cambridge. He will know that a range of support is available for all vehicles, including taxis that want to upgrade to electric vehicles, and the Government are committed to continuing the funding for those grants.