argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, on the retention of teachers, we are relying on our existing initiatives that encourage thousands of teachers every year to return to the profession. In relation to the gap that many newly qualified teachers will have had because of schools closing, we are particularly aware of that and have advised that support should be given to them as they start their career. I assure the noble Baroness that within the £350 million tutoring fund there will be some tutors who will be full-time, in particular in disadvantaged schools that need that. There will be further guidance published on that, which will reveal whether retired and former teachers will be part of that cadre of support in our schools.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the noble Lord is correct: I suspect that many parents have a renewed and deepened appreciation for the role of the teacher in their children’s lives. In relation to the situations we hope to avoid going forward—we are obviously seeing a decrease in the prevalence of the virus in the population—the guidance makes it clear that by the end of September we are expecting schools to have a remote education offer that they can stand up as necessary to deal with the situation that the noble Lord outlines.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Ofsted is a vital part of our school system, providing accountability, and many parents rely on the grades that Ofsted gives. It has become common currency, I might add, within the school system—so no, we will not be going back to the drawing board in relation to Ofsted. However, in relation to the point the noble Baroness makes, the autumn involvement of Ofsted is going to be by way of visits. One of the first things the Government did, except in relation to unregistered schools and safeguarding, was to suspend the routine inspection of schools, so that teachers did not have that pressure. These will be visits in the autumn, but they will look at such issues as how a school is responding and what remote education it can provide. That is important, because parents are making it clear that sometimes the disparities in what is on offer are of concern to them. These will be visits with a letter and they will enable them to theme and help the Government and parents to know what is happening in our schools sector at the moment. I am particularly pleased that Ofsted will be visiting inadequate schools under the regime as a matter of priority.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the laptops are the property of the local authority or the multi-academy trust; when they were loaned out to students, it was of course expected that they would be returned. Tens of thousands of 4G wireless routers went out as well, because we recognise the problem that wi-fi can be patchy, if not non-existent, in certain parts of the country.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord is correct. When you have £1 billion, it is important to make sure that it gets to where it needs to go and delivers what it should. That is why £650 million will go directly to schools. Part of that is to enable them to purchase the subsidised tutoring. We trust the school system; giving the majority of the money to the schools is best. Only they know who, of the pupils in front of them, need what. We will publish further details on the £350 million for the national tutoring service. We are looking at making the best use of that money, including remote learning, without forgetting that, in certain schools, there will be a demand for a physical presence. There will be flexibility in that fund. Noble Lords will learn more about the £350 million tutoring fund soon.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, as I am sure the noble Baroness is aware, there will be no exam data and performance tables for 2020, for precisely that reason. Ofqual is consulting at the moment to see how we can deliver exams next year. One issue is that the effect on children has been disparate. We are getting reports that, for some of the vulnerable children who have been in school, there have been small class sizes since February and some of them are excelling. Some children with English as an additional language have thrived. At the end of the day, we have to trust that schools know how best to deal with their children when they come back. Of those vulnerable children who have been in school, some of them have had an excellent experience.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, in relation to the funding that is needed, as I have outlined, there are many pots of money. There is of course the regular £2.4 billion of the pupil premium Over 200,000 laptops were ordered because we need to be flexible in these coming circumstances, and eventually we purchased 230,000 in order to have that flexibility In relation to excluded children, AP settings are expected to be open and have been open because we have wanted them to have some face-to-face contact with all their students. I pay tribute to those settings, many of which have kept in touch with those vulnerable children during this time.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course I join the noble Lord in paying tribute to the extraordinary effort by teachers, support staff and school business leaders at the moment in offering education. Over 200,000 of the laptops were delivered on target by the end of June, so the commitment that we made has been delivered. As I say, we have a slight surplus so that we can deal with any further orders that we get and can have a certain degree of flexibility in future. However, we have to trust the schools. The department cannot issue these laptops to individual children; we have given them to local authorities and therefore to schools and multi-academy trusts. They know the students who need them, and we trust them as professionals to have distributed them properly.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, we recognise that at secondary school there are different subject classes and specialist teachers who need to be in front of the groups of students—that is why a bubble can actually be as large as a year group in secondary school—but that obviously balances the risk that most of those children will obey the distancing that they have been advised to do. That will give the school the flexibility to offer different subjects to different groups of people. The guidance is clear that even partial distancing has a benefit, so if you step over the line you have not lost all the benefits of the guidance. It is about keeping children partially distanced because we recognise that some young people may not obey the rules.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the guidance specifically encourages that part of a broad and balanced curriculum is the teaching of PE; it is essential to mental health and well-being. Even when schools returned on 1 June, the guidance was that you can have team sports as long as children are in their bubbles and you wash and clean any equipment. We encourage schools to make as much use as they can of their outdoor space.
