argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Law and Crime
John Francis Spellar (Labour, Centre-left): Like others, I congratulate the hon. Member on bringing forward this very important Bill. He touches on something very important: the link between these crimes and other criminality. Should it not be reinforced by Government to police forces and prosecutors that those who break the law break the law and, therefore, there should be many more prosecutions, because in many cases, these people are also involved not only in other crime, but, actually, in cruelty, particularly to children and other human beings?
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Agriculture
Charalambos Charalambous (Labour, Centre-left): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we will need to publicise and raise awareness of the maximum sentence once, as we hope, the Bill is passed and put into law, so that it acts as a deterrent to stop people even thinking about committing cruelty to animals?
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Law and Crime
John Francis Spellar (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend rightly mentions microchipping. It appears that there has been very limited enforcement of that by the police. Does she agree that the Home Office ought to give clear instructions to police forces that this is the law of the land and therefore they need to enforce it? I suspect that the police will find that the perpetrators are often subjects of interest in other criminal matters as well.
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Agriculture
Kerry Gillian McCarthy (Labour, Centre-left): I think that the hon. Lady is talking about a ban on live exports, but I am talking about the standards that govern those exports, the inspections of the trucks and the conditions in which animals are transported. My understanding is that we could have done quite a bit more to at least alleviate the issue. Now, although I am not looking forward to the end of the transition period for many reasons, I hope that one thing that the Government will legislate on very early in the new year will be a ban on live exports for both fattening and slaughter. I have read about some loopholes—for example, breeding chicks might not be covered—but I hope that there will not be exceptions.
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Agriculture
Kerry Gillian McCarthy (Labour, Centre-left): I think that it is wrong to blame the NFU, because I doubt the Government’s will on this. I know that the hon. Gentleman does not want me to look back, but we have to judge a Government’s intentions by whether their deeds match their words, and I have doubts As we are talking about the NFU and about farming let me say that I sat on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, I chair the all-party parliamentary group on agroecology, and I spoke on Second Reading and served on the Public Bill Committee for two iterations of the Agriculture Bill, so I have lost count of the number of times I have heard Government Ministers say that there would be no lowering of standards in any future trade deals. However, as we saw with the vote the other week—I hope that the Chair of the Select Committee will back me up on this—the willingness to enshrine that in law was not there, so I think I am right to doubt any other promises that the Government may make when it comes to protecting animal welfare. On that, the NFU was certainly on the right page, along with the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton.
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Agriculture
Kerry Gillian McCarthy (Labour, Centre-left): Perhaps my colleagues are all worn out from trying to get hungry children free school meals earlier in the week. The fact that the hon. Member for Christchurch (Sir Christopher Chope) has the next Bill on the Order Paper may have something to do with the packed Conservative Benches. I say that as a former Government Whip for Friday sittings. That may be churlish of me I think I was reaching my peroration, as the former Speaker used to like to term it; the intervention that I very generously allowed has rather put me off my stride. I conclude by saying that I hope the Minister will answer the question on what on earth happened to the sentience provision. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Dorset on bringing the Bill forward. I very much hope that it becomes law, and that we will soon see animal cruelty in this country treated with the seriousness it deserves.
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Agriculture
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): On the importance of seeing the mother of the puppy, does he agree that there are still very bad practices where dogs in particular are brought in from abroad, reared in very bad situations, and then placed in what appears to be a nice, clean environment, when the history of that dog and those puppies is in fact very different?
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Agriculture
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman is being very kind. One issue that I have been worried about for a long time, which relates particularly to dogs, is the fashion situation: a breed becomes very fashionable and its value leads to a lot of the illegal trade and puppy farming. However, when those dogs become unfashionable, we have only to go to Battersea dogs home to see that, for all sorts of reasons, people no longer want them, and they end up looking for other homes.
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Agriculture
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about racehorses. I am one of the few in the House who has spoken about greyhound welfare. There is an onus on the owners of racehorses or greyhounds, who often make a lot of money out of them. They owe them a duty of care after they cease to earn money for them. There is a big difference between the number of greyhounds racing and the number who are rehomed when they finish. There is a big question there.
