argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Rough Sleeping — House of Lords, 2020-02-27
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Stopford (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Baroness makes some good points, and I can agree with almost everything she said. The noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, also drew attention to Dame Louise’s role and asked how the report will be handled in government. I will answer both questions now, because that will help the House understand the scope of the review, which I think the noble Baroness was asking about. The review will consider the evidence around the causes of rough sleeping and look at what the Government need to do to meet their manifesto commitment to end rough sleeping. It will also consider the links between 24-hour street activity and rough sleeping and how best we can support this group In addition, we recognise the ambition of our commitment on rough sleeping, which is why we have appointed Dame Louise, with her extensive experience with both government and the sector, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, to drive forward this work. Dame Louise will report to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. She will work with a team of officials from across government, so many government departments will be involved in this. She will also provide recommendations to the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Dame Louise will provide government with advice on what is needed to end rough sleeping, building on existing programmes and making recommendations ahead of the comprehensive spending review.
Rough Sleeping — House of Lords, 2020-02-27
Topic: Immigration
Richard Balfe (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I often get the impression that we talk just about Britain. Can the Minister draw Dame Louise’s attention to the fact that last week in Brussels a report on homelessness in Europe was published, showing that it has increased by a minimum of 70% in the last 10 years and that the dimensions have changed significantly because of the enlargement of the European Union. Some 50% of those who are homeless in Britain were not UK nationals. Even in Spain, 44% were not Spanish nationals. In Belgium, 43% were not Belgian nationals. There is a tremendous imbalance between the new and old member states. When we look at it, I think we will find that the situation is quite complex. In the Minister’s Statement, he said a new immigration system will be in place by 31 December 2020 when the transition period ends. What does that imply? Does it imply deportation? What is the meaning of that statement Finally, I have a parochial question. In the Minister’s long list he did not mention Cambridge, which got some money out of the rough sleepers initiative. I would be interested to know whether it spent it as wisely as others and the numbers went down, because that is not the evidence I see when I walk into Cambridge city centre.
Rough Sleeping — House of Lords, 2020-02-27
Topic: Housing
James Stopford (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I thank my noble friend for the points he raised. I will ensure that the department is aware of the report on homelessness throughout Europe, and I am sure it will draw Dame Louise’s attention to it. He mentioned a number of matters relating to the amount of homelessness throughout Europe. We also have to ensure that there is support for non-UK nationals sleeping rough in this country. We want to ensure that local areas have the tools they need to support non-UK nationals off the street. That is why the rough sleeping strategy commissioned training for front-line staff on how best to support this group, and provided £5 million of funding to help local areas take action to get non-UK nationals sleeping rough off the streets. My noble friend asked about Cambridge, but I do not have any information relating to that at the moment.
Rough Sleeping — House of Lords, 2020-02-27
Topic: Housing
James Stopford (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Baroness for reminding me of a question I did not answer. I do not have that detail but I will write to the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, and ensure that the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, is copied in The noble Baroness, Lady Royall, also referred to the move-on fund and the great work it has done. It is a larger fund and reflects our greater ambition to eliminate rough sleeping. The 2016 Budget announced £100 million of grant for the new move-on fund, which will provide homes. The fund is split equally between the Greater London Authority and Homes England, which is administrating the fund outside London, particularly in areas such as Oxford. Homes England—leading on the rest of England, outside London —has to date awarded £27.4 million to deliver up to 725 homes.
Rough Sleeping — House of Lords, 2020-02-27
Topic: Housing
James Stopford (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I will not move on to planning at this time. The Statement and comments by noble Lords have underlined the importance of affordable housing and having housing available. As I referred to just a moment ago, the move-on fund is very important to provide housing for homeless people.