Education Settings: Autumn Opening — House of Lords, 2020-07-08
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, we would not want anybody to make that kind of choice. We are particularly aware of the situation for lower-income families. That is why, during this period and throughout the summer, there will be free school meals on offer in the form of either schools’ own vouchers or a voucher system over the summer. There is a £9 million allocation to holiday clubs in disadvantaged areas, because we recognise that those students need some activity. They will get food along with that activity. Of the £1 billion catch-up funding, £650 million goes to schools but the £350 million tutoring fund is tilted towards disadvantaged students.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Social Welfare
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, that local authorities will undoubtedly provide a huge amount of the response to the coronavirus, not only in social care but in supporting business, giving pastoral care to those who are vulnerable and left alone and providing the community cohesion that we will need to get through a very difficult time for society. Extremely generous funding has been put in. That money is trickling through the system and I know that my colleagues at the Treasury are working hard to ensure that everyone has the information they need.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Law and Crime
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): The right reverend Prelate is entirely right to raise the question of prisons. Prisons provide an enormous challenge when it comes to the virus. The idea of prisoners living in prisons while the virus passes through such a tight-knit community concerns us enormously. I reassure him that the Ministry of Justice is looking into this carefully. It is using the experience in Italy and in China to understand how to provide for this in a humane and responsible way that preserves the security of our communities. It will publish advice on that shortly.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Social Welfare
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Baroness is entirely right to ask about a specific group. As yet, I do not have a clear answer on the exact demographic that she describes, but I reassure her that our understanding is that this will hit hardest the most vulnerable in our society. The entire focus of our provisions is therefore to make sure that the most vulnerable are looked after best.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: International Affairs
Eric Pickles (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, may I ask about the unintended consequences of President Trump’s announcement last night? As my noble friend will be aware, a considerable amount of commercial cargo is carried on passenger flights, including medicine and vital medical equipment, plus time-sensitive exports. While our European neighbours will bear the brunt of the announcement, it will undoubtedly have a knock-on effect on supplies to the United Kingdom. What discussions are the Government planning with airlines to ensure these vital medicines and medical supplies come through?
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Labor
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): The recruitment of recently retired staff requires some changes to legislation, which are being studied at the moment. We look forward to bringing them to the House in the near future. I am happy to update the House on those provisions, once we have made further progress.
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Environment
Michael Bruce Forsyth (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I return to the question of deep cleaning. My noble friend says that the advice is clear. Could he confirm that, if an employer arranges for all surfaces within their premises to be treated, that will be sufficient to allow staff to come back into the building safely?
Green Economy — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Environment
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I agree with my noble friend; hydrogen can of course provide a potential solution to that. I heard only the other day about investments that we are making with companies such as Worcester Bosch and Baxi to develop new boilers that are able to work on natural gas and can be easily converted with only one hour of service engineering to work on hydrogen in the future. Nevertheless, hydrogen is, at the moment, given existing technology, expensive and difficult to produce The noble Baronesses, Lady Suttie and Lady Jenkin, asked what we are doing about plastic waste. I am pleased to tell them that the UK is a world leader in tackling plastics and that we have committed to work towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, and to eliminate avoidable plastic waste by 2042. The Government’s landmark resources and waste strategy sets out our plans to eliminate avoidable plastic waste over the lifetime of the 25-year plan I hesitate to referee the debate between the noble Baronesses, Lady Jenkin and Lady Jones, on Extinction Rebellion. I am sorry to tell the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, that I am very much on the side of noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, on this. I witnessed at first hand the huge piles of disposable plastic waste that Extinction Rebellion left behind after its demonstrations. Before lecturing the rest of us on what we should be doing, it should act to put its own house in order first.
Green Economy — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Environment
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thought that might prompt an intervention. No, I do not accept that. Even on the sites they vacated voluntarily, they still left behind piles of rubbish, which cost the local authority tens of thousands of pounds to remove. They are, of course, quite entitled, as everybody is, to demonstrate and make their point, but they are not entitled to bring the whole of London to a standstill while they are doing it.
Green Economy — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Environment
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sorry, but I just do not agree with the noble Baroness. Climate change was on the agenda well before Extinction Rebellion decided to get involved in the subject. It has been a subject of cross-party agreement. It is not just something for this Government; Governments of the party opposite and the coalition Government were also on the ball with this, and legislation was put in place with cross-party agreement. Nobody doubts the scale of the problem; they do not need to tell us it is a problem; what we need are practical solutions that are deliverable in the normal political landscape. That is what we are working towards and what we are interested in giving contributions for, and, frankly, camping out in London for weeks on end does not change the fact that we need practical, deliverable solutions.
