argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-06-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, on both those amendments. We talked a lot about legislation earlier on today, but we know, both internationally and from the Home Affairs Select Committee and others, that legislation does not make very much difference at all to the key issues relating to drugs, whether traditional drugs or new psychoactive substances. The important job the Government have concerns information. I have said it before and will say it again: young people do not want to kill themselves, believe it or not, and they do not even want to harm themselves and finish up in hospital. Why do they kill themselves and finish up in hospital? Because they do not have the information they need to keep themselves safe. Why do they not have the information? Because far too many substances are banned in a rather simplistic way. Countries such as the Netherlands, which have coffee shops where people can get cannabis, have very little problem with heroin, for example. There are other ways of keeping people safe. But the most important way, as the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, says, is information. I agree with his ideas about how this should be done—it cannot be typical government information. It really is important. If we stopped focusing on legislation quite so much and focused on some of these other issues, we might actually make some progress I want also to support the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, in relation to the testing centres. Testing centres would be a very important adjunct if we were to have a more proportionate system where low-harm substances would be regulated, labelled and so on, as recommended by the European Commission and approved by the European Parliament. If we had a proportionate system like that, and had testing centres, a young person could go into a testing centre and ask whether a substance was low harm and okay to take. With a combination of a proportionate legal system, testing centres and really good information, we would begin to have a really good drugs policy. Would that not be wonderful? We could lead the world with such a policy Many Latin American countries talk about these things. They know just how bad the war on drugs can be. They know just how important it is for the demand end of the drugs market to be managed effectively in order to save them from tens of thousands of deaths a year, corruption, government failure and all the rest of it. It is absolutely disastrous across the Atlantic. In my view, we have a responsibility to ourselves and our young people but also to Latin America and central American countries I very strongly support what the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, said. I really hope that Ministers will take it very seriously and somehow link it with a proportionate, rational system of drug control.
Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-06-23
Topic: Education
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I support very strongly the idea behind the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, and the importance of education. However, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, that the type of education is absolutely all-important. He said that teenagers do not want someone coming in preaching about drugs. Absolutely—we know from all the research, most of which has been carried out in the US, that lecturing and didactic teaching does not work in the sphere of drugs. We know that. I was going to suggest that we need the words "evidence-based" in the amendment. We know from the evidence that peer involvement—certainly group work with youngsters who have already had or are now having terrible problems with drugs—is the method of education that works. Whether one wants to call it education or whatever, it ideally needs to go on in schools. It does not seem inappropriate therefore to use the word "education". We all have to be clear what we mean by education but, as for the term "evidence-based", the evidence points exactly in that direction Before you get to that sort of education and imparting —or whatever you call it—of information, there is work already being done in a number of schools up and down the country to improve the resilience of youngsters who are particularly vulnerable to drug addiction. An example is children who are not functioning well at school or have very difficult home lives. There are all sorts of reasons why those children lack resilience. There are very good programmes of resilience-building in schools and for me they are utterly central to the whole business of prevention of drug addiction. This sort of work is far more important even than all the stuff we were talking about earlier about legislation, passionate though I feel about having the right framework in which all these things occur. I would support at least some variant of the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, because it is fundamentally important, but let us see if we can come up with something really good for Report. Even better, the Minister could take this away and bring back a well-framed amendment to cover this vital issue.
Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-06-23
Topic: Foreign Trade
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, in speaking to Amendment 16 I will also support Amendments 14, 17, 18 and 19. Amendment 19, on low-harm substances, links very closely with Amendment 16, and I will concentrate on Amendment 16 because of that particular focus Amendment 16 seeks to exempt from the scope of the Bill substances deemed to pose low health, social and safety risks. One of the objectives is to take a small step towards harmonising the Bill with the EU regulation. The Government have every right to opt out of the EU regulation, and of course they did so. However, there are very good reasons for attempting to move towards a degree of harmonisation. Paragraph 1.1 of the EU regulation says that, "national restriction measures, which may differ depending on the Member State and on the substance, can hamper trade in the internal market and hinder the development of future industrial or commercial uses" So there are free market issues where the UK may cause problems for our own industries, and indeed trade, if the Bill goes ahead unamended. Amendment 16 goes some way towards reducing those obstacles to trade. Does the Minister know how significant the commercial and trade implications of the Bill will be for the UK if it is not amended in the way that Amendment 16 suggests and, if not, will he have these barriers assessed before introducing the Bill?
