argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-06-29
Topic: Other
Stephen Parkinson (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am conscious that we have had nearly an hour’s debate already on this and have a large number of noble Lords who wish to speak to this amendment. I appreciate that one of the difficulties of our current arrangements is that noble Lords might feel they have to make speeches of considerable length to pre-empt what my noble friend the Minister might say. The Companion allows a Minister to speak early if it might assist the House so, with the leave of the House, I suggest that she makes her speech at this point, to cover points that noble Lords might be anticipating.
Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-06-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Patrick Cormack (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I must begin by saying that it was unfortunate that the Minister intervened at the point that she did. It illustrates to me how unsatisfactory a virtual or hybrid parliament is. There is no real opportunity to hold the Government to account, and that is what Parliament is about. Had she come in at the end, my inclination would probably have been to say that the noble Lord, Lord Alton, should not put his amendment to the House this evening, but I am bound to say that if he does, he certainly will have my support, if only to send a signal that we are not content with the way in which Parliament is conducting its business at the moment I will say just a few words about the issue. My parliamentary hero was William Wilberforce. I even wrote a short biography of him to mark the 150th anniversary of his death, way back in 1983. Above all things, his career showed that determination and persistence are essential if you are going to triumph in a great cause I shall always be proud of what our country achieved in abolishing the slave trade and then the institution of slavery itself and of the part our Royal Navy played in seeking to stamp it out around the world. But slavery still exists, and it seems quite extraordinary that, at a time when all manner of things are being said outside this House, we should be contemplating any sort of alliance with a company that is an arm of a totalitarian state When I came into the other place 50 years ago, the first post I took on was chairman of the Committee for the Release of Soviet Jewry, a persecuted minority within the then Soviet Union in the middle of the Cold War. I always remember sending a Jewish Bible to a young man at his bar mitzvah signed by virtually every Member of the other place, including the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, and the Leader of the Opposition, Harold Wilson. It was sent back That showed that gestures made in Parliament have a role and an importance. Inserting this amendment, or something very like it, into the Bill, although it might be a little inconvenient, would say something fundamentally right, important and true. We cannot allow ourselves to appear weak as China gathers in strength and importance. We must also remember that we have a treaty obligation to the people of Hong Kong. It is important that we do all we can to ensure that the Chinese honour that international treaty I move off the subject merely because I am rather cross and because I do not believe that this is the way to conduct parliamentary business. The future might be very bleak unless we are prepared to show the Chinese that if they want real respect, they must have regard for the rule of law and the way in which they treat their people. Less than 20 years after we sent that Jewish Bible to Moscow, the Berlin Wall came down. I rest my case.
Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-06-29
Topic: Other
Michael Bates (Conservative, Centre-right): We now come to the group consisting of Amendment 6. I remind noble Lords that Members other than the mover and the Minister may speak only once, and that short questions of elucidation are discouraged. Anyone wishing to press this amendment to a Division should make that clear in the debate Amendment 6
Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-06-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Diana Barran (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Amendment 6 raises the important issue of competition, about which I think we are all in agreement. Of course the Government think that no operator should be able to prevent another from providing their own service to potential customers living inside a building. We believe that the Bill already ensures that no one is locked into services provided by a single provider. It allows for subsequent operators to apply for and make use of Part 4A orders in the same block of flats, and regulatory measures are already in place to ensure that operators, whenever they install their equipment, not just in this scenario, do not do so in an anti-competitive manner I direct noble Lords’ attention to paragraph 27E(4) of the Bill and the terms that will accompany a Part 4A order. These terms set out how Part 4A orders are to be exercised—for example, the time of day that operators can carry out works and that they conform to health and safety standards. We have set out in the Bill the areas that those regulations must include. It has always been our intention that the terms of an agreement impose by a Part 4A order would set out that the operator must not install their equipment in such a way as to physically prevent others from installing their own However, as the noble Lord, Lord Fox, put it very elegantly, we aim to simplify the lives of consumers. In response to his remarks and those of my noble friend Lord Holmes, the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and of course the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, if it would reassure noble Lords then the Government would be willing to table an amendment to the Bill at Third Reading to that effect. We consider it fair to amend the Bill so that it is absolutely clear that these terms should include measures to ensure that an operator must not install their equipment in such an anti-competitive way. If the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, is content with that approach, I ask that he withdraw his amendment.
Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill — House of Lords, 2020-06-29
Topic: Other
Michael Bates (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, we come to the group consisting of Amendment 7. I remind noble Lords that Members other than the mover and the Minister may speak only once, and that short questions of elucidation are discouraged. Anyone wishing to press an amendment to a Division should make that clear in debate Amendment 7
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2020-04-30
Topic: Other
Stephen Parkinson (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, this debate is limited to three hours and is heavily subscribed, so I would be grateful if noble Lords could be very mindful of the two-minute speaking limit. I thank your Lordships very much.
Charitable and Voluntary Sector — House of Lords, 2020-04-30
Topic: Public Lands
Alexander Randall (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Addington, on obtaining this important debate. I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Interests in relation to my role as a trustee for various charities We have already heard, and will hear a lot more, about the very real hardships experienced by the whole range of charities. However, in the short time allotted for my contribution, I want to highlight the plight of one charity—perhaps one that does not immediately come to mind. I refer to the Zoological Society of London ZSL encompasses two zoos, science teaching and research, as well as being a national and global conservation NGO. Its turnover is too high for the coronavirus loan scheme or for the one aimed at large companies—the corporate financing facility. ZSL must keep its animals cared for, which means that zookeepers, site staff and animal health teams keep working. Therefore, the vast majority of the staff are ineligible for the furlough scheme, which requires staff to do no work at all ZSL is a national institution doing outstanding work on managing zoonotic disease such as Covid-19, as well as tackling serious conservation issues such as the illegal wildlife trade, which likely caused Covid to spread to people. All that is underpinned by ZSL’s zoo income, which currently is zero There is a real fear that ZSL will not survive if laden with debt. When the zoos are running with a full complement of visitors, the surplus enables the conservation and science to happen. Sadly, grants and philanthropy do not cover the costs of conservation and science. In the current environment, the zoos are shut, producing no income. They run at a loss during the winter and generate most surplus during the Easter break, and it is unclear when they will reopen. Given that 40% of visitors to London Zoo are foreign, it is extremely uncertain what levels of income ZSL will return to, even following reopening Unlike the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Natural History Museum, ZSL is a global impact science and conservation organisation, running its public-facing zoo with no core government support. I urge the Government to give careful thought to what support they can give to preserve this national institution.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2020-04-30
Topic: Other
Jane Scott (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, this afternoon’s debate is very well subscribed, and the speaking limit is, I am afraid, one minute. I urge all noble Lords to keep to this time when making their remarks. The debate will conclude after one hour, and if speeches overrun, this will shorten the time that the Minister has to respond.
Covid-19: Repatriation of UK Nationals — House of Lords, 2020-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Richard Balfe (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am not yet clear as to what the numbers are. Clearly, two sorts of people are being repatriated: one is the people who were on cruise ships and on holidays who were just stranded; the second group is people who went often to south Asia because that is what they did on a regular basis, but they were not on holiday and they did not have a definite time of return. Is there any estimate of the numbers in those two categories, and what are the plans for getting them back? I think in particular of the holidaymakers, because they are no longer on holiday if they have been there for a month, and I guess that the cruise ship industry will have problems. Secondly, there are lots of planes sitting on the ground at Heathrow and in all sorts of airports. How do you choose who gets to fly the planes back, and why, when there are so many empty planes, is there such a long queue?
