argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Horizon Settlement: Future Governance of Post Office Ltd — House of Commons, 2020-03-19
Topic: Law and Crime
Kevan David Jones (Labour, Centre-left): I thank all hon. and right hon. Members who took part in the debate. Could I say one thing to the Minister? He should not just parrot what his civil servants say to him. The court case did not result in a comprehensive settlement. He has admitted that the Criminal Cases Review Commission is settling cases that did not come before the court. His Department did not even know what that was when we rang it this week. Two such cases were settled in the last month for £300,000 each. If we are to get justice, we have to look at giving the same amount of compensation to those who took the court case forward The Minister has an opportunity here. I have been a Minister, and it is a great privilege, but it is not about sitting on that Front Bench or carrying the red box; it is about making a difference. The Minister has an opportunity to make a real difference and put right a wrong. He cannot carry on as his predecessors have done and ignore the truth. I challenge him: be brave, Minister. Please, put this right; it is in your hands. No matter what obstruction he has from his officials, he should challenge them Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 9(3)).
Social Mobility — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Education
Siobhain Ann McDonagh (Labour, Centre-left): New data reveals that there are nearly as many cadet forces in fee-paying schools as in the entire state system, despite just 7% of the UK population being privately educated. To ensure greater social mobility in our forces, will the Minister tell the House what his Department is doing to increase the number of combined cadet forces in state schools?
Income tax (charge) — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Macroeconomics
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): Many of those measures are extremely welcome, but is it not becoming clear that the economic impact of coronavirus is perhaps even greater than was anticipated, even last week? Perhaps now is the time to consider a temporary universal basic income for people who work as freelancers or who are self-employed, for the duration of the crisis.
Income tax (charge) — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Agriculture
Justin Piers Richard Madders (Labour, Centre-left): That is a perfect question to put to the Secretary of State—he will be here shortly—and my hon. Friend raises an important point about the messages being put out. All sorts of stories are coming out in the press, not all of which are necessarily accurate, and it is important that we do our utmost to ensure a clear and consistent message across the board. I am not sure whether or not herd immunity is a Government policy, but I am sure the Secretary of State will take the opportunity, if he is so minded, to put that matter straight once and for all.
Income tax (charge) — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): On confusing messages coming from Government, will my hon. Friend help me seek clarity on advice for people who self-isolate? Can they still go for walks outside? Can they go outside to walk family pets if they go on their own, or are they to be contained within their property? There seems to be a mixed message about what constitutes self-isolation.
Income tax (charge) — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
James McMahon (Labour, Centre-left): I thank my hon. Friend for giving way; he is being extremely generous. Does he share my concern that, beyond rent, many households are just a payday away from poverty, so people will be sent into debt that they may never get out of in their adult lives? Surely, the Government need to do far more to help households that are really on the edge.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Macroeconomics
Edward Samuel Miliband (Labour, Centre-left): Can I say to the Secretary of State that the House has always come together at times of national crisis as one, and that is the spirit across the House today? In that spirit, can I ask him to match the unprecedented public health measures that he has announced today with unprecedented economic measures to support all the businesses, large and small, their workers, and the self-employed, who will be affected by the measures announced today? We have seen across the world—for example, in Denmark—workers’ wages being guaranteed by a combination of Government and employers. It is no fault of the Chancellor of the Exchequer that his Budget last Wednesday is now out of date, but can I ask the Secretary of State to urge him to come back to the House with economic measures that match the gravity of the moment?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
John Robert Cryer (Labour, Centre-left): Many of us have thousands of constituents who are either on zero-hours contracts or are self-employed. I have raised this question before, but unless the Government can offer those people some sort of minimum income guarantee, they will quickly be facing repossession and homelessness.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: International Affairs
Patrick Bosco McFadden (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State said that this was a national effort and he is right, but it is more than that; this is a global crisis that has seen different approaches taken in different countries. Does he not accept that we need stronger, co-ordinated, global leadership, both on the health front and on the economic front, to get the best possible response to this global crisis?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Louise Margaret Haigh (Labour, Centre-left): Food banks will be under unprecedented pressure in this period, so what measures will be put in place to provide volunteers with protective equipment? Will the Secretary of State consider requiring supermarkets to put aside stocks and provide donations to food banks in this crisis?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Education
