argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very grateful to the Lord President of the Council for giving way. I was on the restoration and renewal Committee, and the conclusion that we came to, preliminarily favouring a complete decant, was based on the assumption that a temporary Chamber could be put up in Richmond House. We now understand that the measurements we were given which led to that conclusion were wrong, and that Richmond House would have to be pulled down completely. That is a completely different cost basis, and I for one would not have come to that conclusion had we known the true picture.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Housing
Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend raises another key point, which is that the options for decant have recently been examined by the House Commission, with all the various options for refurbishing the northern estate, which many hon. and right hon. Members will know is also in dire need of refurbishment and work on the mechanical and electrical facilities. My hon. Friend is exactly right to point out that, in terms of Richmond House, and having costed the different alternatives, it now becomes clear that to knock down all but the grade I listed facade and to rebuild the building behind it is, in fact, the one solution that has the same cost estimates attached to it as all the various temporary solutions. Yet that project—rebuilding Richmond House—would give a permanent legacy, with better Committee Rooms, more accommodation for staff in this place and a proper business contingency Chamber, as well as offering a solution for the decant.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): I say a huge thank you to my right hon. Friend and her team for all their excellent work, but does she not agree that the time for talking is over? We have to grasp this do the right thing. I cannot believe I am going to say this, but in this instance, in supporting amendment (b), absolutely everybody vote leave.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for joining that sentiment. I point out that in terms of progress of work, neither motion 2 nor amendment (b) is suggesting any faster progress. As I set out, the difference between them is that amendment (b) offers only one solution. The motion 2 offers the opportunity to discuss the best combination of value for taxpayers’ money as well as solutions for parliamentarians.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (Conservative, Centre-right): There has been no waste of time. There has been consultation, and work has been ongoing to make some vital repairs. The hon. Gentleman may have noticed that the cast-iron roofs are being repaired—[Interruption.] No, he must appreciate that there is a need to consult, look at different options and make the right assessment. This decision could, and probably should, have been taken 40 years ago. I do not accept his accusation that there has been any prevarication, and certainly not on my watch.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Housing
Timothy Paul Loughton (Conservative, Centre-right): On the subject of value for money, does the Leader of the House share my concern that, actually, a decant has already happened? The essential maintenance work that is due to happen around the cloisters, which are heavily damaged, for which offices have already been evacuated, has been brought to a halt, with expensive equipment shoring up the stonework of this place. No date for getting on with it has yet been set. That is a huge waste of money and does not bode well for getting on with the more substantive project we are discussing today.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
Michael Louis David Fabricant (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend clarify something? If we adopt the idea of a delivery authority—I take the point my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin) made about it being, in many ways, a no-brainer—will it not mean that in 18 months we get a simple "take it or leave it" decision? We will either accept what the delivery authority says or reject it completely. Would it not be better if the delivery authority did the proper costings he rightly said were needed so that we could then make an informed choice?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Public Lands
Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is exactly right: that is what the delivery authority would do. It would look at the best combination of options—value for taxpayers’ money along with the right solutions for the restoration and renewal of the Palace—and come back, in 12 to 18 months, with its recommended option, which would then be put to the House for a final "take it or leave it" vote.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Michael Louis David Fabricant (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not think it is frustration. I think my right hon. Friend may have misunderstood a point I made in my lengthy question. Is it not the case that we will not be able to choose from a number of options put forward by the delivery authority, but will have either to accept its recommendation or to start from square one, which would not be satisfactory?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Housing
John Alan Redwood (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very grateful. It is on a point of clarification and information of general interest. In the costings for the grander scheme—where we leave these premises—how much of the cost is for essential replacements and renewals, and how much is for the nice-to-have additions and changes?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Public Lands
Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. About 75% of the cost of the works to the Palace of Westminster is for work that is non-cosmetic—it will be dealing with mechanical and engineering works, the fire risks, and so on—but aimed at preserving essential services for future generations. We have a duty to do it. This is not about carpets and curtains, but about profound and essential services, for the largest part.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Public Lands
Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (Conservative, Centre-right): I will not give way any more The Government do not have a position on this and will respect the views of the House, but as a Member myself I would like to take a moment to share my own position on this very important subject. When I became Leader of the House, I took on the restoration and renewal project with a healthy degree of scepticism. I, like many, felt that the case for a major restoration programme had probably been overstated, that the Palace looked fine and that we could continue to patch and mend as we went along, as we have done for many decades. However, during my seven months in the job, I have, as they say, gone on a journey. I have lived and breathed this topic. I have visited the basement and seen for myself what our engineers are up against Should a catastrophic failure happen in this place, I want to look back to this moment and know that I chose to protect the Palace for future generations. I want to be clear that we do everything we can to minimise the risks this building faces, but we must recognise that as time passes without comprehensive action those risks only increase. My role has brought me close to the heart of these issues, and I am not the only Leader of the House to have arrived at this view: both of my predecessors, my right hon. Friends the Members for Aylesbury (Mr Lidington) and for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), share my desire to take action. Today I will be voting to take action. I will be voting for motion No. 2.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Public Lands
