argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Business Investment: UK and East Anglia — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): May I congratulate the Chancellor on the £23 billion of extra money for this national productivity investment fund, which will confer huge benefits on the whole of the United Kingdom? Although I do not expect him to comment on the considerable merits of the A610 growth corridor and the improvements to the road at Giltbrook, I am very happy to meet him to persuade him of them. On a serious note, will he do everything he can to ensure that excellent schemes such as those are expedited and not caught up in what can sometimes be bureaucratic tangles?
Business Investment: UK and East Anglia — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Transportation
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): It is an excellent scheme indeed. My right hon. Friend will know that it is not only the £23 billion of additional funding for economically productive infrastructure that was announced on Wednesday last week, but a core £150 billion of funding for the same defined purposes over the remainder of this Parliament and the Government’s commitment, repeated last Wednesday, to move to a roads fund from 2020, funded by the revenues from vehicle excise duty, all of which adds up to a sustained commitment to investment in our roads.
Business Investment: UK and East Anglia — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): I simply do not recognise the picture that the hon. Gentleman paints. The Bank of England’s monetary actions have undoubtedly had a positive effect in stimulating the economy. The performance of consumer demand over the past few weeks has demonstrated that very clearly. We have the key elements in place, both monetary and fiscal, for our current circumstance, which is the potential for a more difficult period ahead. We need to muster our resources, make sure that we are able to support the economy through this period, and, at the same time, address the fundamental challenges, such as the productivity problem, to ensure that Britain is match fit to meet the challenges that it will face as it leaves the European Union.
Business Investment: UK and East Anglia — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): What I will do over the medium to long term is get the British economy back on to a firm footing, so that we can fund all those investment needs—which we do have, as the hon. Gentleman points out. Let me turn the question around. Scotland will receive £800 million of additional capital funding through Barnett consequentials as a result of the announcement made last week. From the tone of the hon. Gentleman’s question, I feel sure that the Scottish National party will want to confirm that that money will be used in Scotland, as it will in England, to target productivity-raising capital investment, so that the Scottish economy can perform more strongly in the future.
Leaving the EU: SMEs — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: What assessment he has made of the potential effect on the ability of small and medium-sized businesses to raise capital of the UK leaving the EU.
Simon Kirby (Conservative, Centre-right): We want to see the economy benefit every part of the UK. It is interesting to note that there are almost 1 million new businesses in our country since 2010, and I note the Prime Minister’s announcement at the CBI conference about the new patient capital review, which will be interesting, I am sure.
Leaving the EU: SMEs — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: What assessment he has made of the potential effect on the ability of small and medium-sized businesses to raise capital of the UK leaving the EU.
Simon Kirby (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree absolutely with my hon. Friend. It is about creating an economic environment in which businesses can grow and thrive. The British economy is strong and will continue to be strong as we prepare for our departure from the EU.
Leaving the EU: SMEs — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment he has made of the potential effect on the ability of small and medium-sized businesses to raise capital of the UK leaving the EU.
Simon Kirby (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government have been clear that we will not comment on every turn of the negotiations. Indeed, the negotiations have yet to start. However, we are absolutely committed to getting the best possible deal we can.
Regional Infrastructure — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): In the autumn statement, we prioritised additional high-value investments, specifically in infrastructure and innovation, that will directly contribute to raising Britain’s productivity. The Chancellor announced a new national productivity investment fund of £23 billion to be spent on housing, transport, digital communications and research and development over the next five years. Local enterprise partnerships will receive £1.8 billion of growth deal funding. This will go towards the projects needed to bring about economic growth in local areas, including new homes, transport improvements and supporting businesses and people to access the skills they need.
Regional Infrastructure — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Transportation
Johanna Peta Churchill (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome all those measures to boost productivity and particularly to turn attention to infrastructure and the specifics for the east of England given yesterday. However, given the strategic importance of the A14 trunk road linking Felixstowe port with Cambridge and the rest of the country, as well as its significance to 80% of businesses in Suffolk, does the Minister agree that further improvements to a road that he knows well are vital to productivity?
