argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Technology
Stephen Benn (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I will not detain the House for long, not least because many of the points I wanted to make have been ably made by my noble friend Lord Browne. I welcome much of the Minister’s speech and the appointment of the chief executive-designate. Considering his background, I venture to suggest that by the time he leaves the post he is about to fill, the name of the agency may have changed from ARIA to DARIA. That would reflect his personal background and possibly the way in which developments may move I also welcome what was said in another place by the Minister for Science, who the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, referred to. I have a high regard for the Minister for Science and thought that he addressed seriously some of the concerns raised in our debates. However, to echo my noble friend, I point out that the National Security and Investment Act still provides too narrow a basis for protecting what really matters about ARIA, which is the intellectual property that it is going to generate. It is a strange position to be in, but I think that the definition of national security, which does not take into account the economic security of this country and the intellectual property attached to that, would be a mistake and possibly a loophole. I regret the fact that the framework document to which the Minister referred has not yet been seen by anybody, and I hope that in the months and years ahead we will be able to debate that framework and the new scientific architecture, which the Minister rightly referred to, because we are moving into a new era It is not often that Governments anywhere launch a new agency with so little idea about what it will do and how it will do it. Nevertheless, I wish it well, and I hope that in the months and years ahead when we come back to discuss ARIA and its development we will be able to see the progress it has made, which I for one hope it will.
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Bruce Joseph Grocott (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I mentioned in Committee and I mention again to the House now that I have always been a strong critic of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act and I was pleased when the Government decided to do away with it. But I find myself in a strange position now of being pleased that they have introduced the Bill but disappointed with it, because it is a messy and—for the reasons that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, said—counterintuitive solution, in that it is moving power back to the monarch. It is a messy solution to a problem that was particular, in most respects, to the 2017-19 Parliament and which, as the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, said, we are now trying to repair or prevent from happening again My message is simply that the shenanigans of the 2017-19 Parliament were a result, more than anything else, of the 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which this Bill will repeal. We need not worry about that kind of problem again because it is incredibly unlikely—impossible, I would say—that we will see those sets of circumstances recurring. Of course, the main reason why the Government could not get a majority for a general election—a facility that I strongly believe should be available to a Government—was the requirement for a two-thirds majority. On each occasion when Boris Johnson went to Parliament and asked for a majority, it gave him one, but not a two-thirds majority The solution being offered by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, is beautiful in its simplicity. It solves all the problems with one mighty bound. The main problems of this Bill—or rather, the problems that it does not resolve—are the possible interference by the judiciary, the possible politicisation of the role of the monarch and the argument that we can all have about what the Dissolution principles should be, which a lot of the debate in the Joint Committee was about. With one mighty bound we are free, if we say that you need a majority in the House of Commons. It prevents—for ever—any possibility of the monarch again being involved in this most political of decisions and of saying to a democratically elected Prime Minister, "No, sorry, I’m the monarch; you think you should go to the people, but I’m telling you that you can’t." It is inconceivable that that could happen and, if it did, it would be a constitutional crisis of a magnitude that we have not so far seen. You get rid of all that area of debate and problem. You also get rid of this ugly ouster clause, to which we will come in a moment. The courts are kept out of it because no court is going to challenge a majority verdict of the House of Commons. With a simple majority in the House of Commons, it is job done. The courts and the monarch are out of it.
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
John Reid (Labour, Centre-left): The noble Lord seems to be missing the fundamental fact that the problems to which he referred took place under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which required a two-thirds majority. This Bill gets rid of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. The circumstances that occurred in 2017-19, as the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, pointed out, cannot recur in absence of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Angela Smith (Labour, Centre-left): I am listening to the noble Lord with care and I think that there is a fundamental flaw in his argument. On that basis, does he not accept that a simple majority is used for every piece of legislation in the House of Commons? Why should calling a general election be any different? A simple majority is a sensible bar and a sensible test of whether the country should have an election.
