argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Flood Response — House of Lords, 2020-02-10
Topic: Environment
Rupert Bertram Mitford (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, the Minister talked about natural capital. Will he give an undertaking that the Environment Bill will look at catchment areas in the round? They were raised in the Water Act 2014, but dealing with the entire catchment area system is very complicated. I declare an interest as owning land in the upland areas. We have planted tress under higher-level stewardship, but it seems a disjointed event. Farmers are asked to plant trees, whereas, lower down, impermeable paving has been put in Those of us who know people who have been flooded know that it is not a short-term issue and that there is a massive cost to the health service. A recent report looking at the cost in mental health services from the previous flood talked about tens, if not hundreds, of millions of pounds being needed for those services over a long period. Is the Minister prepared to talk to those dealing with the National Health Service to make sure that the mental health budget is adequate to meet those needs?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: International Affairs
James Wallace (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, the amendment would establish that it should meet, and some timescales are set down. My concern relates to good intentions. No one disputes the good intentions for the Joint Ministerial Committee on EU Negotiations when established, but they were not carried through in practice. When the Minister comes to reply—I am not sure which Minister it will be—I am sure that we will be told of good intentions. We want to ensure that good intentions are delivered on.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Law and Crime
Sarah Ludford (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The Minister has just said that this would improve consistency. How can it improve consistency in the interpretation of law if you potentially have a proliferation of lower courts that can all reach different judgments? The import of the objections made in the last hour is precisely that having just the Supreme Court, and the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, is much more a recipe for consistency than what the Government are planning.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Law and Crime
Alan Beith (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Can the noble and learned Lord tell us at what level of court he thinks it would be inappropriate to extend these powers, and would that level embrace all those courts which do not have a precedent-creating capacity?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Newby (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Is the Minister saying that when the consultation goes out, it will in effect be saying, "Give us a clue as to what you think makes best sense because we haven’t the faintest idea ourselves"? Are the Government going to express no thoughts about what might be preferable? Have they had no thoughts? Have they not thought about it before now? In every other aspect of Brexit, the Government have clear, dogmatic, unwavering thoughts. On this single one, they appear to have no thoughts at all. Is that not strange?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Law and Crime
Alan Beith (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I found that a very disappointing response from the Minister, for whom I have great respect. It did not answer the question of which courts would now be part of the process and added to the list; it did not answer the question of what test the Government envisage being introduced through the process; and it did not answer the question of why this is not included in the Bill. The attempt to use the regulation process as an ex post facto defence of the fact that the Government have not come up with a policy yet, but would quite like to talk to some of us about what it might be in the future so that it can be put in regulations, is wholly unconvincing As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, pointed out, he was talking to the Government about this 20 months ago. There has been plenty of time to come up with a policy in the interim and not leave us in this situation where we are told, "It’ll be alright, we will bring in some regulations and discuss them with you all; all your concerns will be accommodated". I do not think that they have been accommodated at all I welcome the intervention from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Clashfern. As so often on these occasions, he pointed out that with a bit more work, maybe we could get somewhere and achieve something that is consistent with the Government’s intentions but meets people’s concerns There are times when Ministers have to recognise the level of feeling and concern which has arisen from significant quarters in the course of Committee proceedings. This has been a remarkable debate and, in the proceedings so far on the Bill, no other debate has brought out such intensity of feeling and concern, particularly from people with significant experience to contribute to the discussion. Ministers have to recognise this. We talk about consultation, and I think that some consultation is required between now and Report Certainly, we will want to reflect on what the Minister said on the possibilities—I was encouraged by the intervention of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay —and how we can reconcile what the Government are talking about with the need for some degree of certainty around how the law is to be administered in future. We are certainly not there yet. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Technology
Sarah Ludford (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The Minister gave an example of telecoms legislation, which will change. Why can such deficiencies not be dealt with under the existing text of Section 8—namely "any failure of retained EU law to operate effectively … or any other deficiency in retained EU law." Why, in the example he gave, is Section 8, as it exists now in the 2018 Act, not adequate?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Technology