Regional Infrastructure — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Transportation
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right—it is a road that I know well. We certainly agree that the A14 is a critically important part of the network. We are investing £1.5 billion for a major upgrade to cut congestion on the A14, including a new 21-mile road between Huntingdon and Cambridge, and only yesterday my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary was able to go there to witness the start of the work.
Regional Infrastructure — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: Is not the simple truth that more than half the money announced for England will go to projects in London and the south-east and that, despite a £50 million shortfall in NHS funding by 2017 and a £130 million shortfall in social care funding by 2020, the Chancellor, like his predecessor, has short-changed Birmingham and the west midlands?
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): No, that is not true. There is a balanced package and all parts of England will benefit from the transport measures. The Barnett consequentials should mean that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can also benefit in this area. A specific announcement about the midlands hub was made in the autumn statement and there is more to be said about the midlands engine. This is a Government who are determined to ensure that the whole country benefits from economic growth.
Regional Infrastructure — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Technology
Questions: Is not the simple truth that more than half the money announced for England will go to projects in London and the south-east and that, despite a £50 million shortfall in NHS funding by 2017 and a £130 million shortfall in social care funding by 2020, the Chancellor, like his predecessor, has short-changed Birmingham and the west midlands?; Can the Minister assure me that digital infrastructure is as important as road infrastructure and that part of the £1 billion broadband fund will be allocated to address the productivity gap in rural areas—in particular, to help shops such as the hollies farm shop in my constituency, which has three business lines and 2 megabits of speed?
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend highlights the fact that digital must be key to improving productivity. That is why a £1 billion package was announced in the autumn statement. There was also specific help for rural areas through rural rates relief. Our ambition is clear: to provide the best digital infrastructure we can for urban and rural areas.
Regional Infrastructure — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Transportation
Questions: Is not the simple truth that more than half the money announced for England will go to projects in London and the south-east and that, despite a £50 million shortfall in NHS funding by 2017 and a £130 million shortfall in social care funding by 2020, the Chancellor, like his predecessor, has short-changed Birmingham and the west midlands?; Can the Minister assure me that digital infrastructure is as important as road infrastructure and that part of the £1 billion broadband fund will be allocated to address the productivity gap in rural areas—in particular, to help shops such as the hollies farm shop in my constituency, which has three business lines and 2 megabits of speed?
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): The OBR has always taken a cautious view on delivery of infrastructure, but let us remember that we have already delivered 3,000 projects. We have set out an ambitious plan for delivery of infrastructure improvements in the course of this Parliament, and that is exactly what we will deliver.
UK Exports — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Foreign Trade
Simon Kirby (Conservative, Centre-right): We do, and it is interesting to note that the Federation of Small Businesses, for example, welcomed the doubling of export finance because it felt that it would help small and medium-sized enterprises reach new markets. It is also interesting to note that the Scotch Whisky Association highlights the importance of exports, and it has seen an increase of 3.1%, to 531 million bottles. Perhaps the hon. Lady might remove uncertainty in Scotland by stopping banging on about a second referendum.
UK Exports — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my hon. Friend agree that the best thing the Treasury can do to help British business export is to allow it to keep more of the profits it earns by continuing to cut corporation tax?
UK Exports — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Simon Kirby (Conservative, Centre-right): We have legislated for corporation tax to be reduced to 17% by the end of this Parliament—one of the lowest rates in the G7—and we will do all we can to help businesses grow and thrive in this country.
UK Exports — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Simon Kirby (Conservative, Centre-right): Perhaps we should welcome the jobs to start with. However, in answer to the right hon. Gentleman’s question, it was, unfortunately, not possible to confirm this to the OBR in time to feed into the drafting process. Her Majesty’s Treasury therefore provided the same answer as it would to any query on contingent liability.
Public Infrastructure Spending — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): In the autumn statement, as I have said already, I announced the creation of a new national productivity investment fund to provide £23 billion of additional investment. That is on top of the £150 billion that is already baked into the baseline, and it is focused on the key areas for boosting productivity—housing, infrastructure and research and development.
