argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Social Welfare
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Earl is quite right. Again, I looked at some of the figures this morning. Children who grow up in single-parent families are disproportionately likely to have Afro-Caribbean mothers. That, of course, has a knock-on effect on the income of the household, which in turn has a knock-on effect on expectations and in some cases achievement. The specific question of how one recognises these challenges in the formula for the revenue support grant is one that I will pass on to the Secretary of State at CLG to make sure that he takes it on board as we look at next year’s RSG.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Social Welfare
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): Change will not happen overnight; this will take some time to put right. On the first part of the noble Baroness’s intervention, there need be no more myths about growing up in single-parent families because the figures are now clearly set out on the website. She can see that there are significant variations according to the ethnicity of the family. The figures are there and we have to respond to that. On the question of government responses, I announced in the Statement some action that is being taken by the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Work and Pensions. There will be other announcements in due course from other departments as they take the agenda forward.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Education
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): Again, I commend the work that the noble Baroness has done in this field. If I may say so, she is an admirable role model for those in our country. The specific question she raises—the extent to which one wants to change this issue and inject into it the dimension to which she referred—is one for the Department for Education and the national curriculum. I very much hope that schools will teach not just British history but history more generally, particularly in those areas where they have children coming from a wide variety of different backgrounds. I will certainly pass that suggestion on to my noble friend.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: International Affairs
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): I completely disagree with the noble Lord. He is not right to put it in this way. I have made it clear that the Prime Minister has been in touch twice with President Trump and have highlighted all the calls and meetings so far. Her Majesty’s Government are working tirelessly, and will continue to do so, in conjunction with counterparts in the Canadian Government, to encourage Boeing to withdraw its complaint and to seek a negotiated settlement with Bombardier. The Prime Minister, as I mentioned earlier, has been discussing the issue constantly with Prime Minister Trudeau, and Greg Clark has also had a number of conversations with Canada’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland. An enormous amount is going on, and I refute what the noble Lord is saying about alleged inaction from our side.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Labor
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord for his input. I understand his point of view, but we do not see that as being the way forward. I should say again that the interim statement we heard is bitterly disappointing but it is only the first step. We will continue to strongly defend UK interests in support of Bombardier at the very highest level, because, as the noble Lord has said, the adverse outcome risks jobs and livelihoods among the 4,000 or so skilled workers in Belfast. I can only say that we will continue urgently to work hard at resolving this important matter.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): We are talking here about the aerospace sector, but as the noble Lord has broadened this debate, I will say more generally that of course what we are looking for is a tariff-free global trading area. There is no sense in having tariffs put on, because a market is thereby skewed, so we are looking in the future to have a tariff-free approach. Coming back to Boeing, I hope that we can persuade it to withdraw. The US needs to understand too that a tariff-free approach to trade is the way forward.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: International Affairs
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): It is good that the noble Lord has reiterated the fact that there is all-party support. I take his point. It is interesting, bearing in mind the political challenges in Northern Ireland, that unionists and Sinn Fein are also behind our efforts to find a resolution to this problem. He is right, as I said before, that the impact on the ground if Boeing were not to withdraw its petition would be profound indeed, but I say again that we are at the first stage of this difficult process and we will work as hard as possible to ensure that it is overturned. Again, we say it is unjustified and we do not think it is right, and we will continue to work at all levels to resolve it. On the noble Lord’s point about feedback from the southern Irish Government, there is nothing specific to mention. We continue our engagement with the southern Irish Government but there is nothing to give feedback on.
Air Travel Organisers' Licensing Bill — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: Transportation
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, and the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, for their contributions and for the constructive way that they have approached the Bill. I am extremely grateful to them and I recognise the purpose of Amendment 1 —to ensure that ATOL protection covers flight-only bookings made through airlines—but the simple fact is that the proposed amendment would not achieve that aim.
Air Travel Organisers' Licensing Bill — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: Transportation
William Spicer (Conservative, Centre-right): What the noble Baroness is saying is very worthy, but is it not a bit academic in the light of the Government’s statement yesterday that five London airports will be completely full up by the 2030s and that there is very little chance of rectifying that, despite some of us warning of this for the last four or five years?