Rough Sleeping — House of Lords, 2020-02-27
Topic: Housing
James Stopford (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sure Dame Louise will cover all issues when she begins her review. As I said earlier, she will work across government. As the noble Lord said, obviously homelessness is paramount, and to not be homeless means you have to be accommodated. We have to start with getting people off the streets. This is where this new, additional funding will help.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anne McIntosh (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness on tabling these amendments, and I have a very short query It was, I think, when we took evidence on the financing of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and the data that would be gathered—I look to the chairman of the Select Committee for confirmation—that the Secretary of State responded by saying that the Government were committing to the long-term future of our involvement with ICES, but that he could not tell us at that point from which budget that would come. I am very keen on the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea; I have twice visited it, and it has a fantastic website which is hugely interesting for anybody interested in sustainability. Can the Minister tell us today whether this was resolved in the Budget and the Finance Bill, or whether this will be sent out and covered in the comprehensive spending review? I would like to know that we are going to cover precisely the same percentage, which is some 11% to 13% of the total ICES budget contribution; we take a similar amount of research from it. I entirely endorse what the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, said: we cannot really proceed as an independent coastal state if we do not know what the data is There is one other area that vexes me, and I do not think that anybody is doing research into it at the moment because no one is fishing in the area. We know that the seas currently jointly fished by UK and EU fleets have warmed. Does the Minister have any idea who might do the research in areas where species such as cod and other fish from our waters have moved to? That might explain why sustainability appears to have fallen in those species.
Fisheries Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-03-11
Topic: Mixed Topics
Olivia Bloomfield (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am grateful for Amendment 123, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Teverson. I welcome the opportunity to set out the arrangements already in place for ensuring such co-ordination, because I believe the Bill supports the aims of the noble Lord’s amendment. I will address the amendment as two parts First, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Marine Management Organisation have distinct and separate regulatory functions. The MCA is responsible for providing a 24-hour maritime search and rescue service around the UK coast, as well as producing legislation and guidance on maritime matters, and certification for seafarers. The MCA is sponsored by the Department for Transport, as its responsibilities relate to vessels and infrastructure. By contrast, the MMO licenses, regulates and plans marine activities in the seas around England to ensure they are carried out in a sustainable way Notwithstanding this distinction, there are areas of shared interest where these organisations already co-ordinate and work jointly to achieve their regulatory purpose effectively. This includes the operation of aerial assets for monitoring and surveillance, the collocation of personnel in the Joint Maritime Operations Coordination Centre, and intelligence sharing. Opportunities for further collaboration and efficiencies are still being identified.
Finance Bill — House of Lords, 2020-07-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rachel Trixie Anne Gardner (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I feel privileged to speak in this debate today, particularly as my niece telephoned me this morning from Victoria, Australia, because of my birthday, for which I thank noble Lords for their good wishes. It was interesting to hear how Victoria, which is in its second lockdown, is suffering the same difficulties as Leicester. However, other states are doing more business than they did last year, so clearly the impact of coronavirus is a big problem It is important for us to feel that this is a matter of health. The National Health Service needs to be well supported, as do people’s social lives. People need to have contact with other human beings. The restrictions have been quite irksome, even for people such as me, who are under lockdown where we are living My niece told me that there is a different feeling between the economic and the social side, and it is the same here. People who would like to go back to work are finding that their premises are not necessarily available for them, which is extremely hard. The Government are aiming to change that. We do not want to face a terrible depression, which would do such tremendous damage. The spirit in this country has always been to survive; that is what we should be aiming at, and I believe that the Bill is doing that. The health issue is under control but will not be resolved until the day that an effective solution is found to deal with this particular virus. I have always been involved in social and affordable housing and I really feel that it is the number one essential at the moment. Getting that going again will give employment and provide homes, which should be offered to people on favourable terms. Above all, people need somewhere they belong and that they feel is home. I support the Bill.