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Bruce Joseph Grocott (Labour, Centre-left): We are talking about a resolution of the House of Commons. Can he give any circumstance —we are not talking about legislation; we are talking about resolution—where a resolution of the Commons was overturned by the courts or was even regarded as being justiciable by the courts?
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Stephen Benn (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, the House does not need or want a history lesson, but over hundreds of years power has been reclaimed from monarchs by Parliament and the necessary transfer of power from Prime Ministers to Parliament. There is an imbalance in the balance of power between the legislature and the Executive, but it turns out that repealing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which I think everyone in this House agrees should go, is more difficult than was imagined. We are an unelected House, but I can think of no better use of my vote today than to vote for Amendment 1 and allow the House of Commons to consider the matter properly and to reach its view, as the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, said. People disagree as to the nature of future constitutional circumstances but I am very proud of the fact that I have a vote that can send this amendment to the House of Commons and I, for one, will be content with whatever the House of Commons decides it wishes to do.
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
John Reid (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I apologise for not having attended previous debate on the Bill, but I want to make just two simple points. First, it is not true that the problems of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act were not foreseen. They were foreseen and explicitly raised by many Members on this side of the House. Secondly, however, the noble Lord, Lord Bridges, has encapsulated the difference between the two sides of this argument. In particular, I ask him to reflect seriously on his statement that we want power flowing from the ballot box to the Executive. That is completely contrary to the constitution of this country. Indeed, not only is it contrary to that, but it is enormously dangerous, because any system—
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Winifred Ann Taylor (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. He is talking about the use of executive powers. Is he concerned—I assume he is, because of Clause 3—that the courts might get involved in this and that that could cause serious constitutional conflict? Surely if the amendment proposed by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, was accepted, that would reduce the need for the ouster clause in Clause 3?
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Angela Smith (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I will start where I started in the previous debate, with the parliamentary TARDIS: the Government say that we can set things back to where they were before. Ministers in the other House and in your Lordships House said that this Bill brings clarity, but it is clear that it does not bring clarity. That is why the Government have insisted on Clause 3 The elephant in the room, as has been mentioned, is Prorogation, but Prorogation is different from Dissolution. The unlawful Prorogation has had an impact on many people—I still think of it. I agree with the assessment of the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, that that was an abuse of power, but I would not extend that in the same way to a Dissolution.
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Law and Crime
David Edward Lea (Labour, Centre-left): I understand everything that the noble Lord has said, but is there not a contradiction there? One wants to say that the matter should not be taken to court but, in that case, where is the confidence that something could not go badly wrong with the process? Scenarios ought to be spelled out. Is there not a scenario in which this could go badly wrong? People would say, "Well, it was not conducted in the right way."
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Angela Smith (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I remind the Minister that there was a Constitution Committee report on the Cabinet Manual and I think the Government have yet to respond. Could he give an update on when a response is likely to be? As it would cover these issues, it would be helpful when we have the opportunity for a longer debate in your Lordships’ House, given that we do not have the time today.