Covid-19: Repatriation of UK Nationals — House of Lords, 2020-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Tariq Ahmad (Conservative, Centre-right): To take my noble friend’s final remarks first, a lot of countries have closed airspace, and you need to seek special permissions to allow aircraft to fly. Our charter flights have been operating; as my noble friend will recall, we announced a £75 million package, and we are working in partnership with airlines with which we have signed memorandums of understanding. Every time there is a charter route, we go out and get the best offer from an airline. For example, in India we have been working with British Airways, and in Pakistan we have been working with Qatar Airways On the specific numbers on cruise ships, I have already alluded to the fact that we have returned a substantial number—around 19,000 people. At one time we were monitoring a great number of cruise ships—I remember sitting in meetings, day after day, tracking cruise ships around the world. We have had a successful repatriation policy in support of those people, returning them either through commercial routes or, when necessary, running chartered flights On the specifics of holidaymakers versus people visiting family, the original estimates ran to around 20,000 people in India, for example, so the fact that we have already returned over 10,000 people is testament to the number of flights. However, the scale of the operation could not be underestimated. To take just the Indian example, we have now run 52 charter flights. It was necessary to run them, and, as I said in response to an earlier question, we continue to run additional flights because of the sheer scale of numbers, with people visiting family and in different parts of the world. Yes, we have committed to do this work and continue to do it. As I said, the job is not done, nor have I claimed that, but we are working through the numbers to ensure that those who wish to come back to the UK can be brought home as quickly as possible. We have prioritised the most vulnerable, which was the right thing to do, but we continue to work with countries on the ground to ensure that we can repatriate all British travellers who wish to return home.
Pension Schemes Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Other
Thomas Ashton (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Stedman-Scott, I beg to move the Motion standing in her name on the Order Paper That the amendments for the Report stage be marshalled and considered in the following order: Clauses 1 to 6, Schedule 1, Clauses 52 to 57, Schedule 4, Clauses 7 to 17, Clauses 58 to 68, Clauses 18 to 23, Clauses 69 to 74, Clauses 24 and 25, Clauses 75 and 76, Clauses 26 to 30, Clauses 77 to 81, Clauses 31 to 44, Schedule 2, Clause 45, Clauses 82 to 95, Schedule 5, Clause 96, Clause 46, Clause 97, Clause 47, Clause 98, Clause 48, Schedule 3, Clause 99, Schedule 6, Clauses 49 to 51, Clauses 100 to 116, Schedule 7, Clause 117, Schedule 8, Clauses 118 to 120, Schedule 9, Clauses 121 to 123, Schedule 10, Clauses 124 to 129, Schedule 11, Clauses 130 to 132, Title.
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Stuart Polak (Conservative, Centre-right): I, too, have some sympathy with the view of the noble Lord, Lord Newby, on cricket. There is no doubt that the return of first-class sport on TV is important for morale around the country. I noted that in the debate on the Statement in the other place, the honourable Member for Dartford called on the people of Britain "to do their patriotic best … and go to the pub".—[Official Report, Commons, 22/6/20; col. 1176.] There is indeed timely and welcome news for restaurants and pubs in this Statement, but does my noble friend agree that, while acknowledging that there has never been a textbook to follow, the Government should be commended for their efforts to protect people’s livelihoods via the job retention scheme and other measures?
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the noble Lord back; it is good to see him on the screen. In relation to bars, one of the key things is that we urge everyone buying drinks to abide by the guidance and to stick to either two metres or one metre-plus. That is how we can start to make sure that, when hospitality opens, everyone remains safe. There are obviously other mitigating factors around sanitisation, hand washing and being sensible—there are all those issues. We will be asking businesses to provide details of customers if possible, but it probably will not be in all circumstances—for instance, in the example he cited.
