argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): I echo my hon. Friend’s welcome to the new shadow Ministers and I look forward to debates on these important issues The gender pay gap has fallen to its lowest ever level, but any gap at all is unacceptable, which is why the Prime Minister has pledged to eliminate the gap in a generation. Transparency is an important step in tackling the matter, which is why, within 100 days of the election, the Government have taken steps to fulfil their manifesto commitment by launching a consultation on legislation that will require companies to publish details of their gender pay gap. We must also tackle the causes themselves, by encouraging girls to consider a wide range of careers, including those in the science, technology, engineering and maths fields, and by transforming our workplaces.
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman. That is why transparency is so important and why the regulations that we propose will cover the private sector. He is right in what he says. Women form 47% of the workforce, but make up only 34% of managers, directors and senior officials. This must be the time to make the change.
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Maria Frances Lewis Miller (Conservative, Centre-right): I applaud the Minister and the Government for their commitment to eliminate the gender pay gap. This generation of women over 50 working full time earn just two thirds of what men of the same age earn. What specific policies do this Government have to address that particular enduring pay gap?
Caste Discrimination — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government completely oppose caste discrimination and the judgments in the Tirkey v. Chandhok case suggest that legal protection against such discrimination already exists under the Equality Act 2010. We are considering the legislative position in the light of those judgments.
Caste Discrimination — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. She will be aware that the case was brought under the Equality Act 2010, not the ill-thought-out and unnecessary amendment made in the other place to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act. This unnecessary and divisive legislation has caused consternation in the Hindu community. Will she undertake not only not to trigger that legislation but to repeal it so that the Hindu community will know where it stands legally?
Caste Discrimination — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for that question and I know that he feels passionately about this matter. There are, of course, strong opinions on both sides of the debate. It is important, given the case that I have just mentioned, to remember that the law as it stands has changed because of that judgment. A litigant could now seek to bring a case of caste discrimination in an employment tribunal using the ethnic origin provisions in the Equality Act, which is why we should take time to look at the judgment before making further decisions.
New Businesses (Government Support) — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): I am delighted that the UK is considered the best place in Europe for women to start a business, but we are not resting on our laurels. That is why we have launched the women in broadband fund and are running meet a mentor roadshows across the country, giving women the support, advice and skills they need.
New Businesses (Government Support) — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): Well, Mr Speaker, the Secretary of State is nodding furiously at me so I will take that as a yes. We have been celebrating and showcasing women in business as a great way of inspiring the next generation and, of course, we have set up the new business and enterprise company as a great way of showing girls the fantastic careers available to them in both business and enterprise.
New Businesses (Government Support) — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alan Mak (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Minister for her original answer. Women entrepreneurs such as Jodie Sheppard from my Havant constituency, who has launched a business helping to improve children’s fitness, are excellent local role models. Does the Minister agree that organisations such as the Women’s Business Council offer excellent support for our women business leaders, and will the Government continue to work hard to help women who want to start their own business?
New Businesses (Government Support) — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): Jodie Sheppard, who founded Active8 Minds in Havant, is an excellent example of a capable woman running her own business and will, I am sure, be delighted with the fantastic plug her MP has given her business today. I certainly agree that the Women’s Business Council has a vital role in supporting women to reach their potential. We know that if women started their own businesses at the same rate as men do, we would have an extra 1 million women involved and an extra 1 million businesses in the UK.
New Businesses (Government Support) — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): The fund has been extended for a second year, with an additional £1.1 million to support more women to take their businesses online, enabling them to develop the skills they need to become competitive in a growing digital economy. One example of which my hon. Friend might be aware is the Faster Women project, which is supporting women in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to develop digital skills. Today, a workshop is taking place in his very own Cheltenham to help women take the first steps to putting their businesses online.
Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): Pregnancy and maternity discrimination is unlawful and completely unacceptable. The Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commission are working together on the largest independent research project of its kind in Great Britain to better understand the problem. The detail of the final report is due to be published later this year and will inform the Government’s response.
Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): I look forward to hearing more about the work that Joeli Brearley has been doing. As I mentioned earlier, we expect the report this year to tell us the types of issues that women face, the perceived discrimination where it is occurring, who is most at risk and which employers in terms of size and sectors are most likely to get complaints. I will then be open to working with all organisations to tackle that discrimination. If the hon. Lady would like to write to me with further details about her constituency organisation, I would be delighted to see them.
Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said, I welcome the hon. Lady to her position on the shadow Front Bench, but I disagree with her, which will not surprise her. We are not giving any form of encouragement to employers to discriminate. I mentioned the post-implementation review of the introduction of fees, and I should point out that in order to protect the most vulnerable in society, there is already a system of fee remissions under which fees can be waived in part or in full for those who qualify. It is right to try to divert people away from potentially acrimonious proceedings through a conciliation scheme operated by ACAS, but we should also see where the review leads and what it tells us about fees and their impact.
