argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
City Deals: Scotland — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Government Operations
Martyn Day (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): This city region deal was submitted in September, with further information being submitted to both the UK and Scottish Governments on 18 December. Local government received a draft set of terms of reference from the UK Government, which was responded to in early January, but despite follow-up, it is still to hear anything further back. Can the Minister confirm whether a deal will be in place prior to the purdah period for the Scottish Parliament elections?
City Deals: Scotland — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Government Operations
Deidre Leanne Brock (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Government committed £500 million to the Greater Cambridge city deal—or 50%. Following the news that only 25% of Aberdeen and Shire’s deal was funded by Whitehall, may I ask what percentage of the Edinburgh and regions deal the Minister will be committing?
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: International Affairs
Patrick John Grady (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the Secretary of State for her statement and for giving us early sight of it. The Scottish National party, too, welcomes the pledges and commitments made at the conference. We recognise the achievement of securing the biggest ever pledges made in one day and particularly the commitments on child education and jobs. However, I echo the concerns about the difference between making and fulfilling a pledge, and it would be helpful to hear what discussion there was at the conference about processes for monitoring and implementing the pledges, bearing in mind the gap between last year’s pledges and the actual assessed need There is a feeling in some quarters that civil society—especially local and national Syrian civil society organisations—was under-represented. However, it is those organisations that are often the front-line responders to the crisis and that have the access inside Syria that international counterparts do not. It would be useful to hear what role the Secretary of State sees civil society on the ground having in decision making and implementation as aid is disbursed While recognising the role the Government have played, I echo the concerns about the response to the refugee crisis in Europe. Analysis from Oxfam suggests that, rather than 20,000 refugees over four years, the UK’s fair share would be 24,000 this year alone. How will the commitments the UK made at the conference support those displaced by the conflict, especially those already in Europe Finally, the only viable long-term solution, as we have heard, must be a negotiated peace. What discussions is the Secretary of State continuing to have with her Cabinet colleagues about the impact of UK airstrikes, and does she believe that the UK’s involvement has helped or hindered its role as a peacemaker; and how can the Government be confident that their bombing is not adding to human misery, and that, while seeking to improve the humanitarian response on the one hand, they are not adding to the crisis on the other?
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Government Operations
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the Secretary of State for giving me slightly advance notice of his statement. It comes against a background of cuts to local government in England; I understand that the figures are 27% over the past years and 8% for the years ahead. I am glad that he has at least given local councils a bit of time to think about this, and I hope that they will get back to him with their views on the settlement. I note what has been said about the pressures on rural service delivery, but the breakdown of the core spending power appears to show that areas that are already very wealthy are going to get more. He also mentioned that the percentage of council expenditure financed by central Government grant was going down from 80% to 5%, but I wonder how much of that is just cuts rather than changes to the expenditure There does not seem to be enough time for councils to respond to the proposals. The Secretary of State has talked about giving them two years to respond, but that does not acknowledge the difficulties that some councils will have in raising funds from business rates and council tax. Some will be starting from a relatively low base in that regard, and I am not convinced that two years will be enough transition time for them. Also, the statement does not seem to mention any recognition of needs. It talks about demographic pressures, but age is not the only such pressure that communities face. There needs to be greater acknowledgement of that fact in these plans. Other demographic pressures exist, and areas of multiple deprivation will require additional support and transitional relief. I would like to see greater recognition of that in the proposals.
Social Security — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Labor
Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): May I start by welcoming the hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) to the Front Bench? I was surprised that the Minister chose to move the regulations formally and that there is so little interest in debating them, not because there are deep-seated, fundamental disagreements about them, but because, given the significant changes that are about to take effect with the introduction and implementation of a brand new pension system in just a few weeks’ time, I would have thought there would be an appetite in the House to debate the issues and, indeed, to raise awareness among the public, who are still very much in the dark about the changes and their significance to their lives I will confine my remarks to a few of the key issues, some of which have already been touched on. I will start by addressing the State Pension (Amending) Regulations 2016. Although the new state pension will be set at £155.65 a week, very few people will actually get that amount. Indeed, even though the single-tier pension will be higher than the basic state pension, the net amount that some people will receive may be less than they would have got under the old system, because of the loss of means-tested benefits. Only 22% of women and 50% of men who reach state pension age in 2016-17 will get the new state pension in full. According to the National Pensioners Convention, almost six out of 10 new women pensioners and nearly half of new male pensioners—around 1 million people—will get less than the full amount.