Public Infrastructure Spending — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): The Scottish Government will have a full share of infrastructure spending through the Barnett formula, and we will work with the Scottish Government and all other devolved Administrations and regional entities, as we work to raise the UK’s productivity game. That is about infrastructure investment—both public and private. It is about raising skills. It is about raising management capability, and we announced that we would fund the Charlie Mayfield initiative to disseminate best management practice across small and medium-sized enterprises. It is about doing all these things to ensure the UK is match fit to prosper in the global economy in the future.
Public Infrastructure Spending — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Transportation
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): May I ask the Chancellor not to blindly hand over any extra infrastructure spending in West Yorkshire to the Labour-dominated West Yorkshire Combined Authority for it just to pump money into the Labour heartlands, and instead make sure that money can be spent in other parts of West Yorkshire, including on a Shipley eastern bypass, which would benefit the local economy and the economies of my hon. Friends the Members for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew) and for Keighley (Kris Hopkins), too?
Public Infrastructure Spending — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Transportation
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I did not know that Labour had any heartlands left, so that is an interesting comment. I will pass on his concerns to my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary and ask him to take them into consideration when he makes his allocations.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): My principal responsibility is to ensure the stability and prosperity of the economy. In the current circumstances, I judge that that requires a combination of near-term measures to ensure resilience and longer-term measures to manage the structural adjustment, as the UK transitions out of the EU, and to address the UK’s long-term productivity challenge. The package announced in the autumn statement last week delivered on both requirements.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Labor
Questions: As the Chancellor will know, this Saturday marks Small Business Saturday across the country. I will be heading out in Bath to do some Christmas shopping at some of the small businesses and encouraging them to join my Best of Bath business awards. Will he join me in encouraging my constituents, and hopefully my neighbours’ constituents, to come into Bath and shop local?
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): I am slightly mystified by the hon. Lady’s question, because the downgrades to wage forecasts will not be the driver of the circumstances of a pensioner on the state pension, given that we have introduced a triple lock that guarantees pensioners an increase in line with inflation, in line with earnings, or 2.5% as a minimum. However, I am happy to look at the specific question and to write to the hon. Lady with a calculation.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: As the Chancellor will know, this Saturday marks Small Business Saturday across the country. I will be heading out in Bath to do some Christmas shopping at some of the small businesses and encouraging them to join my Best of Bath business awards. Will he join me in encouraging my constituents, and hopefully my neighbours’ constituents, to come into Bath and shop local?
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): Well, this was worth waiting for: we have a firm commitment by the Opposition to run the triple lock through the lifetime of the next Parliament. I wonder whether the hon. Lady knows how much money she has just spent, without knowing the fiscal circumstances the country will face. What we have said, and the only responsible thing to say, is that all the commitments we have made for the duration of this Parliament we will review at the spending review before the end of the Parliament, and we will decide then which ones we can afford to renew and which ones are appropriate to renew. I think this tells us everything we need to know about the Opposition: three and a half years out, they are willing to spray around commitments without any idea of what it is going to cost them.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: As the Chancellor will know, this Saturday marks Small Business Saturday across the country. I will be heading out in Bath to do some Christmas shopping at some of the small businesses and encouraging them to join my Best of Bath business awards. Will he join me in encouraging my constituents, and hopefully my neighbours’ constituents, to come into Bath and shop local?; Casework in Wycombe continues to illustrate calculation and communication errors around tax credit payments. What steps will the Government take to reduce those errors?
Jane Ellison (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to point to the fact that we inherited a complex system in that regard. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has enhanced its online services. There will be an online service, for example, for people making new claims for tax credits starting in April 2017. The use of real time information through pay-as-you-earn has really helped to pick up potential errors in claimants’ income, and it is making a difference.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Transportation
Questions: As the Chancellor will know, this Saturday marks Small Business Saturday across the country. I will be heading out in Bath to do some Christmas shopping at some of the small businesses and encouraging them to join my Best of Bath business awards. Will he join me in encouraging my constituents, and hopefully my neighbours’ constituents, to come into Bath and shop local?; Casework in Wycombe continues to illustrate calculation and communication errors around tax credit payments. What steps will the Government take to reduce those errors?; Chester’s status as a centre for the financial services industry, particularly FinTech, is under threat from continuing problems with retention by businesses, which cannot get staff to come to the area. Staff cannot get there, because our infrastructure is not good enough. Instead of gloating about the Oxford to Cambridge corridor, can we have some news about when money will be spent on the M56 to upgrade it to a smart motorway?