Sarah Ludford (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I was not talking about the length of the time of the powers but about extending the scope. Amendments 24 and 26 are relevant to the provisions that would insert new subsections (2)(ea) and (9), which widen the criteria for finding a deficiency. If there were a change in telecoms legislation, the existing Section 8 in the 2018 Act seems perfectly adequate because the Government could say that there is a failure of retained EU law to operate effectively, because telecoms legislation has changed. That is enough. We do not need the new, widened scope to find a deficiency.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Government Operations
Sarah Ludford (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I have probably made it fairly clear that I do not find the Minister’s assurances terribly convincing, and I look forward to his letter. Perhaps the legal advisers can explain to him why it would be necessary in my example. Our Constitution Committee has consistently warned us against wide powers in this area—things where there could be mission creep outside technical corrections to policy changes. I think its alarm bells are flashing on this, which is pretty convincing to me. The Government giving themselves a power to correct deficiencies because something "is not clear in its effect" and has something to do with "any aspect of that withdrawal" is pretty wide in scope I have to confess that I have not been reassured or convinced by this short exchange, but that is probably all I will get until we see further information. I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 24.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Newby (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, the Minister has in a sense just given the game away. They "hope" to reach an agreement. The Commission has said that it is impossible. The Prime Minister said yesterday that it was not inevitable. The key question which this amendment seeks to address is what happens if you cannot get to that point. When asked whether this could mean we leave without a deal, the Minister said no. So what happens if there is no deal? Is he accepting a bare-bones deal? I do not remember seeing that in the Conservative Party manifesto The Minister has done nothing to reassure me that there is anything in the Government’s approach that makes reaching a deal in this timetable even vaguely possible. In those circumstances, as I said in my speech, I do not believe that it is in the interests of anyone—neither economically nor in terms of the national interest, given the security and other issues covered by the political declaration—for the Government’s hands to be tied by law in this way. Therefore, I am wholly unpersuaded by the Minister. For today we will not put this issue to a vote, but we will return to it.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Environment
Catherine Bakewell (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 31, to which I have also added my name. I fully support the comments made by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch. Many contributions today have been extremely legalistic, but for me this amendment is much simpler Many noble Lords will be wondering why it is necessary to have this amendment in the Bill. The Government have committed not to compromise on environmental standards. An undertaking was in the previous withdrawal agreement Bill but was removed from the Bill that passed through Parliament in December 2019. If the Government have committed not to compromise, why was it necessary to remove this undertaking from the Bill? Despite being asked, the Government have provided no clarity on how environmental standards are to be protected As we can see from what is happening in other parts of the world, not least Australia, the environment is very fragile. Animal and plant species are constantly under threat from the effects of what used to be known as freak weather conditions. These excessive droughts, floods and temperature rises are having a devastating effect on animals and humans alike. They are no longer occasional disaster events but have become yearly occurrences. Unless the UK engages completely with preserving, maintaining and enhancing our environmental standards, we are likely to see an increase in flooding and fire damage in our villages and on our moors Ensuring food safety should be paramount when the Government come to broker trade deals with countries outside the EU. The UK consumes large quantities of chickens, and I am sorry about the next bit. Currently we import chicken breast meat and export darker leg meat. This trade currently goes to Europe, where we know standards of food protection are the same as ours. We could be self-sufficient in chickens if the British housewife could be persuaded to consume more dark meat and slightly less breast meat On a purely personal note, I am extremely reluctant to find myself having to buy chlorinated chicken that has arrived from America, be it whole chicken, breast or leg meat. A lowering of food safety standards has had dramatic effects on our country in the past; the BSE crisis springs to mind As stated at Second Reading, the UK currently has high standards in habitat protection and product safety. These standards have been developed with our European neighbours so that we now benefit from cleaner beaches, safer food and the best regulation of chemicals in the world. While these will pertain at the point of exit, are we really going to leave ensuring the maintenance of these standards to the joint committee? We have heard that the joint committee has the ability to amend the withdrawal agreement itself should it choose to do so, with no parliamentary oversight.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Law and Crime