Undercover Policing — House of Lords, 2015-03-26
Topic: Law and Crime
Geoffrey Dear (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I endorse everything that has been said in the House today. I certainly endorse the fact that undercover policing is difficult and at times highly dangerous to the point of risk to life. High standards are essential in this area of police work. It is essential that the processes, but not the mechanics, are transparent and that there is strong oversight, without being prescriptive about times—I am not altogether sure that I agree with the noble Baroness about two days or whatever it was—as overprescription might be difficult. Will the Minister press, so far as he is able, for speed in this inquiry to put all these doubts to bed for the first time and put this area of policing on a firm footing as quickly as possible?
Rural Payments Agency: Basic Payment Scheme — House of Lords, 2015-03-24
Topic: Agriculture
Merlin Hay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I declare a serious interest as I do all the paperwork online for my wife, who farms and is trustee of a second place, so I will be trying to file for two estates. We were a quarter of the way through when the computer system went down at the weekend with no notice. It then kept saying that it would give us access as soon as possible but was offline for another week. Eventually, the latest announcement that we were going to paper was made. Trying to map the scale of complexity that we have on bits of paper that are blank is ridiculous. The whole place was mapped and inspected a few months ago, and the Rural Land Register has completely accurate maps in place. Why are those not being used? They show the deductions and the only things that need to be added are cropping and greening Also, the single payment system was up and running perfectly well but is about to be taken down in a few days’ time. Why not use that as the basis, because it has all the maps and has done for the last 10 years? All that has to be added to it are the crops, as opposed to just simple crop codes, and then a greening percentage. It is not that difficult. Maybe someone practical who understands IT should be involved. I have been doing this for 12 years, since IACS was going online. Maybe someone who actually understands how the system works at the sharp end could advise on how this can be sorted out. Trying to do it on paper is going to be a disaster; it will be like back in 2005 when the students tried to put it online and the mapping errors took a year or more to sort out.
EU and Russia (EUC Report) — House of Lords, 2015-03-24
Topic: International Affairs
Jean Coussins (Crossbench, Unknown): The report acknowledges that point about visas. My point is that it is short-sighted to hand Putin a card to play that enables him to accuse the EU of double standards. The report concluded that there is a prima facie case requiring this historical grievance by ethnic Russians in Estonia and Latvia to be investigated. That is as far as we went. I hope that the UK Government will press for this investigation to be pursued by the EU so that any excuse for any level of Russian interference in these states on these particular grounds can be effectively neutralised and removed I look forward to the Minister’s response on this and to my earlier points about language skills.
Deregulation Bill — House of Lords, 2015-03-16
Topic: Technology
Elspeth Howe (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, following the successful vote in your Lordships’ House a week or two ago, we are very pleased to see that the Government have accepted our important amendment to the Bill by including it in their own Motion A. What we now have before us is a cast-iron guarantee that any proposed changes to the licence fee enforcement regime will not take place until at least 1 April 2017 when the current licence fee settlement expires In particular, I would like to thank the noble Lords, Lord Stevenson, Lord Clement-Jones, and Lord Grade, for their invaluable support in this matter in signing the original amendment. This cross-party support demonstrated the broad strength of feeling on this whole issue. Any changes imposed before April 2017 would without doubt have had an impact on the BBC’s revenue. The consequences for the BBC’s funding need to be fully considered. Funding, along with everything else to do with the BBC, must be looked at in the context of the upcoming charter review and licence fee settlement We recognise that the David Perry QC review into licence fee enforcement is currently taking place, and I understand that the BBC is engaging with the review. Our amendment, now included in the Government’s Motion, does not affect the review’s recommendations or seek to change the outcome, but focuses on the timing of any implementation and ensures that the recommendation can lead into wider discussions that will affect all licence fee payers.