Green Economy — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Environment
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): It is fine: it is my fault for raising it. I should not have got involved in the debate, but I am happy to talk to the noble Baroness, for whom I have the greatest admiration, as she knows. I am sure that we will discuss it on plenty of other occasions The noble Lord, Lord Giddens, talked about the 2050 target and asked why Finland has a net-zero target of 2035 when ours is 2050. Our independent advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, made it clear in its report that it does not currently consider that it is credible for the UK to reach net-zero emissions earlier than 2050, and we have legislated in line with that advice The noble Baroness, Lady Suttie, asked about plastic waste exports. We are committed to banning plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries and the Environment Bill includes a power to enable us to deliver this commitment. We will consult this year on the date by which this will achieved The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, raised the energy company obligation—we have discussed this subject with her before. I know that we have a different opinion on it, but we believe that energy efficiency will be key to reach net zero and we agree that the transition has to be fair. The energy company obligation is a key policy that, since 2013, has delivered more than 2.5 million measures in more than 2 million homes. This scheme is now entirely focused on low-income, vulnerable and fuel-poor households and funded to the tune of something like £640 million a year until 2022. I know that we have a different view about how it should be funded, but it is, in my view, a successful scheme The noble Lord, Lord Marland, talked about international climate finance. Since 2011, our international climate finance has helped 57 million people to cope with the effects of climate change, while reducing or avoiding 16 million tonnes of emissions I am sorry that I am out of time; I had a number of other points to refer to. If noble Lords will permit me, I will respond to them in writing—apart from an intervention from the noble Lord, Lord Browne.
Green Economy — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Environment
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): It is an important subject, as I have said, and there is a lot of development in this area. I will write to the noble Lord with the details of pricing the risk, because it is a complicated subject It just remains for me to say that tackling climate change continues to be one of the Government’s highest priorities. We will continue to work with others, both domestically and internationally, to build on the excellent progress that we have already made to reach net zero. I thank noble Lords once again for some excellent contributions to this debate.
Motor Vehicles (Tests) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-05-13
Topic: Transportation
John Attlee (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, for raising this issue, but I think that the order is a sensible precaution. I believe that the Minister and her department are operating magnificently. For instance, last week she and her officials sorted out a problem I had raised about abnormal load movements within 24 hours from start to finish It is important to recognise that having an MoT testing regime is not just about the direct safety benefit of detecting vehicle faults but much more about keeping our vehicle fleet operating at a very high standard, without a race to the bottom under economic pressures. Also more important nowadays is minimising environmental harm by means of emission testing. The good news is that the standard of our private car and commercial vehicle fleet is far higher than it was a few decades ago. I have a somewhat technical interest to declare, in that I currently operate a heavy goods vehicle exclusively under an order made under Section 44 of RTA 1988, but might want to operate it under C&U rules. Lack of goods vehicle testing capacity may cause me some inconvenience at some point in the future In effect, the order extends an existing MoT certificate but does not allow a vehicle to be operated without a recent certificate at all. That is fine for cars, but not necessarily for goods vehicles. There may be sound reasons why it is necessary to bring a goods vehicle back into operation; for instance, after a significant overhaul or refurbishment. I understand that the Minister has the power to relax testing requirements for an individual vehicle, but officials are using it only sparingly, for vehicles involved in combating the coronavirus, but not generally, even for reliable operators. Before noble Lords get too excited about my suggestion, I point out that goods vehicle operators are already obliged to inspect their vehicles for safety about every six weeks, so my proposal would have a limited adverse effect on road safety.
Motor Vehicles (Tests) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-05-13
Topic: Transportation
Matthew Carrington (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I declare my interests as in the register We understand perfectly the reasons for these regulations. At this time, it is important that we remove as many burdens from people as possible and ensure that no one is forced into contact with others if it can be avoided. However, I wish to point out a couple of problems. I support the regulations but we will need to get MoT stations back to normal operation as soon as possible My first point concerns safety. It goes without saying that maintaining mechanical and emissions standards for motor vehicles is safety-critical for all road users and for reducing air pollution, which has been one of the few benefits of the present crisis. MoT testing stations play a vital part in this. They are not there to catch the crook or wide boy who wants to drive unsafe vehicles on the road, although they have a part to play here. The overwhelming majority of vehicles that fail their MoT do so because they have faults that their owners were unaware of. For instance, a six-month delay in getting an MoT test means that some faults, for example in brakes that were fine 18 months before at the last test, are now dangerous. The MoT test is set up to ensure that the brake pads are thick enough to last for 12 months of normal usage of that vehicle— 18 months may remove that safety margin The second issue concerns the nature of MoT stations themselves. Outside Northern Ireland, they are overwhelmingly small businesses set up as small independent garages specialising in MoTs. They are sometimes part of repair garages, because the repair garage is fed from the work generated by the MoT testing. If you find that your car has failed the MoT on something minor such as a faulty brake light, it is often convenient for the vehicle owner to get a quote from the garage doing the MoT and get the MoT done quickly on the spot if the price is right By delaying MoTs for six months, we take out six months cash flow from these small businesses; many will not survive, regardless of government loans and furlough schemes. This could lead to a shortage of MoT stations in future, which are not easily replaced because of the technical skills required to carry out MoTs and the licensing to ensure that they are carried out correctly. While this regulation solves our pressing problems at this time, the shorter the time that MoTs are delayed the better, for the sake of us all and of the small businesses involved.