EU Withdrawal: Effects on Human Rights — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: International Affairs
Lisa Cameron (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The EU charter reflects wider international standards and obligations that the UK has a history of championing. By moving away from it, we risk undermining human rights and respect for international law. What advice does the Attorney General have about the weakening of legal human rights safeguards that could follow?
State Pension Age — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Labor
Questions: This is about women and equalities. We know that a woman born in early 1953 will already have retired; a woman born in early 1954 will not retire until the second half of 2019—two and a half years later. That cannot be right. In a spirit of fairness, will the Minister look at this again and give some solace to the women who have to wait an unbelievably long time to collect what is rightly and fairly theirs?
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Following the resignation of the previous Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Pensions Minister Baroness Altmann stated that he had "often been obstructive to my efforts to resolve important pensions policy issues such as on women’s pensions." Now that the main impediment to change has been removed from Government, when can we expect an update on progress for the women of WASPI—Women Against State Pension Inequality—who have been so unfairly treated for so long?
Welfare Reform and Disabled People — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the effect on equality for disabled people of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.
Lisa Cameron (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Research by Unison indicates that no group will be more adversely affected by welfare reform than people with disabilities. We are at risk of regressing on issues of equality. When will the Government actively heed the voice of people with disabilities and reverse these damaging policies?
Iraq Inquiry Report — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: International Affairs
Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Has my hon. Friend considered the reputational damage done to the United Kingdom by the series of earlier delays? If it is the EU referendum that is causing the current delay, does he agree that the reputational damage to the UK is in danger of becoming ridiculous?
Iraq Inquiry Report — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: International Affairs
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am grateful for that intervention. As was said earlier, the UK risks becoming an international laughing-stock because of this infinite, eternal delay with this report. My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and the delay is annoying many people. It is certainly not to the satisfaction of the families, many of whom would concur with what he said about the EU referendum. Roger Bacon, whose son Matthew Bacon was killed in Basra in 2005, said: "To allow the referendum to get in the way of it seems to me to be completely wrong and smacks of political manoeuvrings that should not be taking place really." Interestingly, the former member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and former Labour Member representing Thurrock, Andrew Mackinlay, called for the publication of Chilcot not to get lost in the case of the European referendum. He said: "It would suit the security and intelligence services and some people in high places for it to be ‘lost’ in the flurry…of final days of the referendum campaign", so let us have it soon at the beginning of May. That is when this report should be out, on the Government’s word. We are looking for the Government to keep their promise and for John Chilcot to keep his. The families certainly deserve that.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Government Operations
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The right hon. Gentleman’s point about transparency and openness is very important. The Liberal Democrats used to be in the position that the Scottish National party is in now, and I have asked "Question Time" and "Any Questions" for an impression of what the Liberal Democrat representation on those programmes was like compared with the representation of the SNP at the moment. An answer was not forthcoming.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Technology
John MacKenzie Nicolson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Let me say what a pleasure it is to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Drew Hendry) and, indeed, to listen to this whole debate I congratulate the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy) on instigating the debate. He told us he was tired of BBC strategies, and that it was time for ambitious targets. I agree, although I slightly diverge from him when he says that only patricians now appear on Andrew Neil’s programme. I have been on the programme four times in the past 12 months and I am as common as muck, so perhaps there is hope for the rest of us.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Government Operations
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): This applies in politics as well. My right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Alex Salmond) has said, in a pithy and telling line: "UKIP is a party which gets beamed into Scotland courtesy of the BBC" That is all due to a lack of local editorial control in Scotland.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Technology
John MacKenzie Nicolson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I entirely take my hon. Friend’s point The BBC network news agenda is relentlessly, and often unthinkingly, Anglocentric. The solution, as the BBC now recognises, is a Scottish "News at Six" with national, UK and international stories on the running order, based on news values—a grown-up news programme, rather than the couthie opt-out currently on offer. That is not an especially radical proposal. It already happens on Radio Scotland and the Gaelic medium TV channel BBC Alba We on the SNP Benches are unapologetic champions of public service broadcasting. Although we have been trenchant critics of the BBC in recent years, we see it perhaps as a lover who has strayed and whom we want to see return true and honest. Ours is a very different position from many on the Tory Benches, whose hostility towards the BBC speaks more of post-divorce visceral hatred. But the BBC has to change. It has to be more ambitious in the way it reflects its audience. It has to catch up with the needs of post-referendum Scotland. Throughout the UK it has to be less pale and male. It has to join the 21st century in its attitude towards older women and gay people on screen. It has to demonstrate that its fine words of aspiration are translated into action.