Finance Bill — House of Lords, 2020-07-17
Topic: Housing
Anne McIntosh (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I join the Deputy Speaker in congratulating my noble friend Lady Gardner of Parkes on her birthday. I am delighted to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett. I will focus my remarks primarily on how the Budget will impact rural communities and, in particular, make a plea to the Minister for rural communities to benefit from the shared prosperity fund I am involved in a number of charities in rural North Yorkshire and I declare my interests as in the register. Primarily, I am honorary president of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and a member of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society. I also work closely with the charities FCN and RABI that do outstanding work with the farming community. These organisations have obviously had their fundraising activities slashed and I hope that as small charities they will benefit from the Government’s proposals for charitable organisations set out in the Budget. The impact on volunteers has been great. Many in rural areas fall into the category of self-isolation and it will be extremely difficult to re-engage with them in the future. But without them, the charities heavily rely on the staff, many of whom have been furloughed. The full impact will really be felt only when the furlough scheme ends in October. Do my noble friend and the Government recognise that the tourist season in rural areas of North Yorkshire and across the north of England and other parts of the UK is, by necessity, very short and those areas need to be treated as a special case in this regard The Government have set out a big homebuilding programme. On support for alternative home heating systems, I hope my noble friend will ensure that every new home has a boiler that is fit for purpose for the 21st century and that will not need to be replaced in the next five or 10 years. Will my noble friend also ensure the provision of funds to improve 4G mobile phone coverage, and that broadband will be rolled out to the hardest-to-reach areas, which currently have poor mobile signals and broadband connectivity I shall end with the two sectors, aviation and automotive, which have been hardest hit. The aviation industry simply asks that its furlough scheme be extended, and for a very modest 12-month air passenger duty wavier. The automotive industry is the only industry across the five EU markets in this category that does not have a scheme in place, and I hope my noble friend will set one up in the near future.
Finance Bill — House of Lords, 2020-07-17
Topic: Other
Ian Duncan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, before I call the next speaker, I must announce that we will take a short adjournment after the contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Bull. I call the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville.
Finance Bill — House of Lords, 2020-07-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Colin Moynihan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, if we are follow the Prime Minister’s lead in tackling obesity, we must think beyond the input of unhealthy food to output policies to address a generation of young people who are less fit now than when the Government initiated the national Fight for Fitness campaign in 1900, during the Boer War. We have a generation of young people heading into the summer holidays who are some 60% less fit than they would normally be. Mental health issues are on the increase and boredom and obesity are commonplace. We need to consider a national campaign for sport, recreation and fitness, with sports clubs, home fitness campaigns and new levels of access to facilities at an affordable cost at its epicentre. Community sports clubs deserve to be at the centre of this plan and not, regrettably, to be penalised by the Finance Bill. Due to the way in which tax law applies to not-for-profit clubs, Schedule 16 to the Bill will impose CT liabilities and potentially significant additional costs and reporting burdens on community sports clubs in relation to Covid-19 support grants. In practice, clubs are likely to have to pay corporation tax on their grant income, thus reducing the funds available for investment in grass-roots sport at a time when finances are critical and the need to engage with a growingly unfit population is all the more important. It appears counterproductive for the Government to continue to claw back a proportion of these grants in tax when there is now a vital need to support the sectors that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic and resulting lockdown In addition, many clubs will have to file corporation tax returns for the first time, with many having to use costly professional help to do so. Little tax is likely to be collected, but significant administrative burdens will be imposed on both community sports clubs and HMRC. I would be grateful if my noble friend the Minister and his colleagues would consider the proposal for a coronavirus support payment received by a not-for-profit sports body to be exempt from tax under paragraphs (1) and (6). For this purpose, a not-for-profit sports body is one that qualifies as an eligible body in group 10 in Schedule 9 to the Value Added Tax Act 1994. I hope that the Government would agree I appreciate the constraints that this House is under when it comes to money Bills, but I very much hope that the Minister will give serious consideration to the consequences of this additional burden on the sport, recreation and fitness sector, as it is this sector that, alongside health, will unlock the potential of this country to recover through an absolutely essential improvement in the population’s fitness so that we can minimise further cases of coronavirus this winter.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Other
Helen Margaret Newlove (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Virtual Proceedings of the House of Lords will now resume. I remind Members that these proceedings are subject to parliamentary privilege and that what we say is available to the public, both in Hansard and to those listening and watching. Members’ microphones will initially be set to mute and the broadcasting team will unmute their microphones shortly before we reach their place in the speakers’ list. When Members have finished speaking, their microphone will again be set to mute The Virtual Proceedings on the Question for Short Debate in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, will now commence. This is a time-limited debate. The time limit is one and a half hours.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Other
Nicholas James Christopher Lowther (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Virtual Proceedings of the House of Lords will now resume. I remind Members that these proceedings are subject to parliamentary privilege, and that what we say is available to the public, both in Hansard and to those listening and watching. Members’ microphones will initially be set to mute, and the broadcasting team will unmute their microphones shortly before we reach their place in the speakers’ list. When Members have finished speaking, their microphone will again be set to mute. Please ensure questions and answers are short We now come to the Virtual Proceeding on the Statement. Please note that it has been agreed in the usual channels to dispense with the reading of the Statement itself, and we will proceed immediately to questions from the Opposition Front Bench.