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Other
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): It certainly feels like a bit of normality has returned with the noble Lord managing to discuss these issues in the Chamber. That is good to hear. I will certainly take back his comments to the relevant departments. I am sure a lot of work is ongoing, but he makes some very good points and I will make sure that they are raised with the relevant Ministers.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Other
Ian Duncan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, proceedings will now commence. Some Members are here in the Chamber and others are participating virtually, but all Members are treated equally. For Members participating remotely, microphones will unmute shortly before they are to speak. Please accept any on-screen prompt to unmute. Microphones will be muted after each speech. If the capacity of the Chamber is exceeded, I will immediately adjourn the House. I ask noble Lords to be patient if there are any short delays as we switch between physical and remote participants. The usual rules and courtesies in debate apply. We now have two Motions in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Bethell. The time limit is one and a half hours.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
David John Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I welcome the changes announced by the Prime Minister on Tuesday, which render discussion of these regulations rather academic. I suggest one more essential tweak to what was said on Tuesday. We are told that the one-metre rule needs additional mitigating factors. That is unnecessary waffle. We should say that at one metre face masks are compulsory for everyone, no ifs or buts Today, I want to turn to the investigation of death anomalies and how that must be done carefully and thoroughly. As my noble friend knows, there is a huge industry out there ready to denounce everything about our country as institutionally racist. There is no coherent BAME community. It consists of black ethnicities, Asian ethnicities and all other minority groups who are not white. While their death rates are higher than whites’, there are wide variations between them, so the Government should report on the individual ethnic groups, not just this grouping called BAME We must also get to the bottom of why men are three times more likely to die than women, fat people twice as likely to die and people with diabetes—and possibly a lack of vitamin D—also twice as likely to die. None of these conditions is anything to do with racism, but the anomalies are just as great, so we need to know if underlying health conditions are the root cause of death variations. Perhaps they are or perhaps they are not, but we must have an authoritative and detailed analysis so that it is not exploited by those who wish to find institutional racism where none may exist.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Joyce Anelay (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I welcome the regulations, particularly the (Amendment) (No. 4) regulations, which permit the opening of non-essential retail premises. I do so because they have enabled charities to open up their on-street retail businesses again When lockdown restrictions were imposed, charities relying on their high street retail arm for income were badly affected. Some charities can trade online but that income is nowhere near what they can obtain from on-street sales. Age UK stated that the closure of its shops resulted in a loss of one-third of its income overnight. Its website now gives the good news that the regulations mean that it is reopening many of its charity shops—in line with the Government’s guidance about how to do so safely, of course Charity shops on the high street perform a service to the whole of our community. They provide goods at low prices, making them accessible to those on low incomes. They provide a place where customers can feel welcome and included, when they so often feel excluded from society. They support the recycling of goods and are therefore good for the environment. Indeed, the Salvation Army made the point that many people have been clearing out their homes during lockdown and the goods that they are donating could help raise funds for its work supporting rough sleepers and to stock its food banks. Charities also provide opportunities for people to work as volunteers in their shops I will end by quoting the Charity Commission’s recent report, which said that "we are stronger and better as a country the more benefit charity delivers." If this was true before the national emergency, it is being brought home as never before during and after it. Society needs charities to thrive. The (Amendment) (No. 4) regulations will help them survive.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Other
Joanna Penn (Conservative, Centre-right): To clarify the Procedure Committee guidance, as agreed by the House: "All members participating need to be included on the published Speakers’ List and members are not able to intervene spontaneously during business" This is not designed to limit the participation of Members in proceedings. It is under the section headed "Parity of treatment" between those online and those in the Chamber, to ensure that there is no difference in the ability of those online to participate. I hope noble Lords appreciate and understand that.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2020-06-25
Topic: Other
Ian Duncan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, proceedings will now commence. Some Members are here in the Chamber and others are participating virtually, but all Members are treated equally. For Members participating remotely, microphones will unmute shortly before they are to speak. Please accept any on-screen prompt to unmute. Microphones will be muted after each speech. If the capacity of the Chamber is exceeded, I will immediately adjourn the House. I ask noble Lords to be patient if there are any short delays as we switch between physical and remote participants. The usual rules and courtesies in debate apply.