Clive Stanley Efford (Labour, Centre-left): We need a plan for scaling back schools. Teachers are saying to me that they are part of a mass collection of people every day and are concerned not only about being infected but about relatives who may have secondary illnesses and about colleagues who are pregnant. Schools are losing pupils and losing staff. They will close of their own volition unless we have a plan to scale them back and provide essential childcare for those workers who will still need to work and the children who will still need to go to school.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Jessica Rose Phillips (Labour, Centre-left): In answer to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves), the Secretary of State stated that people had to take it through the benefits system, unlike maternity allowance, just as an example. I wish to speak for a moment about the benefits system. My own brother, who is a universal credit claimant and an agency worker, has likely lost his job because he had to self-isolate for a period and it will not be kept open for him. Given the lag of universal credit, he will not get anything until early May. The Secretary of State needs to tell us now when he will come before us with a package of financial benefits for business and people, because it is getting too late.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Education
Judith Mary Cummins (Labour, Centre-left): Given the anxiety in schools, colleges and universities about exams, will the Minister reassure students and staff alike that there is provision in place for exams to take place within the cycle of this academic year? Will he also reassure the House that, in the event of school closures, there is provision in place to feed those children who are currently in receipt of free school meals?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Education
Michael Whitley (Labour, Centre-left): Can the Secretary of State assure the House that if schools are closed because of the coronavirus, money will be made available so that lunches and hot food are provided to the children who are the most in need? Also, he said that he took advice from other countries—Ireland has closed its schools.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Education
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): I have talked to my local trust this afternoon, and it is doing everything it can to prepare for the potential surge in covid-19, but it told me that the big problem it has is knowing what to do if schools close, and what that will mean for the workforce and their ability to turn up to work. Can we please have an assurance that there will be a national childcare policy, particularly for key workers in the NHS?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Education
Katherine Anne Green (Labour, Centre-left): If schools are to close—I appreciate that that is not the Government’s position currently—headteachers in my constituency have asked me to convey to the Government that a particular priority must be given to child safeguarding, and that this should also become the priority for Ofsted. Will the Secretary of State discuss that with the Schools Minister?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Apsana Begum (Labour, Centre-left): The Government have talked of drafting in volunteers to provide care, but people with disabilities often have some of the most complex needs and it is highly unlikely that volunteers would be able to provide the care that is needed. How will the Government ensure that people with disabilities continue to receive the support to stay in their own homes?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Mohammad Yasin (Labour, Centre-left): I live with my 80-year-old mother, my wife who has a heart condition, my daughter and sons, who attend educational settings, and my three-year-old grandson. What advice can the Secretary of State give to multi-generational households such as mine, where self-isolation is not a viable option and alternatives are far from obvious?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Seema Malhotra-Saluja (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Secretary of State and the Chancellor at the very least write to all Members this week to set out the measures that they understand will be taken to support the self-employed and small businesses in our constituencies? That information is vital. May I also ask him about local authorities? They will be on the frontline of supporting families facing hardship, as well as ensuring that services reach those in need. It will be a mammoth effort, undertaken at the same time as employees will have to be encouraged to work at home. What financial support, including hardship funds, are the Government providing to cash-strapped local authorities and how, alongside the enormous effort provided by community organisations, will the Secretary of State ensure the safeguarding of older people?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Education
Andrew Francis Slaughter (Labour, Centre-left): Schools are closing. London Oratory School in Fulham, which had 1,300 pupils, closed today. One effect of that is that other schools in the vicinity then come under pressure to do likewise from the school community. That is no criticism of anyone, but can the Secretary of State review and clarify the policy on schools and what happens if they have to downsize or if the policy changes?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour, Centre-left): I have been contacted by a constituent of mine in Erith and Thamesmead. His elderly grandparents are stranded on the Fred Olsen liner. Will the Secretary of State please tell me what action he will be taking to provide support to those stranded with coronavirus?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Education