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Agriculture
Stephen John Doughty (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Lady has made some strong points. There of course is a cats competition ongoing at the moment, which Mr Speaker’s own cat is in, as is my cat, Charlotte, who is a rescue cat. On a serious note, she suffered significant abuse in the first few months of her life. I rescued her. She was extremely timid and extremely difficult and I have worked with her over the last few years to get her to a much better place. I really want to commend all the cats organisations, including Wood Green, Cats Protection, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, which is running the cat of the year competition, and many others.
Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-23
Topic: Government Operations
Daniel Stephen Zeichner (Labour, Centre-left): I am very grateful to the hon. Member for giving me the opportunity to explain why it is actually Government Members who have been misled. At the moment, the protections are absolutely cast-iron, of course, but the day following the end of the transition period, all those cast-iron guarantees slip away. They can be changed and undermined by secondary legislation—
Co-ordinated Response to Covid-19: Devolved Administrations — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Government Operations
Alexandra Mary Davies-Jones (Labour, Centre-left): The Scottish Affairs Committee described a deteriorating relationship between the UK and Scottish Governments on joined-up covid-19 policy making, with the main issue being trust. What work has the Secretary of State undertaken to improve awareness and understanding of devolution among Whitehall officials, so that policy makers have mutual understanding of the impact of decisions on each nation of the UK?
Co-ordinated Response to Covid-19: Devolved Administrations — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Ian Murray (Labour, Centre-left): I appreciate what the Minister said, but I think the public would look on it very unfavourably if both Governments did not work together to ensure that this vaccine is distributed But we also must not lose sight of today’s challenges. While the Chancellor’s latest plan to extend furlough until March is very welcome, there remain millions of people across the UK and in Scotland who have not received any support as lockdowns continue. The 3 million taxpayers excluded from Government support include countless self-employed, pay-as-you-earn freelancers, and many, many others. It is understandable that there may have been some cracks in hastily designed schemes announced in March, but not to fix those and to continue to exclude millions from any support is inexcusable. I raised this with the Secretary of State in this House on 1 July and 7 October, so, for the third time: will the Scotland Office demand that the Chancellor reconsiders and provides support to those taxpayers left without any help from this Government?
Voluntary and Community Organisations: Funding — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): Charities and social enterprises are never more needed across the UK, but may I correct the Minister? The Government put forward a fund of £60 million for charities within the devolved authorities, so I would like to know how much the Scottish charities have received from that fund and what representations he has made for its extension, because charities are never more in need.
Voluntary and Community Organisations: Funding — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): I join the Minister on behalf of those on this side of the House in praising the voluntary sector and charities across Scotland, which have stepped up to support so many people right across the nation. At the same time, however, charities face an existential financial crisis. The Minister will be aware that a report earlier this year from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator found that a fifth of Scottish charities were facing uncertainty because of poor finances over the next 12 months. With new restrictions now coming in across Scotland in different phases, will the Minister commit to working with the Secretary of State, with Scottish Ministers and, importantly, with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ensure that these voluntary sector organisations get any additional funding that they may need to support the people of Scotland during the pandemic?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Government Operations
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Prime Minister for his reply. The truth is the Chancellor’s package for forces charities was just £6 million during this pandemic, and that is just not sufficient. May I ask the Prime Minister to reconsider that support on their behalf, because at the same time we have all seen this weekend that the Government can find £670,000 for PR consultants? And that is the tip of the iceberg: new research today shows that the Government have spent at least £130 million of taxpayers’ money on PR companies, and that is in this year alone. Does the Prime Minister think that is a reasonable use of taxpayers’ money?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Labor