European Union (Approvals) Bill — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: International Affairs
David Prior (Conservative, Centre-right): I will write to the noble Earl The noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn, asked what our view would be if, between now and our leaving the EU, perhaps during the transition period, the EU decided it wanted to expand to cover, for example, Serbia, Albania and other countries. I think that our response is that we would not want to stand in the EU’s way in such circumstances. I am sure that if it wanted to go ahead, it would be curmudgeonly for us to stand in its way.
Electricity Capacity (Amendment) Regulations 2017 — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: Energy
David Prior (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I think that I can thank both the noble Baroness and the noble Lord for supporting the regulations. They are pretty technical and complicated, but they correct perhaps inevitable imperfections in the original legislation passed in 2013 The noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, raised a number of other more profound issues which I hope he will agree do not pertain directly to the matter in hand, but perhaps I may try to answer some of the questions that he raised. I think that his fundamental question was whether the capacity market is value for money. Using his analogy of the insurance market, the total gross premium that we have paid over the period to 2020-21 is £3.35 billion. That is the premium that we have paid to obviate the possibility of the lights going off over that period. Whether or not that is value for money, the noble Lord will have to draw his own conclusions. I think it is quite hard to assess that, except for the fact that if the lights did go off it would be a catastrophe. In the context of the British economy, that may be a premium worth paying. That is a subjective view, and he will have his own thoughts on that The noble Lord raised a number of other issues, to which I do not have a reply—at least, I cannot reply in the way that I would like to be able to. He asked four other questions. He answered one of them himself, fortunately, so that leaves me three other questions to address. One was: has this brought forward new investment in generation? The answer is that it has. I mentioned some in my speech. Whether it has brought forward enough is probably the question that he was asking, and he related that to the nuclear investment. I would like to think about that, if I may, and write to him afterwards. Related to that, he asked: has this brought forward new alternative capacity? I guess by that he meant wind, solar and the like. The answer has to be: yes, it has.
Electricity Capacity (Amendment) Regulations 2017 — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: Energy
David Prior (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord is absolutely right: because it is an intermittent source, it is not eligible for the capacity market. I will have to write to him about whether or not the capacity market itself has brought forward alternative capacity beyond that which I mentioned earlier Finally, he asked about the statutory review date in the primary legislation. Again, I will have to look and see when that date is and write to him I should also respond to the noble Baroness, Lady Maddock, who asked about how we responded to the consultation. I apologise if we did not follow the rules correctly. We will do better next time On the basis of that response and the letters I intend to write to the noble Lord, I commend these regulations to the House.
Electricity Supplier Obligations (Amendment and Excluded Electricity) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: Government Operations
David Prior (Conservative, Centre-right): That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 28 March be approved Relevant documents: 32nd Report, Session 2016–17, from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, 27th Report, Session 2016–17, from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Charlotte Vere (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat in the form of a Statement the Answer to an Urgent Question asked in another place on HMP Long Lartin. The Statement is as follows "I can confirm that there was an incident at HMP Long Lartin last night and that it has now been resolved without injury to staff or prisoners. The incident is of course a cause for concern and we will need to properly investigate what drove the actions of a relatively small number of individuals. This will take a number of weeks to ensure that all intelligence is properly examined and that we then learn lessons and apply them to prevent any recurrence. We cannot speculate on the cause of this incident but we know that the prison was running a full regime and that this was not linked to any shortfalls in prison officer staffing levels. Its last inspection report found it to be to be ‘calm and controlled’ and although there were improvements to be made, the inspectors felt that the prison was ‘both competent and effective’ The incident itself remained contained on a single wing of the prison and involved 81 prisoners. I commend the actions of the staff, who acted swiftly in response to the incident, locked down the wing, ensured that the rest of the prison remained settled and prevented any public protection issues or escalation Our specialist staff were deployed to the prison from across the country. They swiftly resolved the incident in just over an hour, securing all prisoners without injury. Once again, they demonstrated their bravery and professionalism, for which we should all be very grateful We do not tolerate violence in our prisons and are clear that those responsible will be referred to the police and could spend longer behind bars".
