argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Immigration
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Considering that the Government promised in 2016 to save 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children from Calais, is the right hon. Gentleman concerned that the number who have actually been saved stands at around 380? If those promises can be broken, and among those children were many from Afghanistan, is he concerned that the promises made today may be as unrobust as those of the past?
Post Office Update — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Last week, we received news that Barclays was closing its last branch in Ammanford, the main town in my constituency, leaving only one remaining bank—a fate shared by all the market towns in my constituency, some of which have been left with none. That leaves the Post Office the last remaining financial provider of everyday vital services for our communities. That fate is, I would imagine, shared across the whole of Wales and the rest of the UK. Is it not time to give sub-postmasters the option of being recognised as employed workers, as opposed to independent contractors, so that they are remunerated properly for the vital role they play in our communities and as a means of righting the wrongs served upon them by the Horizon scandal?
Human Rights Legislation — House of Commons, 2021-12-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Diolch yn fawr iawn, Mr Llefarydd. During the course of devolution, Wales has developed a distinct body of law, which safeguards specific rights arising from international law, including the rights of children and older people. Schedule 7A of the Government of Wales Act 2006 makes it clear that "observing and implementing international obligations and obligations under the Human Rights Convention" are the responsibility of our Senedd In Wales, we learn fast. We learn that, for this Government, the word "consult" means a tick-box exercise. I therefore ask the Secretary of State how the proposed consultation on the UK’s international human rights obligations will not undermine the Senedd’s ability to protect and promote human rights in Wales.
Human Rights Legislation — House of Commons, 2021-12-14
Topic: Civil Rights
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The Human Rights Act is entrenched in the Welsh constitution, so what amendments would need to be made, if any, to the Government of Wales Act if these proposals were to be implemented? Will the Secretary of State give an undertaking not to proceed to legislate unless he receives prior consent from the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive?
Conduct of the Right Hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: Civil Rights
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Does the right hon. Gentleman appreciate, and do Conservative Members appreciate, the damage that has been done when to be able to use the word "liar" in this place is now passed as fair comment and accepted, and the damage that that is doing to our democracy?
Bosnia and Herzegovina — House of Commons, 2021-11-09
Topic: Immigration
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Diolch yn fawr iawn, Mr Speaker. The Minister will know that the situation is very worrying. If it quickly deteriorates into conflict, the inevitable consequence will be a refugee crisis, perhaps—hopefully not—on the scale that we saw a few decades ago. That would put enormous pressure on neighbouring countries. It seems to me that all Governments internationally are between a rock and a hard place, but one thing that we can do is start preparing contingency plans with neighbouring countries for dealing with a potential refugee crisis.
Strengthening Standards in Public Life — House of Commons, 2021-11-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The Leader of the House mentioned cross-party working. On the theme of the previous intervention, the leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price, introduced a Bill when he was in this place 14 years ago that would have made the wilful misleading of this House by a politician an offence. Should we bring that Bill forward again?
Channel Crossings in Small Boats — House of Commons, 2021-11-22
Topic: Immigration
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Plaid Cymru rejects the cynical framing of this issue as a crisis of numbers; the true crisis is a lack of humanity from a succession of Westminster Governments who scapegoat legitimate asylum seekers and refugees. In Wales, we take a different approach, with our stated ambition to be a nation of sanctuary for all people who seek support and flee persecution. Sadly, asylum remains a reserved matter. What consideration has the Home Secretary given to the lack of compatibility of her approach to channel crossings with that of Wales, with our nation of sanctuary and asylum seekers plan?
Channel Crossings in Small Boats — House of Commons, 2021-11-22
Topic: Immigration
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): In response to the British Government’s policy, the Albanian Government have said that Albania "will never be a hub of anti-immigration policies of bigger and richer countries." Which other territories are the British Government considering for their immoral offshore migrant centres?
Health and Care Bill — House of Commons, 2021-11-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The hon. Lady has said that these measures apply to England, but they will of course have an effect throughout the United Kingdom—and rightly so—contributing to our aim to bring about a smoke-free Wales as well.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2021-12-06
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Luckily, the omicron variant was picked up quite quickly in South Africa due to its genome sequencing capability; otherwise we could be in a worse position. What are the British Government doing to support international efforts to enhance genome sequencing capability across the world so that the next variant of concern is identified as quickly as possible, wherever it comes?
Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-01-28
Topic: Other
Ben Morgan Lake (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. Surely this underlines the importance of ensuring that we get things right now, because as he just outlined, it is not easy to make up for any mistakes that are made.
Transport Infrastructure — House of Commons, 2020-02-11
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Last time I looked on a map, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds were all in England. So can the Prime Minister explain why Scotland and Northern Ireland get a 100% Barnett rating from HS2 while Wales gets nought per cent?
