argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Labor
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): We as a Government have always said that we would keep that section under review, but I believe that it will be much better, and we shall achieve much more systemic change, with companies thinking very hard about the pay that they offer their employees and about the diversity in their work force, if we work with them on the voluntary approach—the Think, Act, Report approach—rather than burdening them with more regulations.
Under-occupancy Penalty: Disabled People — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Social Welfare
Mark James Harper (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend raised a similar question at the previous Question Time and I put in the Library information on the amount of money the Government have made available to each local authority in the country compared with what they are spending. We do not have a list broken down by local authority of every single person affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy and their level of disability, so I cannot give my hon. Friend the exact information he requires, but I think I have done the best that I can.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Social Welfare
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative, Centre-right): On the point about the support mechanism, does my right hon. Friend agree that it is unacceptable that the very organisations that were set up to support individuals, such as the MacFarlane Trust, do not treat beneficiaries equitably? My constituent who went to the trust and questioned the response times was branded a troublemaker and her applications for grants were either delayed or, in some cases, frustrated completely. That is the reality on the ground. Will he say something about some of those organisations?
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Social Welfare
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): I am deeply grateful to my hon. Friend, but the gratitude should actually be given to the sufferers and their beneficiaries who have made an attempt to approach MPs, sometimes for the first time. This year, we were able to bring it home to people that despite all the privacy and other reservations they might have had—some have not been able to tell family or close friends what they have been suffering—there is a need to approach MPs such as my hon. Friend to make them aware of the issue. That has been a new element of the campaign and is another reason for this debate.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Macroeconomics
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): Again, I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks. I do not think there is time, because I think it is possible that Penrose will have such far-reaching implications that no Government could make sensible decisions on future financial considerations until it had reported. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister might be able to say a little more today about what might be done outside the financial considerations. I think that a conclusive settlement cannot now be reached. Penrose was originally supposed to report in March last year, which would have given time. That was the timetable we were all hoping to work to, but needs must and we are where we are.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Social Welfare
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend. The report by my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley and the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North, who I will call my hon. Friend for these purposes, covered those issues in some detail. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North will speak about some of the practical issues to do with financial provision Following the public meetings, we decided to take the opportunity to use new technology. Both the all-party group and my group of colleagues went out with surveys to as many people as we could find. I am deeply grateful for support given by YouGov and the personal support given by my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon, whose commitment and resource allowed us to do this job. It is a measure of the impact of this problem that about 1,000 people responded to our surveys, which is statistically way above the normal response to such surveys. We are profoundly grateful to those who responded so honestly and no doubt with much pain as they went over difficult and hurtful circumstances in an effort to inform us and the Government of what they had experienced. Key findings in our survey included the ideas that lump sums rather than ongoing payments might suit some sufferers better, that ongoing support for widowed partners and spouses was vital and that some form of inquiry was still relevant. All our findings have been reported to Government We then asked more people to contact their Members of Parliament, as my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Zac Goldsmith) has just mentioned. The number of colleagues now involved is well into three figures, and the number who have signed our motion can be seen on the Order Paper. I have colleagues who wanted to be here but could not—the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Mr Donohoe) and my hon. Friends the Members for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin), for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) and for Erewash (Jessica Lee). I could go on about their stories for some time I do not expect the Minister to deal with the possibility of further financial relief today. I accept that the delay to Penrose means it is possible that it could report in such a way as to require some form of response from the Government that might have financial implications which it would be unwise to commit to now and have to revise again quite soon. However, I put it on record that I do not expect that closure can be effected without some further financial provision. There will always be inevitable arguments about money. The truth for a Government is always that at any one moment there is money and no money. When the banks needed to be bailed out, money was found. When we needed to compensate those who had lost their futures through Equitable Life, even if all the money could not be found, over £1 billion was found. If, God forbid, the country were to have a catastrophe tomorrow, we would find money. A catastrophe? Perhaps 1,800 dead is a catastrophe.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Government Operations
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend puts it very well. He is yet another example of an MP who does not have a constituency interest but has recognised the responsibility that we all share, and the state shares, for what has happened Only this morning we saw in one of the newspapers that local authorities had spent £5 billion on consultants. As I say, at any one time a Government will have no money or can find money.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Government Operations
Richard Michael Bacon (Conservative, Centre-right): I have listened to many of these stories with growing anger. Constituents of mine have also been affected. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that Governments of both parties have failed our constituents for many years, and that the House will have no patience with any Government of any party who do not produce a final resolution of these matters?