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): This morning I visited Turney School in my constituency. It is a special educational needs school with an outstanding track record with the education it provides for its students. As well as education, the school also provides vital emotional and social support and respite for families, and the staff are very worried about what will happen, in the event that the school has to close, to the provision of social care for families who often live in overcrowded accommodation. Some 90% of them are eligible for free school meals. Will the Secretary of State say what measures he is taking to ensure that social care capacity for such families will be expanded in the event that schools are forced to close?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Rachel Louise Hopkins (Labour, Centre-left): Many local services in my constituency are supported by the third sector, including charities such as Luton Foodbank. They will be hit by a double whammy of many of the volunteers being 70 or over or living with people who may have long-term conditions, and equally having to cancel large fundraising events because they are large gatherings. What support can be provided for those organisations?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
Clive Stanley Efford (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. We all appreciate the work and the efforts of the Secretary of State for Health and his attempts to answer our questions this evening, but there were questions that he was not able to answer for several other Departments, such as the Treasury, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Education, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Transport. When will we get statements from other Secretaries of State, so that we can quiz them properly on the arrangements the Government are making on the very important issues we are raising on behalf of our constituents?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2020-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): I want to pay tribute to our social care workers across the country—a workforce who day in, day out work hard to care for our loved ones who are vulnerable owing to age, illness or disability; and a workforce who are often among the lowest paid and in precarious zero-hours employment, yet whose skills, compassion and dedication make a daily difference between whether life is utterly intolerable or lived to the full Social care has suffered a decade of austerity and neglect by the Tories. We have known for many years that our population is ageing and that our social care system is inadequately funded and unsustainable, as demonstrated starkly in the 1 million people eligible for care who are currently not receiving any support, and in the £3.5 billion a year that is needed just to meet current needs The Government have repeatedly kicked the social care can down the road, and the consequences are now coming home to roost. Social care is on the frontline of the covid-19 pandemic, providing care for vulnerable people—many of whom will be in high-risk groups for the virus—and meeting additional needs as hospitals work to discharge people to free up bed space. Yet there has been a woeful lack of support and guidance for the social care sector in the context of the pandemic On Friday, more than 100 parliamentarians from several parties joined me in writing to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to ask him to guarantee full pay for social careworkers who have to self-isolate because of covid-19. This commitment has already been made to NHS workers and contractors. It is vital for the protection of the vulnerable people who receive social care that staff who have direct contact with them, often providing intimate care, do not have to choose between the safety of those in their care and paying their own rent or feeding their family. Please could the Government make this commitment without further delay It seems hard to imagine that our current utterly broken social care system can cope in this current crisis, and the Government must, without further delay, deliver comprehensive reform. However, in the short term, emergency funding for social care to protect the workforce and those they care for is an absolutely vital part of minimising the impact and the devastation of this pandemic.
UK/US Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State told us on Monday that ceramics factories in the UK could benefit from a US trade deal, but that is not the view of the British Ceramic Confederation, which has warned of the dangers that low-quality ceramics would have on UK industry. Does she not accept that the manufacturing industry is right to be concerned about the threat posed by the agreement she is proposing?
UK/US Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): But Laura Cohen is not talking about the type of trade deal that the Government are proposing, is she? The BCC has warned of the dangers of the Government’s proposed mutual recognition clauses, which is where the flood of low-quality imports would come from. The Secretary of State’s own scoping assessment says nothing about the impact of cheap US imports on UK manufacturing either, so why will she not listen to the industry? Should the Government not rethink their approach to the US agreement and look after our own excellent manufacturing sector, rather than pursuing a policy of "America First"?
UK/EU Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Questions: What assessment she has made of the potential merits of a trade agreement with the EU on similar terms to the EU-Australia trade negotiations.