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister must know that because the furlough was not extended until the last minute, thousands of people were laid off. The figures tell a different story: redundancies, as I say, at a record high of 181,000; 780,000 off the payroll since March; the Office for National Statistics saying unemployment is rising sharply—so much for putting their arms around everybody. The trouble is that the British people are paying the price for the mistakes of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. If they had handed contracts to companies that could deliver, public money would have been saved. If they had extended furlough sooner, jobs would have been saved. If they had brought in a circuit breaker when the science said so, lives would have been saved Let me deal with another mistake. The Chancellor has repeatedly failed to close gaps in support for the self-employed. Millions are affected by this. It is bad enough to have made that mistake in March, but seven months on, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says the scheme remains—its words— "wasteful and badly targeted for the self-employed" The Institute of Directors says: "Many self-employed…continue to be left out in the cold." After seven months and so many warnings, why are the Chancellor and the Prime Minister still failing our self-employed?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Labor
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister just doesn’t get it. I know very well that the self-employment income support scheme has been extended, but the Prime Minister must know that that scheme simply does not apply to millions of self-employed people. They have been left out for seven months There is a real human cost to this. This week on LBC, I spoke to a self-employed photographer called Chris. He said to me: "Our…industry has been devastated… Three million of us that have fallen through the cracks… Our businesses are falling—absolutely falling—and crashing each day." He asked me to raise that with the Chancellor. I will do the next best thing. What would the Prime Minister say to Chris and millions like him who are desperately waiting for the Chancellor to address this injustice?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: International Affairs
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister spoke for many of us when he took a call yesterday to congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris on their emphatic win in the US presidential election, so does the Prime Minister now have any advice for his erstwhile best friend, President Trump, whose continuing refusal to accept the result is both embarrassing for him and dangerous for American democracy?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Government Operations
Catherine Malloy Hollern (Labour, Centre-left): Every day, there is a new story about dodgy contracts signed by this Government. Research by Tussell, the data provider, shows that the Government take an average of two and a half months to publish covid-related contracts, exceeding the legal limit of 30 days. Will the Prime Minister commit to publishing all contracts within the legal limit, and does he accept that the failure to address this scandal affects his Government’s awarding of public contracts?
Covid-19 Lockdown: Homelessness and Rough Sleepers — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Social Welfare
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): No one could accuse this Minister of being heartless or uncaring. I know her to be a woman of great integrity. However, I would put to her that her Government have been in power for a long time now and we still have this real problem of poverty—family poverty—stalking our land. The report by Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner, this morning shows the link between homelessness, rough sleeping and the dreadful way we treat children in care in this country. It is all joined up and there are some common reasons, and I think her Government and her Department should look at that too.
Covid-19 Lockdown: Homelessness and Rough Sleepers — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Social Welfare
James Stewart Murray (Labour, Centre-left): In a letter to the Secretary of State in June about rough sleepers during covid-19, community organisations, faith leaders and Ealing Council wrote: "Without question, the hardest group to support under the current framework is those with no recourse to public funds." The Secretary of State’s announcement last week made it clear that the new Protect programme funding was there to ensure that "everyone sleeping rough on our streets" has "somewhere safe to go" Could the Minister therefore confirm whether this funding can be used to help those sleeping rough who have no recourse to public funds?
Remembrance, UK Armed Forces and Society — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: International Affairs
Stephen John Doughty (Labour, Centre-left): I agree that it is very important to remember more recent conflicts, for example the Falklands. Will my right hon. Friend join me in recognising a very positive moment today? It is nearly 40 years since the Falklands conflict, and while we remember those who lost their lives in that conflict, we recognise the work of those who have been de-mining. Today, the Falkland Islands celebrates the fact that mines have been completely removed. The conflict lives on not only in those who suffered and died, but in its physical impact, and it is great that that has now been removed from the Falkland Islands.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Labor
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): Of course it is right that the furlough scheme and the support for the self-employed should be reinstated at the levels they were in March, but the Minister will know—everyone will know—that there are a great many people in our country who did not qualify for the furlough scheme or the self-employed scheme or whose businesses did not qualify for grants at the start and still do not. May I take this opportunity to remind him that a great many people in this country are still without financial support and will find it increasingly difficult to make it through the coming weeks and months? Will he take that message back to his colleagues across the Government?