John Charles Baron (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the hon. Lady agree that, whichever option we choose, it is important that we do not break the 1,000-year link between the governance of the country and this site, and that we should therefore have a debating Chamber on this site while the restoration works continue?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Housing
Hugo Swire (Conservative, Centre-right): What does the hon. Lady say to the argument that if Members were still somewhere in this place, they would be able to have far greater oversight of the works in progress, which would incentivise the building works, because if we decant that incentive goes away?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady believes there will not be an overrun, but when work on the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben, is to take five years, does she think six years for the entire Palace of Westminster is a realistic estimate?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Michael Louis David Fabricant (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the hon. Lady understand the concern I raised with my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House: if we leave it to the delivery authority, with just a few Members on it, and we end up with a take-it-or-leave-it decision to make, the final decision will in effect be made by the delivery authority, and not really by this House? I used to build radio stations and did a re-equip of Broadcasting House and other things, so I have some small experience in this, and in reality there will be choices to be made. Of course we want the data from the delivery authority, but this House should finally make the choice between a number of alternatives, not just have a take-it-or-leave-it one.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. The hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) may be seeking to recover his composure—I certainly did not exhort him to resume his seat. We want him on his feet so that we can hear him continue.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
Mark Gino Francois (Conservative, Centre-right): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The hon. Gentleman is presupposing that a month was lost in voting in the House of Commons. Do you have any information as to how much of that month was taken up by voting on SNP amendments?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): That is not a matter on which I have taxed my mind, and I do not think that I am required to do so, but I have known the right hon. Gentleman since we first jousted together in 1983 at a half-yearly Federation of Conservative Students conference, and I knew his puckish grin then and I know it now. He has made his own point in his own way and we will leave it there.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. He says that time in the Division Lobby is wasted. On the Conservative Benches, we find it quite useful talking to our friends and colleagues. Is that not true in the SNP?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): I will be brief because I want to concentrate on only one aspect of the debate, which is safety. I know that there are important issues to be discussed about costs, timing, and whether we have a full or partial move. For the record, I support those who say that we must be clear that Parliament should stay in the Palace of Westminster in the long term. But before we consider these long-term issues, we need to look at what is happening here, today and every day. What is happening is that we are asking not only ourselves and our staff, but also thousands of visitors, to come to a building that is not safe. It might be an exaggeration to say that Parliament is a death trap, but it would not be a wild exaggeration. Anyone who has taken the tour of the basement will have seen the full horror of the current arrangements. We have already heard about the regular fires that break out. I think the Leader of the House said that there have been 60 over the past 10 years, and 12 in the past year alone. Chunks of masonry have fallen off high parts of the building. We are lucky that no one has been killed so far because of this. It is not remotely conceivable that people would be allowed to work here if this were a normal building, let alone that thousands of tourists would be allowed to visit it.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with the hon. Lady. The wider point about safety was put very starkly by the recently retired Black Rod, David Leakey, who said: "There could be a major fire, there could be loss of life." The one thing we know—the one unarguable fact we know—is that the more we delay, the more likely some horrific outcome becomes We need to be clear about who statistically is most likely to be affected. It is not us. There are about 1,500 legislators in the two Houses. There are 15,000 people who have passes to come into this building. About 1 million people visit every year. The Education Service has more than 100,000 visitors a year, most of them, of course, children. It cannot be right to increase the risk of catastrophe for those people by continuing to delay.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): I am glad to have given the hon. Gentleman the opportunity to make that public service announcement I want to address directly one of the arguments that has been used to advocate delay and continuing to muddle through in the way that we have done for too long. The argument is that in the wake of the terrible tragedy of Grenfell Tower, we cannot be seen to be spending large sums of money on this place. I would turn that argument absolutely on its head. Having seen the appalling effects of a fire in a building that had inadequate protection, I think it would be the height of irresponsibility not to take action to make safe a building that we know is barely safe now and that is getting more dangerous every year.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Public Lands
John Henry Hayes (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is making the measured case that I expected him to, but surely the characteristics he attributes to this building are shared by many great historic buildings. We think of cathedrals, which are widely visited every year and have the same problem with stonework. We think of the great houses that have the same fire risk. Many historic buildings have the same problems. The issue is not those problems, which we of course need to solve; it is how we solve them.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Housing