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Charlotte Vere (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Baroness for her question. Staffing has been discussed in your Lordships’ House many times recently. We are investing £100 million in new staff. There will be an additional 2,500 prison officers by the end of next year. We have already recruited nearly 900 of those and are on target to fulfil what we promised. We are also making sure that we retain our most experienced staff; it is essential to have that experience on the wings. As for Long Lartin in particular, as she will know, it was and is running a full regime. That means it has sufficient staff to do so and does not have an urgent need for additional staff. However, I assure her that additional staff are being recruited; indeed, five additional prison officers will be there before December.
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Charlotte Vere (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course, none of the issues that the noble Lord just raised was a factor in this case, because they did not exist in Long Lartin: there is no overcrowding and the staffing level is sufficient. However, Long Lartin houses our category A prisoners. They are the most challenging prisoners on the estate. Violence is, thankfully, a rare occurrence, but it is the nature of the business of prisons, particularly category A prisons, that they can become very volatile. In a volatile situation, I think noble Lords would agree that we are fortunate to have the specialist trained staff, the Tornado teams, available to come in. In the case of Long Lartin, they put a stop to the incident within an hour. I think that should be commended.
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Charlotte Vere (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am not able to comment on morale in this prison as I have not had the opportunity to visit it, but I hope to soon. With regard to drugs, again, I cannot comment on this prison but drugs are an increasingly serious problem in our prisons, principally because of the different drugs now being smuggled in—the psychoactive substances. We are doing what we can to stop the supply of drugs, and the demand. To tackle the flow of drugs, we are doing a pilot on scanners. Two types are being used: the millimetre-wave body scanners for the top levels of individuals as they come in, but also X-ray scanners that can look inside to see whether there are any concealed drugs. We are also trying to stop the demand for drugs by working very closely with the NHS to make sure that we get the treatment services we need in our prisons.
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Charlotte Vere (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord, Lord Judd. Rehabilitation is a very complex and difficult subject. I refer noble Lords to the review by my noble friend Lord Farmer, which was debated in your Lordships’ House yesterday. The conclusion of that review was that rehabilitation and successful reduction in reoffending is a three-legged stool. I think all noble Lords agree that we are looking at improving education, and that we need to make sure that there are opportunities for employment. The strand identified by my noble Friend, Lord Farmer, however, is making sure that prisoners can maintain family ties outside prison to ensure that there is no reoffending and stop intergenerational crime.
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Olivia Bloomfield (Conservative, Centre-right): Many of us were here yesterday for the excellent debate on the review from my noble friend Lord Farmer, so we are not blind to the issues of overcrowding and understaffing. We welcome the Government’s announcement of 2,500 extra staff being put into the prison estate. Would my noble friend the Minister confirm that the prison transformation programme itself, including the new building and design of prisons such as HMP Berwyn in north Wales, will result in a prison estate far more suited to current needs?
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Charlotte Vere (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my noble friend for that. I have been down to the other place and I can confirm that, because I was listening to the Prisons Minister when he said that we are still on course to build 10,000 modern and well-designed prison places, which we need to replace the old Victorian places that are, frankly, not fit for purpose any more. It is a long-term project and necessarily so, and we have committed £1.3 billion to make that transformation over the course of the Parliament.
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
William Spicer (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I was the Member of Parliament representing Long Lartin for 25 years, and I am very surprised by the intervention of the noble Lord from the Liberal Democrat party. I should have thought that the problem was the reverse of what he said about people being confined to their cells. It is a very sophisticated prison with a very sophisticated outer defence security system, with a great deal of freedom—I think too much—in its central part. I think it is the opposite of what the noble Lord said; it has been terribly lax in the centre, and in some ways it was an accident waiting to happen.