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): I will take that as a representation and make sure that my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary is aware of it. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that we are already setting out an ambitious programme for road spending over this Parliament. In addition, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer made announcements last week about putting in more funding to improve our road network across the country. I am happy to look at the case that the hon. Gentleman raises.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Technology
Questions: As the Chancellor will know, this Saturday marks Small Business Saturday across the country. I will be heading out in Bath to do some Christmas shopping at some of the small businesses and encouraging them to join my Best of Bath business awards. Will he join me in encouraging my constituents, and hopefully my neighbours’ constituents, to come into Bath and shop local?; Casework in Wycombe continues to illustrate calculation and communication errors around tax credit payments. What steps will the Government take to reduce those errors?; Chester’s status as a centre for the financial services industry, particularly FinTech, is under threat from continuing problems with retention by businesses, which cannot get staff to come to the area. Staff cannot get there, because our infrastructure is not good enough. Instead of gloating about the Oxford to Cambridge corridor, can we have some news about when money will be spent on the M56 to upgrade it to a smart motorway?
Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman (Conservative, Centre-right): I recently visited ASV Global in Portchester, an innovator in unmanned and autonomous marine technologies. In just six years, ASV has designed 70 new products, which it has delivered to 10 countries and 40 customers. What further support for research and development is available to companies such as ASV to boost job creation and wealth?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: As the Chancellor will know, this Saturday marks Small Business Saturday across the country. I will be heading out in Bath to do some Christmas shopping at some of the small businesses and encouraging them to join my Best of Bath business awards. Will he join me in encouraging my constituents, and hopefully my neighbours’ constituents, to come into Bath and shop local?; Casework in Wycombe continues to illustrate calculation and communication errors around tax credit payments. What steps will the Government take to reduce those errors?; Chester’s status as a centre for the financial services industry, particularly FinTech, is under threat from continuing problems with retention by businesses, which cannot get staff to come to the area. Staff cannot get there, because our infrastructure is not good enough. Instead of gloating about the Oxford to Cambridge corridor, can we have some news about when money will be spent on the M56 to upgrade it to a smart motorway?
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): We have done two things. Within the £23 billion that I announced last week to raise the UK’s productivity game is a significant increase in public R and D investment. We also said—we will do this before the Budget—that we would carry out a review of the way that tax support for privately funded R and D works, with the objective of ensuring that the UK is the most attractive place in Europe to do private R and D work. I will report at Budget 2017.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-11-29
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: As the Chancellor will know, this Saturday marks Small Business Saturday across the country. I will be heading out in Bath to do some Christmas shopping at some of the small businesses and encouraging them to join my Best of Bath business awards. Will he join me in encouraging my constituents, and hopefully my neighbours’ constituents, to come into Bath and shop local?; Casework in Wycombe continues to illustrate calculation and communication errors around tax credit payments. What steps will the Government take to reduce those errors?; Chester’s status as a centre for the financial services industry, particularly FinTech, is under threat from continuing problems with retention by businesses, which cannot get staff to come to the area. Staff cannot get there, because our infrastructure is not good enough. Instead of gloating about the Oxford to Cambridge corridor, can we have some news about when money will be spent on the M56 to upgrade it to a smart motorway?; The autumn statement shows that, as gross national income falls, so will the total projected official development assistance budget. Can the Chancellor assure us that, within that, the Department for International Development budget will be maintained as much as possible and that, if ODA has to contract, cuts will have to fall on other spending Departments before DFID?
Philip Hammond (Conservative, Centre-right): No, not necessarily at all. We spend our ODA in different ways, and different Departments have relatively small pools of ODA. Of course, the great majority of it goes through DFID. Where GNI contracts and the ODA budget needs to be trimmed accordingly, we will look to take away the lowest-value ODA spending. I think that that is the way the taxpayer would expect it to be done.