Armed Forces (Service Complaints and Financial Assistance) Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
Francis Richard Dannatt (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I support the observations made by the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup. It is somewhat disappointing that there is this residual difficulty in the main thrust of the Bill, which one very much supports—it is perhaps a regret that we have to have an ombudsman at all, but that is where we are I simply make two points. The first is in support of what the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, said: if this goes through, those who take part in this process must be properly trained so that they understand the circumstances and context in which the cases come. Secondly, I simply observe that the cause of a large number of the cases in the pipeline is excessive delay, often occasioned by complaints not being investigated at a low enough level in the chain of command process. In reading noble Lords’ comments in this short debate, I hope that every effort will continue to be made to streamline the process such that complaints can be dealt with speedily at a low level, so that we do not get the backlog of the size that we currently have. This will lead to much greater efficiency in the system, which will bring satisfaction and resolution through speedy agreement.
Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 — House of Lords, 2015-03-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I was not planning to speak today, but I have to rise to respond to the noble Viscount, Lord Falkland. If we were to have a logical system in this country for dealing with drugs, tobacco would indeed be illegal. We have lots of drugs that are illegal in this country that are infinitely safer than tobacco, and we all know that, if we were starting today, tobacco would be unlawful. So I simply do not accept the point that, simply because tobacco is lawful, we should allow the market to let rip—very far from it. We know that it is very difficult to make a product such as tobacco unlawful at this stage, but we need to do everything possible to protect the public from the most dangerous drug available in this country today.
Ukraine — House of Lords, 2015-02-10
Topic: International Affairs
Godfrey Bewicke-Copley (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, the noble Baroness, in repeating the Statement, referred to President Putin responding to strength—indeed I think "force" was the word used—and she may well be right in that. It is widely said that should the talks in Minsk fail, war is the next step. Does she agree with that, and if so who exactly is going to be declaring war on whom? Finally, with the President of Russia arming one side and the President of America possibly arming the other, what would a victory look like?
Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-06-30
Topic: Law and Crime
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I will not take up the House’s time, but I wish to express my strong support for these amendments. It is eminently reasonable to have right of appeal, as the noble Baroness said, bearing in mind the considerable penalty that somebody will suffer if their livelihood is suddenly withdrawn from them. It also seems eminently sensible to set the standard of proof at the criminal level. I support these amendments and hope very much that the Minister can comply with those two proposals.
Childcare Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: Social Welfare
Christopher James (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, might I ask in the context of this debate what the Government mean and we mean by quality in childcare? Is it the quality of childcare only or the quality of childcare and the relationship between the adult and the child? I respectfully submit that one of the most important factors in childcare is the relationship that develops between the child and the carer The Government have adopted the early years formula and put a lot of money into it. I think that they are absolutely right to do so, but I suggest that to some extent this Bill in mechanising, as it were, the management of the care of children runs the risk of losing the relationship by which a very young child learns to love, care and interrelate with other human beings. I wonder if the fact that so often we are losing that relationship in the early years is not the cause of some of our troubles in family life later on as the young people get older.
Childcare Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: Social Welfare
Christopher James (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I make a very brief intervention and I have to declare an interest. Is there not some scope for grandparents in this pattern? Will it be possible, for example, for some of those hours to be taken up formally by grandparents or other relations of the child?
Childcare Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: Social Welfare
Francis Hare (Crossbench, Unknown): I am grateful to the noble Baroness for moving this amendment. The Child Poverty Action Group has told us that it welcomes this legislation because of the positive impact that it is likely to have on child poverty. I hope that it may be helpful to remind the House of concerns about other current factors in play which might impact on child poverty I am grateful to the Minister for agreeing to a meeting on the issue of homeless families. I am reminded of a couple of times recently where, due to a combination of policy factors, many poor families have had to move out of London because they can no longer afford to live here. That is causing concern to employers, as their workforce is leaving London, and one must be concerned that those families are going to areas where they will have difficulty finding employment. While I know that this is an extremely difficult issue, it is helpful when we are talking about policies which will raise children out of poverty to keep in mind other things that might be pushing children into poverty and to think carefully about what we can do to hit that on the head as well.
Childcare Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: Social Welfare
Francis Hare (Crossbench, Unknown): May I ask the Minister about a point of detail? At a recent meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group dealing with children’s centres, one of the practitioners said that, while in the past Ofsted has examined centres to see how they were engaging with fathers, it had been decided that it should no longer do that. For instance, when providing information to parents, a centre might say, "Dear Mum and Dad" or "Dear Mother and Father", rather than saying "Dear Parents", in order to reach out to and engage fathers. They do a lot of work to try to reach fathers. That should be recognised. It may not be the case—it was only one practitioner’s experience—but I would be grateful if the Minister could write to me to confirm whether Ofsted is checking this, acknowledging the good work in this area.