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the responses received to the Government Equalities Office’s recent consultation on closing the gender pay gap.
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): As I have said, the Government are absolutely committed to eliminating the gender pay gap for good. Our consultation closed on 6 September. We received nearly 700 responses, including from 200 employers and business organisations, including the CBI. The responses from employers have been extremely positive, recognising that we all have a stake in the issue. We will consider the responses and bring forward new regulations shortly.
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the responses received to the Government Equalities Office’s recent consultation on closing the gender pay gap.
Johanna Peta Churchill (Conservative, Centre-right): As my right hon. Friend knows, this subject is of great importance to me, but it leads to a broader question: what are the Government doing to ensure that the pipeline to senior management and director level for women is encouraged, because we still have a 32% earnings differential between women and men in large organisations, which is considerably larger than the 19% alluded to earlier?
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the responses received to the Government Equalities Office’s recent consultation on closing the gender pay gap.
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend might be interested to know that the gender pay gap in her constituency is 18.2%, which is just below the national average. I agree that this is an important issue. We have more women on FTSE 100 boards than ever before. In fact, we now have no all-male boards in the FTSE 100. Women now make up more than 25% of those boards. However, there is much more to do. She is absolutely right to talk about the executive pipeline. We have to get more women into management and executive positions, and we are currently looking at that issue.
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the responses received to the Government Equalities Office’s recent consultation on closing the gender pay gap.
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the hon. Lady to her position on the Front Bench. I entirely agree that transparency is important, but the next thing will be what employers, organisations and others do with that information, and how it drives change so that the gender pay gap is eliminated. Also, as we heard from one of her colleagues earlier, it is about how we ensure that women are represented in greater numbers throughout all our workforces.
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the responses received to the Government Equalities Office’s recent consultation on closing the gender pay gap.
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): I cannot remember another occasion when a Prime Minister has turned up to something like a CBI conference and chosen the issue of the gender pay gap to highlight. I think that sends the greatest signal. With regard to our MEPs, the view that was taken was that this is a matter for member states, and we could not have a stronger signal from the top of this Government downward that, in this member state, this Government and this Prime Minister intend to tackle the gender pay gap and eliminate it.
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the responses received to the Government Equalities Office’s recent consultation on closing the gender pay gap.
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Minister organise a meeting in her office to which she can invite the chief executives of the largest employers with the largest gender pay gap and the chief executives of the largest employers with the smallest gender pay gap so that one group can learn from the other?
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Other
Questions: What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the responses received to the Government Equalities Office’s recent consultation on closing the gender pay gap.
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for that very practical suggestion. I am sure that my officials have taken a careful note of it, so we will go away and see how and when we can make it happen.
Diversity Reporting — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course, companies work better when their workforce reflect Britain’s diversity. It is more important than ever that we make the most of everyone’s skills and talents to maximise our economic growth. That is why we are requiring larger companies, including those in the technology sector, to publish their gender pay gap so that they have the incentive and the information they need to improve fairness for women.
Diversity Reporting — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is an incredible champion for the whole of the STEM world, but particularly for women in engineering. Diversity is wider than just gender, of course; it extends to race and social background. Evidence shows that educational attainment is the single biggest predictor of the future life chances of children. We are requiring businesses to publish their gender information. Driving change through transparency works, as we know from the results of the work that Lord Davies has done. There are now no all-male boards in the FTSE 100. We want to continue this work, particularly in Ada Lovelace week. In an international week celebrating women in STEM industries, there is no better time to be publishing this information, holding businesses to account, and encouraging women to do the very best they can in the fields of engineering.
Setting Up Businesses — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are committed to supporting women to start and grow their own business. Last year 5.7% of women in the UK were involved in starting or running a new business, and we would of course like that number to grow. The start-up loan scheme provides mentoring and financial support to entrepreneurs. It has now made over 28,000 loans worth over £150 million, with 38% of those going to women-led businesses.
Harassment Online — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are absolutely clear that abusive and threatening behaviour online, whoever the target, is unacceptable. What is illegal offline is also illegal online. My Department has funded the development of a new website—Stop Online Abuse—which launched on 17 June. It provides advice on action that individuals, particularly LGBT people, can take against offensive, damaging or threatening content online and in other media.
Harassment Online — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): No young person should ever feel that they are not able to be honest about themselves and their sexuality for fear of bullying. Tackling all forms of bullying is a priority. We have awarded £2 million to charities and community sector organisations, to help schools tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. I have also had the privilege of visiting some schools that are tackling the issue head on, such as Eastbourne academy and Caludon Castle school in Coventry, which are both Stonewall champion schools.