Government’s Welfare Programme — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the effects of the Government’s welfare programme on social and economic inequalities in Scotland.
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Last week’s Budget saw one of the most iniquitous measures proposed by this Government, which was to cut the personal independence payment for 40,000 disabled people in Scotland. When did the Secretary of State for Scotland, and Ministers, first realise that that was the wrong thing to do? Was it around the Cabinet table, during the Budget statement or on Sunday when the Prime Minister was forced to backtrack?
Economic Trends — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Questions: Local government clearly has a role to play in economic development. Does the Secretary of State agree that it is important that the Scottish Parliament also devolves power to local government? Might it look to England for a lead—on elected mayors, for example?
Lisa Cameron (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): People in my constituency are extremely concerned about the perceived impact on the local economy and local jobs of the proposed closure of HMRC sites. What impact assessment is being made of these closures on the local economy and jobs?
EU Membership — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: International Affairs
Stephen Patrick Gethins (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): First, may I associate myself with the remarks about Brussels, having spent many happy years in that wonderful city? Secondly, the Secretary of State will be aware of the benefits that EU membership has brought us, such as paternal rights and holiday entitlement. Does he agree that we should focus on those benefits, not a rerun of "Project Fear"?
CCS Funding (Peterhead) — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Energy
Questions: What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and Ministers of the Scottish Government on withdrawal of funding for the carbon capture and storage scheme at Peterhead.
Margaret Ferrier (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): At the time of the announcement of £1 billion of funding for the CCS scheme at Peterhead, the Energy Secretary was forced to deny that it was a bribe prior to the independence referendum. Now that the withdrawal of this supposedly ring-fenced capital investment exposes it as just that, will the Secretary of State take this opportunity to apologise today to the people of Scotland?
Scotland Bill (Fiscal Powers) — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Gavin Andrew Stuart Newlands (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Does the Minister agree with me about the Chancellor’s reckless, last-minute intervention to tweak the fiscal framework after it had been agreed by the Treasury and the Scottish Government? Is the Minister aware that the Chancellor’s brinkmanship intentions endangered the framework at the very last moment?
Budget Measures: Scotland — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Deidre Leanne Brock (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I congratulate the Minister on finding the Chancellor to have those discussions—earlier this week, we thought he had gone walkabout! The Budget had £1 billion-worth of cuts to the Scottish budget and £650 million-worth of cuts to the English NHS. Given the volte-face on social security cuts, does he think he could persuade the Chancellor to reverse Scotland’s cuts and put in a good word for the English NHS as well?