Childcare Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: Labor
Francis Hare (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, the noble Baroness referred to the national living wage. I believe that two former advisers to the Prime Minister recently endorsed a move towards the living wage. Clearly, this Bill would be that much more effective and there would be much more incentive for people to take what is offered in it if we moved to a national living wage. What current position do the Government take towards the gradual introduction of a national living wage?
Greece — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: International Affairs
Dafydd Elystan-Morgan (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, can the Minister tell the House as a matter of basic law whether the treaties that brought about the formation of the eurozone and the regulation thereafter contain any provision at all with regard to a member state unilaterally leaving the eurozone of its own accord or the states, other than an errant state, in some way bringing about the departure of such a state from the eurozone? Am I right in thinking that the treaties altogether are as silent as the grave with regard to the departure of any state from the eurozone?
Greece — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: International Affairs
John Birt (Crossbench, Unknown): The Minister has rightly emphasised that we are at an extremely delicate stage. At such delicate times, is it not also important to be really clear about the principles involved? The Greek Government have willingly, knowingly borrowed money on a massive scale from a number of institutions, including within the EU, over a very long period. Will the Minister agree that—if only pour encourager les autres—the worst of all options would be to accept that a sovereign Government should not repay their debt?
Concessionary Television Licences — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: Technology
Colin MacKenzie Low (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, will there be a compensatory adjustment to the BBC’s licence fee income as part of the charter renewal discussions to take account of this decision to switch the cost of funding free licences for the over-75s from the Government’s account to the BBC’s?
Concessionary Television Licences — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: Technology
John Birt (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, this is a truly shocking announcement. The BBC has been in existence for nearly a century. It is unique in the world for a number of reasons, one of which is that, very early on in its history, Winston Churchill tried to take it over at the time of the General Strike but the then director-general, John Reith, resisted that and essentially established its independence in a way that no other public service broadcaster around the world has managed. That independence was breached in the previous Parliament by the deal that has already been mentioned today, when, overnight, with no debate of any kind, 16% was taken outside the BBC’s budget and the Government—not the BBC—decided to use the licence fee to fund the World Service, S4C and, amazingly, BBC Monitoring, which is a very specialist service not much to do with broadcasting. This has happened again. This is taking a huge slice out of the BBC’s budget. Again, it has happened with no public discussion of any kind. This Government and the previous Government have set a very dangerous precedent.
Concessionary Television Licences — House of Lords, 2015-07-06
Topic: Technology
Michael Berkeley (Crossbench, Unknown): Is the Minister aware that very considerable cuts have already been made? He will know that recently it was discovered that the BBC is already going to lose a huge proportion of the licence fee. Do the Government feel happy about seeing the squandering of a national asset through 1,000 slashes? As I say, cuts have been made and I am prepared to reveal to the House as an example—and here I declare an interest—that I was asked to take one-third of the fee that I used to get for my programme on Radio 3. I did so happily in the interests of cutting costs.
Child Exploitation in Oxfordshire — House of Lords, 2015-03-03
Topic: Social Welfare
William Laming (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, this is yet another thoroughly dispiriting report. Many of these young people were in the care of the local authority for their protection and safety. Will the noble Lord assure the House that he will continue to do everything that he can to persuade local authorities that when they assume parental responsibility for a child or young person, they have not only a legal duty but a moral duty to be a good parent to those vulnerable children?
Child Exploitation in Oxfordshire — House of Lords, 2015-03-03
Topic: Social Welfare
Valerie Howarth (Crossbench, Unknown): I am the vice-chair of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, an organisation that has worked in this area for many years. Of course, Lucy Faithfull was a well respected Member of the noble Lord’s Benches. I want to ask about local authority social work departments. How many vacancies are there in these departments? What are the Government doing to encourage social workers, who are feeling extraordinarily oppressed and dispirited at the moment? What do the Government know about the current level of case loads for social workers? How can we encourage local authorities to have the right resource to meet the programme? I have one more small question: what are the Government doing to work with voluntary organisations? The Lucy Faithfull Foundation had a prevent programme, which now runs in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but was cut in England. Those sorts of programmes are essential to prevention.