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. Does he agree that an emergency decant, should for example we discover something horrible in the woodshed—or rather, in the basement—or should something go wrong with clearing the asbestos, would massively increase the costs of us having to find alternative accommodation?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
Stephen James Metcalfe (Conservative, Centre-right): I am swaying between the amendment that the hon. Gentleman is promoting and motion No. 2. The reason I am drawn more to the motion No. 2 is that I would like us to have the occasional foothold in this place—the occasional use of the Palace in an extended period. Is there any way that the amendment can achieve that?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I should point out to the House that Members are free to intervene if the Member on his or her feet wishes to take the intervention, but there are now 80 minutes left. I must, in all courtesy, warn Members that a lot of Members who want to speak will not be called. Some of them are also seeking to intervene, and I am sure they can join the dots.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Other
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): Could we imagine for a moment the United States Congress doing this, or the French National Assembly? This is actually on the table. [Interruption.] The United States Congress is building a replica Chamber? I think not.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Housing
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): On the original costings of £3.52 billion for the full decant, I was told today in a meeting with the business director of the project that at the time, they assumed that a building was available of the right size and in the right location. In fact—it has not actually been properly costed yet—the estimate is that the new work on Richmond House would cost an additional £550 million.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Henry Hayes (Conservative, Centre-right): There can be a broad measure of agreement that the House needs to be maintained properly. All those who have spoken would acknowledge that work needs to be done, and indeed, that has always been the case. Since William Rufus commissioned the building of Westminster Hall, there have been major refurbishments of the Palace. Geoffrey Chaucer was Clerk of the Works for one of them. After the great fire of 1834—
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Housing
John Henry Hayes (Conservative, Centre-right): Indeed After the great fire of 1834, there was the major refurbishment—in fact, it was largely a rebuilding of the Palace—that led to the place where we now sit. Buildings of this kind are always hard to maintain and will always require constant maintenance work. This is not a moment; it is a process. It will be an ongoing process whatever decision we take tonight. Let me make my case as quickly as I can—particularly given your advice, Mr Speaker I could make this case on cost grounds. Indeed the report produced by the Leader of the House is very honest about that. The report heavily qualifies the estimates therein. It says that there is significantly more work to be done by professionals before budgets can be set and the accounts therefore made certain. We are not absolutely certain what the costs of the decant would be, nor are we absolutely certain what the costs of staying here would be. But what I think we can say, from all of our experience and intuition, is that they are likely to be considerably greater than the provisional costs that we have now. Every building project I have ever known has run over budget and over time.
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Housing
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): My concern is that the figures are not, in fact, robust—they are out by 16.5 feet in the proposals for Richmond House. We had hundreds of pages of consultants’ reports, and this key fact is wrong. If that key fact is wrong, how many other facts are wrong?
Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) — House of Commons, 2018-01-31
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Alan Redwood (Conservative, Centre-right): There is good news in this debate, which is that there seems to be universal agreement, from Members in all parts of the House, that where urgent work needs doing to guarantee the future safety of those who work in this place and those who visit, we should press on with it. Indeed, there is a strong feeling that there is a need for greater urgency in such work. From most things that I have read and heard, it seems that rewiring is a very urgent priority, as that is where the worst fire risk seems to come from. Substantial pipe work may also need doing, where pipes need replacing or re-routing as part of a safety plan. These things can all be done through compartmentalising—taking things in stages and linking up as appropriate. We know we can work alongside builders and maintenance companies, because we are doing that all the time. I pay tribute to those who are working on the Elizabeth Tower at the moment. They are getting on with their work in a way that is not disruptive of our work at all. They must be working in confined and difficult circumstances, but they have so far done it in a way that is entirely compatible with the work of Parliament. So I hope that the Leader of the House would take away the sense that urgent work for the safety of people here in future and for the safety of the very fabric of the building might be accelerated, with options looked at so that we can press on with it in a timely and sensible way I find myself having more difficulties about the much bigger scheme being launched any time soon. As we have heard, quite big elements of it have not been properly thought through or costed, which makes taking a decision in principle a bit more difficult. I find myself in that interesting position where many parliamentarians find themselves: having been entirely of the leave faith on the referendum issue, now, showing flexibility and how I am always influenced by the facts, I find myself firmly in the remain camp on this parliamentary discussion Let us first address the issue of decanting to an alternative Chamber, which we would have to build. We hear there are problems with the site for one of the potential alternatives. I just do not think our constituents would understand our spending a very large sum on producing a temporary replica of this Chamber for a limited number of years—we are told it will be a short period, but some of us think it will be for rather longer—when there are so many other priorities. My constituents want us to spend more on health and social care, the military and so forth, and I agree with them.