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Charlotte Vere (Conservative, Centre-right): I respectfully disagree with my noble friend. In the Ministry of Justice we are making sure that our governors have more powers than they had before. Long Lartin is running a full regime, it will be under the control of the governing governor and, as my noble friend says, it is a very sophisticated prison. Going back to the estate transformation programme, the point is that we need to build more of these sophisticated prisons, because they enable us to look after our more violent and dangerous criminals while giving them some sort of—I will not say quality of life—time outside their cells.
HMP Long Lartin — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Law and Crime
Charlotte Vere (Conservative, Centre-right): I will have to write to the noble and learned Lord on that precise point. However, one strand I think I mentioned earlier is that we are focusing on retention, which is absolutely critical. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service is a professional service. We want it to provide its staff with very attractive and varied careers, so we are looking at financial incentives to retain staff, opportunities for promotion and, as importantly, key areas of development and training to allow members of staff to develop their skills and extend a long-term career in the Prison Service.
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: International Affairs
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, as the House will be aware from media reports, this is a very fast-moving and dynamic negotiation environment. Some people might observe that the negotiations are sometimes not moving as fast as we might like. Nevertheless, things are changing all the time. New information is coming to light; papers are shared and discussions take place with our European partners. It is a complex and varied negotiation and we will be as open and transparent as possible. We will share all the information we possibly can, subject only to preserving our negotiating position. I cannot believe that most Members of the House would think anything else wise to do.
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: Macroeconomics
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I might be repeating myself but this is a series of sectoral analyses, analysing individual sectors of the economy in great detail. They show what things are going on in their sectors, what stakeholders have said to us and other key factors facing us. As I have said, it is the policy of the Government that we will leave the single market and the customs union, because that is in the best interests of satisfying the result of the referendum.
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: International Affairs
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, of course we will not ignore evidence, but the Liberal Democrats seem to want to ignore the result of the referendum. The referendum result was clear and the Article 50 Bill was passed in both Houses. We are leaving the European Union, and of course we will use all available information to inform our negotiating position. This is the most important negotiation that any Government have carried out for many years. We are determined to get it right, and we are determined to get a good deal for the United Kingdom.
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: Foreign Trade
Archibald Gavin Hamilton (Conservative, Centre-right): Can my noble friend confirm that one reason why it is a bad idea to stay in the customs union is because we would not be able to negotiate free trade deals with other countries all round the world?
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: International Affairs
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, many Members of this House are independent and we fully value their judgment. They will be able to look at the documents. Many Members are on the Brexit Select Committee and I am sure they will let us know their point of view in due course.
Maternal Safety Strategy — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: Law and Crime
James O’Shaughnessy (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord for his support for today’s announcements. Obviously, independent investigations are just that. They will be operated by HSIB, which will be able to delve into the causes of the tragedy, however it might have happened, and provide an opinion on that. On the interaction with the coroner’s report, obviously we have focused mainly today on these new independent investigations and we are looking at extending coronial law to take in stillbirths that were previously not included. That is one of the issues that needs to be worked out in the coming months through interaction with the Ministry of Justice.
Space Industry Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: Transportation
Elizabeth Sugg (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, we debated this issue extensively in Committee and on Report, and I regret that I have been unable to convince noble Lords of the necessity of this provision as drafted The wording of the clause—which is why we are keen to include it rather than the amendment put forward by the noble Lord, Lord McNally—is consistent with that contained in Section 60(2) of the Civil Aviation Act 1982, the latter being a power to do anything, "generally for regulating air navigation" A similar power arises under Section 11(1) of the Outer Space Act 1986 to enable the making of regulations generally for carrying that Act into effect. That is why we put forward the wording that we did in the Bill As noble Lords are well aware, there are a number of other regulation-making powers in the Bill, notably around security and safety. However, we need to ensure that we can regulate those wider matters relating to spaceflight and associated activities carried out in the UK that are not covered by the other powers. For example, this may include implementation of our international obligations relating to spaceflight arising from bilateral or multilateral treaties. We know from our experience in other sectors, such as aviation, that despite our best efforts there needs to be the flexibility to deal with any unexpected circumstances. The Government therefore remain convinced that this provision, as currently drafted, is needed to ensure that all aspects of the Bill can be fully implemented effectively.