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Social Welfare
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I want to deal with that point, and I am glad that the hon. Lady has made that intervention. I can quite understand where the Government are coming from, but both my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot and I—and others who have spoken—cannot ever be accused of wanting to waste public money. We are very aware of the pressures on Government. Again I am grateful to my constituent for some of the figures that have been given to me. He says—and I hope the Minister will reply to this point—that: "The figures quoted in the Written Ministerial Statement are completely incorrect. The Government have refuted suggestions that they based their calculations on a typographical error in the Archer Report and claim that the costings were based on an average of £750,000 per person. The CEO of the Irish Haemophilia Society has confirmed that the average figures paid out in Ireland was ‘around €350,000’ per person." So the total figure we are talking about here is £1.5 billion. That is very similar to the compensation paid to the victims of Equitable Life. I have campaigned on Equitable Life, as we all have, and it is pretty awful for someone to lose their life savings and there was appalling suffering, but at the end of the day they have lost their savings; they have not lost their life. So if we are prepared to pay this sort of compensation to the victims of Equitable Life, why do we baulk at similar figures for those whose whole lives have been ruined, and ultimately many of them lost My hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Caroline Dinenage) put it very well: "I recently met a delegation of people who had suffered through the Equitable Life disaster. Although I have every sympathy with their plight, today’s debate puts that matter into perspective because we are talking not about the loss of life savings, but about the loss of life itself, loss of livelihood and of the chance to grow old, and losing the chance to become a parent and see one’s children grow up."—[Official Report, 14 October 2010; Vol. 516, c. 556-7.] I could not put it any better, and I end on the following point. We recognise that we are at fault. We recognise that these people’s lives have been ruined. We recognise that the current compensation scheme has not fulfilled their expectations and is not fair. Let right be done.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Social Welfare
Richard Quentin Fuller (Conservative, Centre-right): A constituent of mine has also raised this point. Does the hon. Gentleman not find it odd that, as a result of this failure by the Government, the victims have to apply for a discretionary payment and that there is no substantial up-front payment? There seems to be a complete imbalance between right and wrong.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Government Operations
Jane Ellison (Conservative, Centre-right): I have noted the comments of the shadow Secretary of State. I can only speak from my own experience and say that in all the ways in which I have wished to consider this issue—those have ranged widely over the past year—I have been ably supported by my civil servants. Ultimately, this decision is a political one The issue needs to be resolved once and for all. I assure hon. Members that the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State and I continue to work towards that vital aim. I have said that however late Penrose reports, we will respond while the House is sitting. Inevitably, that will have to be an interim response. However, I hope that we can give the House some sense of the work undertaken over the past year and, at that time, respond to the direction of travel signalled in the all-party group’s report and the work of my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire In conclusion, I want to say that this was an utterly appalling tragedy, which has caused grief and sadness to many people and their families, as we have so often heard. The Government must do right by those people on whose behalf so many Members have spoken today. I will take away everything that has been said, and as long as I am in my current office, I will continue to work to bring to Parliament the conclusion that so many Members have said they want.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Agriculture
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): Hundreds of my constituents have contacted me about this issue, and there is concern about things being stitched up behind closed doors, such as the use of genetically modified crops and so on. It is welcome that the issue is debated and kept under scrutiny by this Parliament.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: International Affairs
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the hon. Gentleman confirm to the House who has access to the reading room in Brussels for the documents on this treaty? There is significant access, and I hope he will clarify how many people, and who, can look at those documents.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Foreign Trade
Robert John Walter (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman may be aware that the United Kingdom is a party to some 90 international trade deals that involve the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. Does he know how many cases the United Kingdom has ever lost using the mechanism?
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: International Affairs
Andrew Bingham (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman, like me, is a member of the European Scrutiny Committee and I am sure he is aware that Lord Livingston is coming to the Committee on 11 February, which gives the Committee a chance to conduct some scrutiny. I assume that he, like me, will be at that meeting, as will, I am sure, the hon. Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith).
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Foreign Trade
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with the hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies) that this is an important debate, I congratulate him on securing it and I welcome the fact that the Backbench Business Committee has granted it. I think the hon. Gentleman has drafted a motion with which no Back-Bench Member could disagree—whatever their views on the value or otherwise of TTIP. [Interruption.] I am glad to hear that the same goes for Front-Bench Members. There can be no doubt that having more parliamentary scrutiny is a good thing I shall talk about the Select Committee scrutiny that has taken place. The European Scrutiny Committee and its work have already been mentioned. I am a member of the Select Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills, which has an ongoing inquiry into this issue. As a member, I have been engaged in this work, and I believe we will be able to produce a balanced and useful report. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for West Bromwich West (Mr Bailey) who has conducted the inquiry so far in an even-handed and rational way. We still have some sessions to go and I do not want to prejudge the outcome of the inquiry, but I would say that on the issue of ISDS, my hon. Friend the Member for North Dorset (Mr Walter) was absolutely right to mention the precedent of all the free trade deals in which the UK has ever been involved and ISDS has played a part—and the fact that the UK has never lost a case That said, we heard from a lot of different bodies—the CBI, for example, the Institute of Directors, which provided written evidence, and the TUC, which has acknowledged the benefits that could come from the deal while having genuine concerns about it. I welcome the way in which most of those bodies engaged with us. Even some on the Conservative side of the Committee have concerns that TTIP is not sufficiently transparent. Much of that relates to the fact that the negotiations are being conducted by an unaccountable European Commission rather than Ministers directly accountable to this House and capable of answering questions.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: International Affairs