Harassment Online — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Civil Rights
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): I am open to working with all organisations in order to stamp out this hate crime. I am lucky enough to hold two Government jobs and am able to bring them together on this particular issue and provide £2 million of funding to pilot projects across the country to work with schools in order to stamp out unacceptable homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. The secret seems to be to take a whole-school approach, with everybody from the head to the teachers and pupils knowing exactly that that sort of behaviour is unacceptable.
Women’s Refuges — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Marcus Charles Jones (Conservative, Centre-right): We are committed to making sure that no victim of domestic abuse is turned away from the support they need. In July the Chancellor announced an additional £3.2 million to increase specialist accommodation support for victims, including refuges, and to provide more help for victims to access that support.
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I do not agree with the hon. Lady because this Government’s approach is working. The number of children on relative low incomes has fallen by 300,000 since 2010, and the number of children who grow up in workless households is also at a record low. If she wants to focus on outcomes, I encourage her to focus—as we do, particularly in education—on the outcomes of all children. The gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged has narrowed since 2010.
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Before I take the urgent question, may I underline to the House that its narrow terms should be adhered to? This must not simply be a re-run of exchanges that took place the other day. That is the first point The second point that it might be helpful for the House to know is that I am keen to move on to business questions at approximately—but very close to—10.50 am, so this will be a pithy exchange.
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): That was a large number of questions and time precludes me from answering them all. I undertake to ensure that any questions that are not answered in what I say receive a written response. It is not true that there is no new money. There is an £80-million package, £30 million of which is an estimated figure. We discussed all that during the urgent question on Tuesday. Indeed, the hon. Member for Redcar said that the estimate was between £20 million and £30 million. In any event, there is at least £50 million of new money. I have answered the question on FE colleges. That £50 million of new money is there to support the workers and the supply chain, so that there is reskilling, retraining and—[Interruption.] I am sorry, but I cannot hear what the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) is saying. If he wants to ask a question, he is more than capable of doing so, and I will answer it The reason why we are in this situation in Redcar is that, unfortunately, month on month, year after year, SSI lost money. It never made money at the Redcar steelworks. The coke ovens, as I said on Tuesday, were losing £2 million month on month. That is the harsh reality. The hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland knows the situation. Of course he feels huge passion about it because he has put a long-seated investment of his own life and skills into the plant. He knows the devastating effect that its closure will have on the local community, but the Government have done all they can and now we have to look to the future.
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alan Mak (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Minister confirm that although strict EU state aid rules have prevented the Government from directly intervening in the steel industry, the £80 million package that they have announced represents strong and practical intervention in a difficult situation?
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, well I’m entitled to under the circumstances. I answered this question on Tuesday, but I am happy to answer it again. In truth, the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency had been engaged with my officials for some considerable time leading up to 2 October because we feared that that day would come. The hon. Gentleman should know—this is my experience having gone to Redcar—that some of the people with the most responsible realistic assessments of the situation were the leaders of the unions, and particularly the Community trade union leadership. Because they were working there, they knew the awful, harsh financial reality of a plant that was losing £0.5 billion over five years.
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Other
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is right, but I am afraid he is, in this instance, absolutely wrong. The situation is that, yes, there have been expressions—[Interruption.] No, let me answer. He is right that there have been expressions of interest very late in the day, after the official receiver said on Monday that no deals had been forthcoming that were workable. The official receiver then went back to those consortia and said, in effect, "Put your money where your mouth is," and they refused—[Interruption.]
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Mr McDonald, I absolutely understand and empathise with your incredibly strong feeling on this subject—and I mean that—but we cannot have a situation in which people yell at a Minister who is giving an answer. You might not like the answer, but, forgive me, the answer must be heard. The Minister is capable of looking after herself, but the answer must be heard. Please. I will always give people a chance, but the Minister must be heard.
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman forgets that the last time Redcar was mothballed, it was mothballed by Tata, and it did so because those were the state aid rules. If there was a viable offer and anyone looked, as they have, at the situation at Redcar, they would say, "Those ovens are losing £2 million month on month". The steel was losing half a billion pounds. In reality—and the official receiver has said the same—who will want to invest in something that was losing money hand over fist?
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Huw William Merriman (Conservative, Centre-right): I wish to convey my sympathies to the community in Redcar following this devastating news, but I would mention that the steel price has almost halved in the last year, China now produces 50% of steel, whereas in 2000 that figure was 15%, and the number of jobs has reduced under successive Governments. Is not the key thing now, on a cross-party basis, to deliver this retraining and bring more jobs to the north-east?
Redcar Steelworks — House of Commons, 2015-10-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): I very much agree with my hon. Friend. The harsh reality is that all the steel industries in this country are losing huge amounts of money. Some companies are regularly losing £700 million per year. That is the reality, but we are determined not to lose the steel industry in this country, so we now have to find the solutions to save it.