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Other
Ian Duncan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I will be on the virtual Woolsack for the remainder of this session. We now come to the 30 minutes allocated for Back-Bench questions. I ask that questions and answers be brief so that I can call the maximum number of speakers. I call on the first speaker this evening, the noble Baroness, Lady Pidding.
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I fear that I do not have all the answers here. On facilities, I understand that any increase in costs will be met, but I will confirm that with the noble and learned Lord. On a trial run, we have to look at the practicalities of the systems we put in place; this is one of the reasons why we are setting up the business engagement forum. Discussions have already begun in various fora on matters such as co-ordination, along with technical discussions on systems and databases. Those discussions began in the joint committee meeting last month and took place in the first Ireland/Northern Ireland Specialised Committee on 30 April, and they will continue. I will have to write to the noble and learned Lord on the question of milk, and I undertake to do so.
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Conservative, Centre-right): The Statement covers one of the knottiest aspects of Brexit. As a member of the EU Committee, I think it represents a reasonable balance. However, the devil will be in the detail. The new business engagement forum may help. As someone who used to operate across the island of Ireland, I say this: we need a proper physical trial soon, for traders from some different sectors to transport goods from England to Northern Ireland, to the south and then back to England. Please can the Minister consider this further?
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, as my noble friend said, we will engage with businesses and traders about the requirements of the protocol. That will certainly be a priority in the coming weeks. She makes a very interesting and practical suggestion and is right that this will need to take account of how those traders move their goods in practice today, so that we ensure the system is as streamlined and efficient as we are clear that it must be. I certainly take note of her point.
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am afraid that I do not have that information for my noble friend. I did note that the Northern Ireland Executive’s collective response was not unfavourable, to put it gently. As for paramilitary activities and paramilitary smuggling, no doubt that remains a problem, but the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland are united in wishing to stamp out such activities. The best way to do that is to continue to support the Good Friday agreement, and that is the fundamental objective of this Command Paper and the way forward that we have proposed.
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the response from business groups in Northern Ireland to the White Paper has been extremely encouraging and positive. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and his colleagues have an ongoing engagement and dialogue with the business sector, which is vital. I have affirmed again today that that will be a core part of carrying forward discussions on how we will implement these proposals, having told the House of the new Business Engagement Forum that I hope will begin its work shortly. But that is not beginning of engagement with business; it is the next stage of it.
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend has rightly said a number of times that a light-touch approach will be adopted. I know from my work with others on alternative arrangements for avoiding a hard border that administrative processes are perfectly capable of being used. Will he confirm that the processes planned are only administrative and that any import declarations would be in electronic form?
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Lords, 2020-05-21
Topic: Other
Nicholas True (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my noble friend and of course I pay tribute to her, as indeed I should have to the noble Lord, Lord Hain, for their contributions over the years to these matters. Yes, I can give my noble friend both those assurances. We hope for, expect and are proposing light administrative procedures of exactly the type she describes.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2020-06-09
Topic: Other
Ian Duncan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, a limited number of Members are here in the Chamber, respecting social distancing, and if the capacity of the Chamber is exceeded I will immediately adjourn the House. Other Members will participate remotely, but all Members will be treated equally wherever they are. For Members participating remotely, microphones will unmute shortly before they are to speak. Please accept any on-screen prompt to unmute. Microphones will be muted after each speech. I ask noble Lords to be patient if there are any short delays as we switch between physical and remote participants. I remind the House that our normal courtesies in debate still very much apply in this new hybrid way of working. Please ensure that questions and answers are short.