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I rise to challenge the premise of this rather cynical motion, which is yet another example of a cynical approach to scaremongering on many aspects of what is, in essence, an exceptionally positive deal for our country. The motion seeks to add to the many worries that our constituents are writing to us about, and it completely avoids looking at the work that has been done over the past 18 months since the deal began being discussed If we look at the press release—
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Foreign Trade
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I will give way shortly. If we look at the press release from the sponsor of this motion, we see that the hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies) ends by saying: "We need to engage responsibly to deliver regulation of trade and to avoid the social and economic Darwinism that is the inevitable result of disengagement." I say to him that there has been nothing but engagement from this place on this deal. This is the third debate in this Chamber about TTIP. The House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee has already had one and it is to have a second. TTIP was discussed during the Bill on the NHS promoted by the hon. Member for Eltham (Clive Efford). There has been a House of Lords—
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Foreign Trade
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): There has been a House of Lords report on TTIP and a Government response to it. The Select Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills has interrogated Ministers about TTIP. The all-party group on European Union-United States trade and investment, of which I am the deputy chair and which the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey) chairs, has had multiple meetings, in Brussels, London and America, with the negotiator, with Members of Congress, with members of the US Administration and with the EU trade negotiator, Ignacio Garcia. There has been nothing but engagement, both from Brussels and from our Government on TTIP.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Foreign Trade
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I will give way later. On the issue of parliamentary scrutiny when the deal is done, I ask hon. Members to look at a letter written by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), on 22 September, in which he says: "The UK Parliament, including the House of Lords…will have a full opportunity to scrutinise the deal before it is finalised." There does not seem to be anything but clarity in that statement On the investor-state dispute mechanism, we have heard earlier that the EU has made it clear on multiple occasions that the freedom of national Governments to regulate would be explicitly protected. The investor-state dispute settlement provisions being discussed cannot overturn policy laws; the purpose is to protect our investors from discriminatory treatment by protectionist Governments. There are 90 other examples of ISDS in deals we have around the world. As we have heard, there have been two cases against Britain, neither of which was successful.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Foreign Trade
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I will give way later. What surprises me about the hon. Member for Swansea West, who at the start of this Parliament wanted to be head of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, is that he has not given any focus to the benefits of TTIP. This is our biggest export partner; the biggest trading relationship that we have. The huge focus of our attention here should be on saying and explaining that this deal will mean hundreds of pounds less for British consumers when they buy their jeans, cars and other products. It will primarily benefit not big corporations, but small businesses—the businesses that we have in our constituencies. TTIP will made trade easier with the most easy market to trade with—that which speaks our language—the United States of America. I say to the hon. Gentleman that this is a ridiculous motion. He should focus on the benefits of the partnership. It is a key part of this Government’s long-term economic plan and he should be celebrating this deal when it comes to a conclusion.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Foreign Trade
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Dr Whiteford). I hope to be able to respond to some of the concerns she voiced. I congratulate the hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies) on initiating this important debate I share the sentiment, which was expressed by many hon. Members, that trade is the cornerstone of our national wealth. We heard my hon. Friend the Member for North Dorset (Mr Walter) speak about its impact on our economy. Without that trade and our national wealth, there would not be funding for vital services such as our NHS; it is that long-term economic plan that will guarantee its future. However, I would like to speak today about the NHS and express some of my concerns The Leader of the Opposition has spoken of his desire to weaponise the NHS. It is shameful in itself, but it also detracts from some of the genuine arguments and important issues that we need to raise about health within TTIP Initially, I would like to clear up the points raised by the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan. They are important and I would not support the deal if I thought that it would have the effects she outlined, but I think that they have been rather used as part of that weapon to try to damn this partnership and to damn the Government’s record. That is regrettable After reading the letter from the European Commission about the NHS, I wrote back because I wanted to clarify some points. As Chair of the Select Committee on Health, I heard back from Jean-Luc Demarty, the director-general for trade. He wrote to me on 11 December and a copy of that letter is available on the Health Committee’s website if people want to look at it in detail. He made it absolutely clear that all publicly funded health services, including NHS services, would be protected under TTIP I pressed him further on that point, asking about the definition of publicly funded health services—in other words, would they include organisations such as those in the third sector? He was very clear that as long as the services are publicly funded, it does not matter how they are delivered. That is an important point of clarity. He also made the point that any investor-state dispute settlement provisions in TTIP could have no impact on the UK’s sovereign right to make changes to the NHS. In other words, that deals with the concerns that have been raised that this is somehow a one-way street and that no future Government would be able to change policy. He is very clear on that point and I urge Members to look at his letter. The issue of ratchet clauses is also very important, and the ratchet clause will not apply in this case.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Foreign Trade
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): Already within domestic contract law there are provisions that mean that one cannot arbitrarily reverse a contract. A state would be able to announce that it was changing policy and moving forward, but the point about TTIP is that it works on both sides of the Atlantic. We would not wish to have British companies arbitrarily lose their investment in the US. It is about that; it is not some conspiracy of an evil empire, which is how it has been portrayed. I think that that would be a reasonable process.