High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Transportation
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I will be brief. The SNP welcomes this investment. Although, as has been said, the initial roll-out of the route is in England only, we see the benefits that this can bring to Scotland, and we welcome the aspiration for a sub-three-hour journey time to Glasgow and Edinburgh. I welcome the fact that the Minister says trains will run to Scotland on day one On the back of the comments by the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards) about Barnett, I would ask the Secretary of State to consider the wider issue of Barnett consequentials and the estimates process. There needs to be more clarity on that, but I welcome the investment in HS2 Question put and agreed to. New clause 19 accordingly read a Second time, and added to the Bill. New Clause 20 Public Sector Operators ‘(1) Section 25 of the Railways Act 1993 (c. 43) (public-sector operators not to be franchisees) does not apply in relation to the franchisee in respect of a franchise agreement— (a) which relates wholly or mainly to the provision of one or more Phase One of High Speed 2 passenger services, or (b) which relates wholly or mainly to the provision of one or more other services for the carriage of passengers by railway where— (i) the services run wholly or partly on the route of Phase One of High Speed 2, and (ii) the services are likely to be subject to substantial disruption because of the construction of Phase One of High Speed 2 (2) The following may in particular be taken into account in determining whether, for the purposes of subsection (1)(b), services are likely to be subject to substantial disruption— (a) the frequency with which the services are likely to be disrupted, (b) the duration of the period in which the services are likely to be disrupted (and, in particular, its duration relative to the length of the franchise term), (c) the severity of any likely disruption. (3) In this section— "franchisee", "franchise agreement" and "franchise term" have the meanings given by section 23 of the Railways Act 1993 (designated passenger services to be provided under franchise agreements)."—(Andy McDonald.) Brought up, and read the First time. Question put, That the clause be read a Second time.
High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Transportation
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Once again, I confirm that we welcome the HS2 proposals before Parliament. We certainly welcome the wider context of the roll-out of the high-speed network, as well as the Government’s commitment, alongside that of the Scottish Government, to the aspiration for a three-hour journey time between Glasgow or Edinburgh and London. That will mean a quicker point-to-point journey time compared with using Gatwick or Heathrow airports. It will bring obvious environmental benefits and, clearly, much greater choice for air travellers I welcome the release earlier this week of the broad options report, which was commissioned by both Governments. It is important to develop these options as soon as possible to achieve shorter journey times to Scotland. In Scotland, the Scottish Government have confirmed their commitment to rail investment with the construction of the Borders rail line, which is the longest rail line to be constructed in the UK since Victorian times. As we have already heard, the vast bulk of the existing rail network was built in Victorian times. It stood the test of time fantastically, but now is the time to reinvest in and to future-proof the rail network. That will be done through these options I welcome the proposals, and I look forward to the roll-out of the high-speed network and to the improvements on lines to the north to improve journey times to Scotland.
Section 5 of the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993 — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
George Kerevan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): On the accuracy of the information being transmitted to the Commission, there is another matter, which has not been brought up. The figures for February’s tax receipts have led to a significant increase in February borrowing. It is therefore impossible in the final month of the financial year for the Government to hit their declared target for borrowing. It will be greater than the target—so, again, the information is inaccurate.
Section 5 of the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993 — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Foreign Trade
George Kerevan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): In case the Minister does not answer, let me say that a sizeable proportion of the imports that Britain takes from the EU are in fact intermediate products, such as automotive parts, that go into goods that we then re-export. We are talking about supply chain interconnection, not free-standing goods.
Section 5 of the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993 — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
George Kerevan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): May I add that the rule that sets the 60% target also states that member states in breach must have a rectification programme and bring their debt level, whatever it is, down by five percentage points a year, which this Government have significantly failed to do and significantly will fail to do for a long, long time?
Construction Companies (Fatal Accidents) — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Government Operations
Steven Alexander Paterson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): There are numbers that make this even clearer. The hon. Gentleman referred to the 55.7% drop. Some years ago, there were 1,248 inspections, but that has dropped to 552. It just shows how big a swing there has been.
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the Secretary of State for her comments. Those of us on the Scottish National party Benches agree with what she said about the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) and the First Minister for Northern Ireland If we are only talking about additional measures to tackle poverty, I agree that they would be useful. However, it is clear that the Welfare Reform and Work Bill abandons the poverty reduction targets in the Child Poverty Act 2010. Given that 64% of children living in poverty are in working families, does the Minister agree with the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, the End Child Poverty Coalition, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Child Poverty Action Group and the Resolution Foundation that income assessment must be retained? Otherwise, the new measures will remove children from poverty in statistics only and not in reality. That is a cynical manoeuvre.