Sarah Ludford (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I am sorry to interrupt the Minister, but the fact is that the CJU has condemned our regime under the Investigatory Powers Act. The European Commission will have to take account of that, so to say that we and the EU have common high standards is not entirely borne out by the facts. The CJU has criticised, in a full judgment, the Investigatory Powers Act. How will we cope with that in the search for data adequacy?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: Law and Crime
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Warner, for his support and his perspective, from his experience in the Home Office, on how important this issue is. He made an important point about the Government acknowledging the weakness already of the UK criminal justice system without losing these EU mechanisms. I am also grateful for the support of the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe It is all very well for the Minister to keep putting matters off by saying, "This is going to be negotiated and I can’t say what the details of the negotiations will be." Time is running out. That excuse will not be available in less than 12 months’ time and we are concerned that our law enforcement agencies will be handicapped as a consequence of losing some, if not all, of these EU mechanisms, as the National Crime Agency lead for Brexit told us in a briefing a few years ago I am grateful for the correction on the modified European arrest warrant arrangements with Norway and Iceland, which apparently came into effect on 1 November last year. That means that they took 18 years to come into effect. If that is the kind of timescale we are looking at to get a similar agreement between us, as a third-party country, and the EU, we are in serious trouble. However, at this stage I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-15
Topic: International Affairs
Christopher Fox (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the Minister for his response and noble Lords for their contributions. Whenever I have a feeling of self-doubt, I have only to listen to the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, to cure it and I feel a lot better afterwards The Minister talks brilliantly on the Government’s regulatory approach, saying that we do not need to follow EU rules to achieve this. That would be true had the Government not done the deal they did on Northern Ireland. That is the point I am making about the internal tension within the regulatory scene in that negotiation. That is his problem and we will be following it very closely. I will read the Minister’s response in Hansard and inwardly digest it, but in the meantime, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
UK Telecommunications — House of Lords, 2020-01-28
Topic: Technology
Paul Scriven (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, the Huawei cybersecurity evaluation oversight board says: "The Oversight Board continues to be able to provide only limited assurance that the long-term security risks can be managed in the Huawei equipment currently deployed in the UK" It goes on to say that "it will be difficult to appropriately risk-manage future products in the context of UK deployments, until the underlying defects in Huawei’s software engineering and cyber security processes are remediated … At present, the Oversight Board has not yet seen anything to give it confidence in Huawei’s capacity to successfully complete the elements of its transformation programme" Why can the Government not wait until the oversight board has seen and is content with Huawei’s transformation programme rather than going into this rather risky decision today?
Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-01-27
Topic: Law and Crime
William Bradshaw (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I do not intend to rehearse what others have said, only to underline a few things. May I turn to resources? It is essential that the Civil Aviation Authority has sufficient resources to do the job it is asked to do. If it is being kept short of resources, as referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, I hope that the Minister can assure the House that it will have the resources to do what is asked of it. They are well respected, hard-working people, but they do not deserve to spend a lot of their time fighting over their budget In terms of resources, however, I am more concerned about the responsibilities being put on the police. A lot of legislation has passed extra responsibility to the police, be it looking out for knife crime, looking out for drug crime or looking out for terrorism. I know that the police are hopelessly stretched. I seek an assurance from the Government that, if the police are to be given extra responsibilities under this legislation, the resources at their disposal will be increased so that they can train specialist officers to deal with them. It is not something that—if I may put it this way— PC Plod from around the corner can claim to have specialist knowledge of; there will need to be intelligent people behind any enforcement It also strikes me that a lot of private benefit is likely to come from the use of drones. I think all of us can think of things that might happen, from the delivery of parcels by Amazon to people filming for television—all sorts of things. I urge the Government to make sure that the people doing these things for private gain—they will not do them for free—contribute something in the way of licence fees to whoever is to enforce the law, because one without the other is quite meaningless I also reiterate what has been said about powerful deterrents. You have to decide who you are dealing with. Finding powerful deterrents for an individual may be quite easy, but for companies such as Sky or Amazon deterrents must have teeth in order to bite. I echo the words of the noble Lord, Lord Naseby: there comes a point when people should not receive fixed-penalty notices, however big, if they do not obey the law. They should come before a court to explain what they are doing and answer for it. We are talking about potentially dangerous activities.
Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-01-27
Topic: Law and Crime
William Bradshaw (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I think that probably comes down to licensing operators and drones My final point is about the disabling of stray drones, or drones that should not be there. I am no expert on aviation, but has consideration been given to the means of disabling drones engaged in criminal activity or straying from where they should be?
Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-01-27
Topic: Transportation
Jennifer Elizabeth Randerson (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the Minister for her detailed explanation. In preparation for this debate, which I have not spoken in, I asked the CAA about the control of airspace. I concur with the Minister that it is complicated. However, the appeal process for an aerodrome—as the Bill puts it—that wants to appeal against the CAA’s decision, goes to the Competition and Markets Authority. I am interested to know how the Government alighted upon the CMA as the appropriate body for appeals.
Huawei: UK’s 5G Network — House of Lords, 2020-01-27
Topic: Technology
Kishwer Falkner (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, will the noble Baroness accept that while she emphasises the importance of 5G connectivity, it is the very connectivity that she talked about that will be jeopardised if we give control of our vital core services and infrastructure to a company which is controlled by the state? That is exactly what will be jeopardised. When she talks about the need for speed, will she not appreciate that we are better off waiting and getting the decision right, particularly when there are alternatives such as Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, as well as UK-US co-operation that might deliver a more secure network in our national security interests?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-21
Topic: Foreign Trade
Christopher Fox (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I support this amendment and associate myself fully with the words of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith. As such, I can be brief Until last weekend, the Government had resolutely maintained a twin-track narrative. Yes, they said, we will have an independent trading policy; yes, they said, we will have frictionless trading with the European Union. Many of us in Committee tried to point out that these would, in effect, be mutually exclusive, and at the heart of this were regulatory standards. Many of us tried to explain that for frictionless trade to take place, a level playing field with the EU 27 means just that: a level playing field with no divergence. The Minister, at his obdurate best, shrugged off those Committee- stage comments As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, outlined, the Chancellor, Sajid Javid, broke cover in his interview with the Financial Times at the weekend. He quashed any prospect of the Treasury lending its support to our country’s leading manufacturing sectors. He was very clear, saying: "There will not be alignment" and he urged companies to adjust to the new reality, for our automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical, chemical and food and drink industries, all of which have been clear on the vital need for alignment with EU regulations. Mr Javid added "we will do this by the end of the year" which is not long to wait Therefore, at least one member of the Government has told the truth and told us where the Government are headed. However, it is simply amazing that any Administration, never mind a Conservative one, should turn their back on these important providers of jobs and prosperity. This amendment would prevent Ministers using regulation-making powers under the Bill to diminish standards or protections related to series of protected matters. That sounds very dry and cold, but those protected matters, specified in the amendment, affect everyone. They include the environment, employment, social rights, animal welfare and public health—really important aspects of the everyday lives of people in this country. The amendment, so ably moved by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, in essence sets out in writing the aspirations that the political agreement purported to set out. We now know that those aspirations have come to naught. Will the Minister tell us where the Government are headed and what will happen to standards?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-01-21
Topic: Government Operations
William John Lawrence Wallace (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, as unamended, the clause we are debating restates the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. Many of us considered that the devolution settlement had modified the Victorian concept of unitary sovereignty. In Committee, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Keen, went out of his way to reassert that AV Dicey’s views on parliamentary sovereignty—that the imperial Parliament is supreme and cannot share legislative power with other Assemblies—is what this clause means. Does the Minister not therefore recognise that the inclusion of this clause as it stands undermines the conventions established by the devolution settlement?