Middle East: Security — House of Commons, 2020-01-07
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Since the assassination, as part of its military build-up, the US has deployed long-range bombers to Diego Garcia, a territory which the British state illegally occupies. The Secretary of State talks about de-escalation, but is not the reality that the British Government’s actions are actually helping to escalate the crisis?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-01-07
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Is not the danger in setting this fixed date that the British Government will quickly have to make a decision about what they want to achieve in the second phase of Brexit? Are they going to go for close alignment? If so, they could possibly get the deal done in the year. But if they decide they are going to disalign, that will create difficulties, and the best we can hope for will be, if not a no-deal cliff edge, a bare-bones free trade agreement. That could be very bad news for the economy.
International Women’s Day — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Civil Rights
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The hon. Lady is making a very powerful argument. One thing we should be doing is giving women the licence to try, fail and come back to something. So many of us will not put our names forward; we are afraid of failing. We are told that if we fail once, that is it. All of us need to be fairer on ourselves and fairer on each other to encourage people to come forward.
Covid-19: Support for Businesses — House of Commons, 2020-04-22
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Diolch yn fawr, Lefarydd. I too would like to thank all the technical staff. Necessity is truly the mother of invention, and they have done extraordinary work. I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate the four Plaid Cymru-run councils Gwynedd, Ynys Môn, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, as well as Pembrokeshire, on working together to ensure that business support money is directed to those businesses who really need it and as soon as possible There remains a concern that the loophole allowing holiday homeowners to register residential properties as businesses for tax purposes to avoid paying council tax will see millions of pounds directed away from legitimate businesses in other local authority areas across England and Wales. How is the Secretary of State working with the First Minister to ensure that second homeowners do not exploit the business rates system across England and Wales and, more importantly, that covid-19 business support money is diverted to the businesses that really need it as soon as possible?
Welsh Affairs — House of Commons, 2020-02-27
Topic: Public Lands
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The Secretary of State will know that Carmarthenshire has a history of flooding. There were big floods there about a year ago, and even now some of the families and businesses affected are still recovering. One big issue is that they cannot get insurance after having been flooded. There is a huge market failure in that insurance market and public intervention will be needed. Will he press his colleagues in the UK Government to come up with a UK Government insurance scheme to support families who cannot get insurance because of flooding?
Welsh Affairs — House of Commons, 2020-02-27
Topic: Public Lands
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Bearing in mind that the Rivers Severn and Wye have an impact on communities in England, if the Welsh Government were to approach the UK Government for additional support specifically to address that flooding, how would the Secretary of State respond?
Covid-19: UK Border Health Measures — House of Commons, 2020-06-03
Topic: Immigration
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): At a time when most European countries are in a much improved condition compared with the UK, the concern of communities in constituencies such as mine is transition by travellers within and between the nations of the UK. I have spoken to the police, representatives of the tourism industry in north Wales and local community leaders, and we all want our attractions and accommodation to open as soon as possible, so we need to be able to provide every assurance to vulnerable residents and their families anxious about the risks implicit in thousands—I emphasise, thousands—of people arriving in their communities the day after internal holiday travel restrictions are lifted in the UK. Will the Home Secretary come back to the House to explain what steps she is taking to ensure that holidays at home are safe for everyone?
Lammy Review — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Civil Rights
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Black people from Wales are five times over-represented in prisons and BAME women face the extra disadvantage of having no women’s centres to support rehabilitation. That is just one example of data crying out for tangible action. Will the Minister provide a clear road map of the Government’s plans to open the first residential women’s centre in Wales?
Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Immigration
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Diolch yn fawr iawn, Mr Dirprwy Lefarydd I rise to speak to new clause 11 in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Arfon (Hywel Williams), and to support the amendments in the names of the right hon. Members for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) and for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), and of the hon. Member for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East (Stuart C. McDonald) Immigrants have always played an integral part in the vitality of our communities, but we have been told, of course, that covid-19 changes everything. That prompts the question: does it change how we handle immigration as much as it does our approach to health and the economy? There has been some interesting mention of the value of the high-skilled jobs that we will expect from this immigration policy, but it is worth taking a step back and considering how things have changed under covid. I understand that 70% of people believe that the crisis has shown the key role of immigrants in running our essential services—the essential services that we have been clapping on the streets for many Thursdays; I think there is another clap here on Sunday—while 64% of people say that they now value so-called low-skilled overseas workers. We are now looking at who provides our services, and how, in a different way Surely what we have here is a hostile, inhumane immigration environment, and that is exactly what we should be questioning. Does such an immigration policy reflect the sort of society that we hope to be after covid-19? Plaid Cymru’s proposal in new clause 11 challenges how this Bill presents a radical change in UK immigration policy without allowing a thorough debate about the details of its replacement or the implications—although, as can be seen from the nature of the amendments, there is much concern about those implications. Before we legislate, we should have a proper comprehension of the following: the impact of discriminatory "no recourse to public funds" conditions; the impact of NHS charging; the merits of removing all fees for visas and citizenship applications; and the merits of devolving powers over immigration to our nations, recognising the different needs of the different nations. Finally—crucially, in the current context—our new clause calls on the Government to investigate the possibility of granting citizenship to all health and social care workers who have given so much during this crisis. A former Government did the right thing and granted citizenship to the Gurkhas. Health and social care immigrant workers have been fighting heroically on two fronts. They have fought on our behalf against the virus; they are now facing having to fight a hostile environment in the Government’s immigration policy. The new clause would be a means to right that wrong; it would reflect the public mood, and I beg the Government to consider adopting it.