Hereditary Peers By-election — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Bruce Joseph Grocott (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the returning officer for announcing the result of another exciting by-election. It was a minimalist announcement; over the years I have tried to get more detail into the formal announcement. It is available in the Printed Paper Office, but members of the public who may be watching and interested in this subject—I assume there are one or two somewhere—cannot go to the Printed Paper Office I note, by the way, that the only reference to this on today’s Order Paper is in the smallest possible type, so that hopefully we will not notice. Well, I did notice. The Clerk, of course, was quite right to say that a Conservative won the election. There may be people watching who take an interest in these things who will be pleased about that, because Governments go through sticky patches and this Government are having one. A Conservative victory is terrific in a by-election I have to give the facts. The winning candidate was a Conservative, the second candidate was a Conservative, the third on the list was a Conservative, and the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th were Conservatives—there were 10 candidates and they were all Conservatives. It was pretty locked down in terms of what might happen. Added to that is the fact that you needed to be a Conservative in order to vote—I know when I am beaten; that is game, set, match and tournament On the question of the electorate—again, this perhaps needs explaining to people outside—it consisted of 45 people. I noticed that only 36 voted, so the turnout is slipping. Forty-five people could have voted, and they are a very privileged group. Since these by-elections resumed last June, there have been eight of them—we have by-elections more frequently than they do in the Commons—and these 45 electors have elected three Peers in June last year, and another one now. So 45 people have elected four Members of Parliament. I am fairly confident in saying that, in the history of parliamentary democracy, never have so many been elected by so few My final comment is that it is traditional in by-elections in this country—there is one pending in Birmingham Erdington—as has been the case for over 100 years, that women play a full part, both as candidates and as voters. As the House knows, in the case of by-elections for hereditary Peers, we do not operate that system, and all the candidates were men. Indeed, all the candidates in all the by-elections held since last June have been men, and in this case all the electorate are men. Again, it is something of a slam dunk I would like to end on a bit of good news for the House: I understand that there is another by-election pending, following the retirement of Lord Rotherwick. It will be similar to the present one. I am wary of making political predictions, but my guess is that it will be won by a Conservative, it will be a hereditary Peer, and it will be a man—there is a tip if any of you are going to the bookmaker’s.
Dormant Assets Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Social Welfare
John Bassam (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to my noble friend for his support on that point We on our Benches look forward to the consultation in due course and hope that the department will continue to engage with proponents of community wealth funds. Such funds could play an interesting and, we think, valuable role in levelling up and empowering local communities seeking their own solutions to local problems, a feature of the White Paper that we very much endorse May I use this occasion to ask the Minister what the Government intend to do to ensure that we continue to widen the potential scope for unlocking other dormant assets? Here I am thinking of Oyster cards, proceeds from crime funds, unclaimed pensions and unused insurance. It is worth reminding ourselves that the independent commission report identified some £715 million from investments and wealth management, £550 million from the pensions and insurance sectors, £150 million from securities, and £140 million from banks and building societies. Unlocking that sort of wealth unlocks a lot of power and gives great potential for social benefit. These are not inconsiderable sums of money, and if put in the right place and adapted, used and adopted for levelling up, they could leverage in bigger sums still for the hard-pressed communities that we want to see levelled up in the next few years We are again grateful to the Government for what they have done in improving the Bill. Your Lordships’ House played a valuable and valid part in that process. We are slightly underwhelmed by what has come back, but we are extremely grateful.
Afghanistan Humanitarian Crisis: UK Response — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: International Affairs
Raymond Collins (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. Anyone who watched "Panorama" on Monday will have been truly shocked by the conditions that were highlighted. I hear what the Minister said about financial support from the UK, but it is at the same level as it was in 2019 when there was no crisis. At Oral Questions on 13 January and in the debate that we had on 24 January, I stressed to the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, the urgent need for the UN pledging conference to take place. Vicky Ford said this afternoon that we are co-ordinating support for that conference, which will now not be held until 31 March. The best way to encourage other nations to step up to meet the additional $4.4 billion asked for by the UN would be to take the lead. Can the Minister confirm today how much the UK will contribute to the UN fund? If he cannot do that today, when will we make the announcement?