Welfare of horses in Wellingborough — House of Commons, 2020-11-11
Topic: Agriculture
Rosalie Winterton (Labour, Centre-left): The Clerk will now read the text of the petition, as allowed under Standing Orders The Clerk at the Table read the petition, which was as follows: [The Humble Petition of the residents of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire and the surrounding areas, Sheweth, That the Petitioners believe that laws regarding the welfare of horses should be reformed and enforced to protect vulnerable horses who are mistreated by their owners on the grounds that the current laws leave the ‘codes of practice’ open to debate and opinion, resulting in horses being neglected by their owners as the law is open to interpretation. In particular, the horses who reside by the Embankment in Wellingborough are neglected food, water and shelter, resulting in these animals having a poor-quality life. Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House urges the Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to introduce reforms to laws regarding the welfare of horses and to work with The Borough Council of Wellingborough and the RSPCA to take into account the concerns of the petitioners and take immediate action to protect the welfare of the horses on the embankment in Wellingborough. And your Petitioners, as duty bound, will ever pray, &c.] [P002623]
Support for Self-employed: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-16
Topic: Macroeconomics
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): If you will indulge me, Mr Speaker, I want to pass on my commiserations to everyone involved in the horrific car crash in Trebanog in the Rhondda earlier today. I thank the police and the fire brigade, who have been helping The Secretary of State is right that lots of people have received help, but an awful lot of people in the Rhondda have not had a single penny. There are people who set up a company just two years ago and have now lost their business, their home and their livelihood. There are people who have gone from having £3,000 a month in the bank to £300 a month. When we come to the next round of decisions by the Government and the Treasury, we have to do something for the 3 million people who have been excluded from every single scheme. They feel that this has been massively unfair, and we have hundreds of tradespeople in the Rhondda who have not had a single penny off the Government.
Support for Self-employed: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-16
Topic: Labor
Nia Rhiannon Griffith (Labour, Centre-left): My thoughts are with those caught up in the awful crash in the Rhondda Many self-employed people in Wales who have already been hard hit by lockdown now fear the impact on their customer base of the looming spectre of mass unemployment that is hanging over their communities—industrial communities that still bear the scars of the damage wreaked by the Tories in the ’80s. When will this Government grasp the urgency of the situation and bring forward specific measures for sectors such as aviation that need longer to recover, in order to support the thousands of Welsh workers who depend on them?
Support for Self-employed: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-16
Topic: Labor
Nia Rhiannon Griffith (Labour, Centre-left): Indeed, but there is now barely a month to go until the Government’s job protection schemes end, leaving thousands of self-employed people and others at risk of unemployment. It is not just Labour saying that. Businesses, trade unions and the Treasury Committee have all sounded the alarm. Will the Government accept that a one-size-fits-all approach to this jobs crisis is simply not working, and will they come forward with concrete proposals and a real plan to safeguard jobs for people across Wales?
Support for Self-employed: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Jessica Elizabeth Morden (Labour, Centre-left): On the issue of the 3 million excluded, my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) is right. At a time when more local areas are facing lockdowns, I urge Ministers to do far more to help those who have fallen through the gaps, at the very least by addressing the five-week wait for universal credit—it should be a grant, not an advance.
UK Internal Market — House of Commons, 2020-09-16
Topic: International Affairs
Gerald Jones (Labour, Centre-left): Last year, the Tory party promised to strengthen the Union and strengthen the devolved settlements, but their Internal Market Bill does exactly the opposite, as the Secretary of State’s colleague David Melding knows. So will the Secretary of State accept that, rather than being about promising more powers to Wales—promises that we simply cannot believe—the Government’s Internal Market Bill actually rolls back the powers, undermines the devolution settlement and gives comfort to those who want to break up the Union?
UK Internal Market — House of Commons, 2020-09-16
Topic: International Affairs
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): We all know the interest with which the Secretary of State listens to the No. 10 chief adviser, like every other member of the governing party. The Brexit Minister in the Welsh Government, Jeremy Miles, has been very clear that there are no new devolution powers; the measures are within the existing rules of devolution. Members on the Government Benches may pontificate all they like; the reality is that they are trying to roll back devolution because they do not like what the people of Wales do by electing Labour-led Governments in Welsh Government elections. This is a reversal of 20 years of the Tories’ not liking who is elected to Government in Wales.
Future Relationship with EU — House of Commons, 2020-09-16
Topic: International Affairs
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): What recent discussions he has had with the First Minister of Wales on the effect on the Welsh economy in the event that the UK does not reach an agreement with the EU on the future relationship by the end of the transition period.