Business and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Other
Ben Morgan Lake (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Diolch, Dame Eleanor, and thank you for calling me so early in the debate. I think this must be a first for a Plaid Cymru Member; it is certainly a first for me. It is a great pleasure to follow the shadow Minister, and that is not something that I say very often because I do not follow shadow Ministers, so once again I am grateful to the Chair.
Business and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Ben Morgan Lake (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The hon. Lady makes a good point. A lot of these issues would have been circumnavigated if small breweries had been entitled to some of the support measures that were made available to other businesses in the hospitality sector.
Business and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Ben Morgan Lake (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. It is particularly the smaller independent breweries, where storage is perhaps even more of an issue, that will have had to dispose of a lot of their stock at considerable cost. Then there is the relative uncertainty as to when they might reopen and, indeed, how much beer to brew again. That is another problem that small breweries in my constituency have tried to tackle. I still think that might be a discussion to have. It is at least worth keeping the matter under review. I would welcome the Government being willing to do that The hon. Gentleman mentioned temporary events notices and licences. Another proposal would be to consider extending the authorisation of off sales to small breweries that do not hold a premises licence, but that are registered under the alcohol wholesaler registration scheme. That would be temporary and quite exceptional, but in these exceptional times there might be a case for it New clause 1 was tabled by the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron), and he may well speak to that at greater length in a moment, but I put on record my support for it. The Government need to recognise the need for sectoral flexibility as they review how to withdraw some of the support schemes and take stock of whether these measures, exceptional as they are, are working. Given the nature of the crisis we face, our focus must continue to be on protecting otherwise viable businesses and supporting employment, so I welcome new clause 1 Finally, I turn to the provisions in the first part of the Bill relating to the consumption of food and drink outdoors. A few Members have referred to those provisions as ushering in an al fresco age, which I am sure we are all excited to see, weather permitting. That part of the Bill extends to Wales as well as England, but the wording of clause 1 has caused some confusion as to whether it will apply directly to Wales. In concluding my remarks, I ask the Minister to clarify in his summing up whether the provisions will apply to Wales directly. If not, is he content that the Welsh Senedd is empowered to introduce similar provisions to support bars and restaurants in Wales, so that we may also see an al fresco culture in Wales over the summer?
Welsh Economy — House of Commons, 2020-02-26
Topic: Mixed Topics
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): HS2 will do next to nothing for north Wales and worse than nothing for south Wales. Yet only six miles of HS2 railway line will cost more than the crucial, first-of-its-kind tidal lagoon in Swansea, rejected by the Minister’s Tory Government. I am sure the Secretary of State agrees that low-carbon electricity generated in Wales should power the transport of the future. What will he do to get Wales-wide tidal lagoon projects back on track?
Public Bodies: Buying British — House of Commons, 2020-02-26
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Ben Morgan Lake (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): We know that for every pound spent with a small or medium-sized enterprise 63p is re-spent in the local area, as opposed to some 40p for every pound spent with a larger chain or business. What steps will the Government take to enable public bodies in Wales to buy more local goods, products and services?
Environment Bill — House of Commons, 2020-02-26
Topic: Mixed Topics
Ben Morgan Lake (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The hon. Gentleman will be aware of concerns that the Bill does not focus enough on the UK’s global footprint, so does he agree that the Government should introduce a mandatory due diligence mechanism, which would help to reduce the UK’s global footprint?
Proceedings during the Pandemic — House of Commons, 2020-06-02
Topic: Other
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): Could the right hon. Gentleman therefore confirm to me that the constituents of those MPs who have to shield are worth less and it is expected that they will be less well represented by this place?
Proceedings during the Pandemic — House of Commons, 2020-06-02
Topic: Civil Rights
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The Leader of the House said earlier that witnesses giving evidence to the Domestic Abuse Bill Committee could attend from afar. I have contacted the witness I invited, who told me that he could not attend from afar because he could not contribute through video, which he takes as discriminating against people who have to travel to London because he cannot stay in a hotel here. I would like the Leader of the House to be clear on what the situation is.
Flooding — House of Commons, 2020-02-24
Topic: Public Lands
David Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): While I understand the argument about devolved competences, extreme flooding—and it was extreme in south Wales last week—goes beyond constitutional considerations. Does the Secretary of State not agree that the allocation of resources on the basis of an outdated Barnett formula is clearly unsuitable in such extreme cases, and will he return to the House later in the week with a written statement outlining the collaboration that he has undertaken with the Welsh Government?