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Barbara Young (Labour, Centre-left): Will the noble Baroness admit that, in reality, the ombudsman has for many years undertaken that valuable work without having access to the safe space because the safe space did not exist? It can continue to do so by gathering evidence afresh in the way that it does in many other cases that are not going to be dealt with by HSSIB.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Gillian Merron (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, this has been a very detailed debate and has explored what is at the heart of the subject before us. It has focused very much on what it is to have a safe space—something to which I will return briefly. I want to thank my noble friend Lord Hunt for leading this group of amendments and I will not repeat the points he made so ably in setting them out. As the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, said, I hope the Minister will take these amendments in the spirit they are intended. Clearly, they have been very carefully crafted and debated in order to improve this section of the Bill, and I believe that they are very worthy of merit We on these Benches also support the development of a culture where staff feel able to speak up about mistakes without a presumption of blame. Since its creation, the work of the HSIB has placed an important focus on learning and improvement when things have gone wrong. However, there must be a balance with the need for appropriate accountability and redress, for the public to be protected from unsafe practices and practitioners, and for public confidence in the system to be maintained This debate has been rightly supportive of the HSSIB, its mission and the concept of safe spaces—on that I think there is agreement. There is also agreement that it must be independent to be effective and trusted. However, following this debate, it seems that there is much work to be done by the Government on reviewing where, and to whom, disclosure of information can be made. Although the debate has expressed agreement that it is not appropriate for coroners, with their adversarial role, to have such access—and I share this view—there is a finely balanced debate about the issue of the ombudsman. As the noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, said, this is complex—which I think is something of an understatement. The debate reflects the reality of the world in which the HSSIB seeks to improve the delivery of service The noble Baroness, Lady Neuberger, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Etherton, have put forward their view that the ombudsman needs to be able to investigate robustly. I am sure there is agreement on that. I am sure the difficulty that the Minister will want to unpick as she takes away the views of your Lordships’ Committee today is how it will be possible to allow the ombudsman to do its job and yet retain safe spaces. As the noble Lord, Lord Patel, said, it is so important to give confidence to professionals that they can contribute to the investigations into systems failure I say to the Minister that I hope there will be a close examination of all the points put forward in today’s debate. I feel that by further investigation into and thought about the points that noble Lords have made, this part of the Bill can certainly be strengthened.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Philip Alexander Hunt (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister—she was succinct but we certainly got the drift of the Government’s arguments. We have had just over an hour’s debate. Ideally, we would have taken this as a separate Bill, as we did in 2019, because these are clearly very complex issues. The heart of it is the tension between the purity of the safe space concept and the statutory duties of a number of officeholders, including senior coroners and the ombudsman. We will not resolve that tonight. The pity of it is that we will move to Report and probably vote on this; I cannot help thinking that there is a need for a proper round-table discussion before that to see whether we can collectively tease out a way forward. Having said that, it has been an excellent debate and I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Gillian Merron (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, Part 3 of the Bill has seven clauses: Clauses 88 to 94. This group of amendments seeks to oppose each of them and has been tabled in the name of my noble friend Lady Thornton. The title of Part 3 is: "Secretary of State’s Powers to Transfer or Delegate Functions" It puts into legislation what is proposed in the Integration and Innovation White Paper, which was justified by reference to the need to be able to respond rapidly and —once again, we see this word—flexibly It is a fair observation that the existence of multiple arm’s-length bodies is a side-effect of the more modern NHS, as we see more distancing from government. Some of them have worked better than others and, of course, some are listed specifically in the Bill. So the question for the Minister is: why does the Secretary of State need the broad powers outlined in the Bill to intervene in the running of these arm’s-length bodies, and why now? In the White Paper, in Committee in the other place and since, nothing has come forward to explain why giving even more powers in this way can be justified, so it would be most helpful if the Minister could illustrate what would happen were these powers not granted to the Secretary of State Of course, there is a danger here. If the arm’s-length bodies know that they are subject to these powers, they will inevitably become a lot less arm’s-length and less able to fulfil the functions for which they have been established. I venture to suggest that this is about consolidation of power at the top while pushing accountability down or further away, and I would welcome the Minister’s observations on this Throughout the deliberations of this Committee and the Committee in the other place, numerous concerns have been expressed about giving greater powers to the Secretary of State. Unless a compelling case is made and appropriate safeguards built in, I believe it is right that we oppose these clauses standing part of the Bill. I beg to move.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-09
Topic: Government Operations
Gillian Merron (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for his reply and the reference to parliamentary scrutiny. He will know that, in discussions in this Committee, the call for transparency and scrutiny has often been repeated. I am interested in the reassurances that the Minister has given and will consider his points further. I am sure that he understands that there is a feeling that these powers are still not necessary—not now—but I will certainly consider his points. With that, I beg leave to withdraw my opposition to Clause 88 standing part.