Barry Strachan Gardiner (Labour, Centre-left): Can the Minister confirm that, under what the Government euphemistically call this Australia-style trade agreement, all the bilateral investment agreements we have with EU states, which were suspended while we were a member of the EU, will come back into force? What assessment has he made of the likely dispute proceedings that investors from those countries could launch and of the impact that would have on UK trade?
UK/EU Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Questions: What assessment she has made of the potential merits of a trade agreement with the EU on similar terms to the EU-Australia trade negotiations.
Matthew Raymond Western (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister has just mentioned the Department’s economic impact assessments on future trade deals with Australia, New Zealand, Japan and a CPTPP-type deal, but he will understand that a CETA-type deal—a Canada-style deal with Europe—will hit our economy by 6.2%. To what extent does he believe that the trade deals done with Japan, Australia, New Zealand and so on will compensate for that huge loss to our economy?
Foreign Direct Investment — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Questions: What recent assessment she has made of the potential contribution of future foreign direct investment to the economy of each region of the UK.; What recent assessment she has made of the potential contribution of future foreign direct investment to the economy of each region of the UK.; What recent assessment she has made of the potential contribution of future foreign direct investment to the economy of each region of the UK.
Judith Mary Cummins (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister will be aware of the concerns of businesses and, in particular, of producers supporting our regional economies about the impact of the proposed most favoured nation tariffs on their capacity to attract investment in new technology that is essential for our transition to net zero. What assessment has he made of the impact of the proposed measures on the UK’s attractiveness as a destination for investment, particularly in new green technology?
Foreign Direct Investment — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Questions: What recent assessment she has made of the potential contribution of future foreign direct investment to the economy of each region of the UK.; What recent assessment she has made of the potential contribution of future foreign direct investment to the economy of each region of the UK.; What recent assessment she has made of the potential contribution of future foreign direct investment to the economy of each region of the UK.
Judith Mary Cummins (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for that answer, but he is not addressing the specific concern that the tariff schedule could hurt domestic producers by stifling FDI in precisely the places in the country that need it most. Are the Government really going to ignore industry concerns, potentially costing jobs?
Renewable Energy: Exports — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Environment
Stephen James Morgan (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for that response. What support has the prosperity fund awarded to fossil fuel projects in developing countries, and how was that funding assessed in terms of the environmental and social impacts of those projects?
Bilateral Trade Relations: Japan — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): Should not the Secretary of State be looking at the way in which we source things in this country—whether from Japan or China. We know that many of the drugs that we need to fight this virus are actually made in India, and it is not allowing us to have a full complement of imports. We also know that firms all over our country are closing down because China is the workshop of the world and it is exporting nothing. What is she going to do in the future to secure those supply chains?
UK/US Trade Agreement: Thames Valley — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (Labour, Centre-left): The Government’s own figures show that a US trade deal could raise the north-east’s economy by a maximum of 0.4% a year and that a no-deal Brexit will cut the north-east’s economy by up to 10%. Is this the Government’s idea of levelling up—to destroy thousands of jobs in the north-east?
Global Exports: Tech Start-ups — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Technology
Ruth Margaret Cadbury (Labour, Centre-left): As the Secretary of State said, the UK is a world leader in future technology, yet it is also assessed to be one of the sectors most at risk from Brexit. Therefore, new opportunities for tech sector start-ups are absolutely important. The Department was recently criticised by tech sector magazines for cutting funding for the tradeshow access programme, which is used by entrepreneurs in the tech sector to get to potential clients overseas. So will she set out what funding will be available, and with what long-term guarantees for those SMEs and start-ups, so that they can make the best of opportunities through the TAP?
Trade Agreements: Non-EU Countries — House of Commons, 2020-03-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Rupa Asha Huq (Labour, Centre-left): In reality, the roll-over deals struck to date amount to just 8% of our existing total trade, yet we were told that all this would be sorted by one minute past midnight on 31 March last year. Are the US negotiations being conducted in tandem with the EU ones, with fully trained teams aware of what each other is doing so that that can be factored into any future relationship? I am sure that other countries will be thinking the same, particularly as our objectives seem to be so divergent from the US’s "America first" aims?