argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Retained EU Law: Devolved Administrations — House of Commons, 2022-02-10
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What recent discussions she has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) the devolved Administrations on proposed legislation to make it easier to amend or remove retained EU law.
Allan Hopkins Dorans (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): On Friday 28 January, Ministers of the three devolved Administrations were called to a meeting with the Attorney General at very short notice—the very next day, in fact—to discuss the so-called Brexit freedom Bill, which will have significant impact on hundreds of areas controlled by the devolved Governments. The meeting has been described as "a rushed exercise…with nothing more than a vague verbal briefing", with "no effort by the UK government to properly consult devolved governments on the details of the plans nor seek their views on their impacts on devolved areas of policy and law." Will the Attorney General make an unequivocal commitment today that the devolved Administrations will be consulted extensively before any further decisions are taken that would affect their existing policies, and specifically in relation to retained EU law?
Covid-19 Contracts: Serious Fraud Office — House of Commons, 2022-02-10
Topic: Government Operations
Questions: What recent discussions she has had with the Serious Fraud Office on the potential level of fraud losses arising from covid-19 related contracts awarded by the Department of Health and Social Care in 2020-21.
James Neale Hanvey (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Good Law Project has now uncovered the existence of an additional 18 VIP lane contracts, bringing the total to 68. Between them, they were awarded a total of £4.9 billion in personal protective equipment contracts. Gareth Davies, the head of the National Audit Office and the Comptroller and Auditor General, has said that the Department of Health and Social Care was "open to the risk of fraud.", and that he has not received "adequate assurance that the level of fraud losses are not material." What steps does the Attorney General, or the Minister, advise should be taken to uphold the rule of law and assure the House that contracts awarded through the Government’s VIP lane were not fraudulent?
Russia Sanctions Legislation — House of Commons, 2022-02-10
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Gordon Thomson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I echo much of what was said by the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy). I find this situation frustrating in many ways. Obviously we all want to do everything we can to counter Russian aggression, and we all want to be doing what we can to support legislation that would make that possible. But the action taken today of laying such legislation without our being given any opportunity for scrutiny or debate, or even knowing what it can achieve, makes it very difficult for us to help the Government and to approach this constructively, which is what we want to do. I must be brutally honest and say that it is a challenging task to come up with a series of questions about legislation that we have not yet seen, although we all want see that legislation work Can the Minister assure us that whatever the legislation does include, it will enable actions to be taken to tackle the improper use of, for instance, Scottish limited partnerships—colleagues of mine have been calling for that for years—and the multitude of other avenues through which Russian money is being used to influence and change attitudes, as well as the cyber-attacks that are carried out across these islands and in other European countries? Without seeing the legislation, it is difficult for our support to be as full as we might have wanted it to be.
UK-Taiwan Friendship and Co-operation — House of Commons, 2022-02-10
Topic: International Affairs
John MacKenzie Nicolson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Does the hon. Gentleman accept that many of these peoples do not want to be Chinese? They want to be Tibetan, for instance. They are forced to remain within China’s boundaries against their will, and China refuses them the opportunity for self-determination, which is shameful.
UK-Taiwan Friendship and Co-operation — House of Commons, 2022-02-10
Topic: International Affairs
Owen George Thompson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I congratulate the right hon. Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) and the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alicia Kearns) on securing this important debate I genuinely consider it an honour and a pleasure to be speaking on my party’s behalf in this debate. Before we had decided I would do so, I had already asked to speak in the debate, having visited Taiwan as part of an international youth culture and study tour back in 2013—believe it or not, I still qualified under the term "youth" at that stage—along with my hon. Friend the Member for Lanark and Hamilton East (Angela Crawley). We had a wonderful two-week official visit and then some of us stayed on for a number of days to further experience the culture and landscapes of Taiwan, across Taipei, Taichung and Tainan. So it is a wonderful opportunity to take part in the debate today One of the most important aspects of this debate is democracy and the principle of self-determination. Hugh MacDiarmid once wrote of Robert Burns: "Mair nonsense has been uttered in his name than in ony’s, barrin liberty and Christ." The same, in some senses, could be said about self-determination, so lest it become a buzzword, let us remind ourselves of exactly what that means: it is a group of people’s right to determine how and by whom they wish to be governed. What that means in practice is that when we stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression, we stand for self-determination. When the UK reminds Argentina about the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, we are standing for self-determination. When the Scottish Government assert that Scots deserve the right to have a say in our future by voting for a pro-independence Government, as they did last year, we are asserting our right to self-determination. We do not get to pick and choose who is allowed self-determination. The whole principle is that we accept that when the people choose what they want as their course for the future. Therefore, if we accept that Ukraine has self-determination, and that the Falklands has it, Scotland has it and so does Taiwan. No ifs, and no buts.
UK-Taiwan Friendship and Co-operation — House of Commons, 2022-02-10
Topic: International Affairs
Owen George Thompson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Where I would agree with the hon. Gentleman is that if the people of Taiwan wanted to have a referendum—and it is entirely a matter for the people of Taiwan—I would be 100% behind it. I think people would be astonished to find any disagreement about that among SNP Members. However, self-determination is not a one-time event, one vote and that is the end of it; self-determination is an ongoing process. That is why the SNP believes that an important consideration in determining how Taiwan is governed is what the people of Taiwan want, and how they express those desires at the ballot box Viewers in Scotland will already be well acquainted with the double standards of the UK Government when it comes to Scottish self-determination, but at times the Government also fall short of honouring that important principle when it comes to Taiwan. The UK does not recognise Taiwan enough and, as we have heard, there are no formal diplomatic relations with the island. That is something that could be simply looked at and corrected.
UK-Taiwan Friendship and Co-operation — House of Commons, 2022-02-10
Topic: International Affairs
John MacKenzie Nicolson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It has been deeply heartening to hear so many Conservatives throughout this debate champion the idea of self-determination. Given that there is no international court of arbitration to determine self-determination for countries such as Tibet, is it not all the more important for countries such as the UK to stand up, and for their Governments to be not cowardly but outspoken in supporting those peoples?
Energy Price Increase in April 2022 — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Energy
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): In recent years, the UK Government have printed and borrowed hundreds of billions of pounds, which have been gathered—I emphasise the word "gathered"—not earned by billionaires and the already wealthy. As a result, we have a cost of living crisis that makes energy price rises an acute crisis. Kerosene central heating oil has seen some of the biggest price differences, which especially hits rural and island areas where there is no mains gas. Do the Government have any plan to give people in such places a hand, which would cost a damn sight less than the bailout money that the billionaires have raked in from the Treasury?
Energy Price Increase in April 2022 — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Energy
Stephen Mark Flynn (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Aside from saying that he drives an ageing VW Golf, the Secretary of State is using every excuse possible to try to defend the indefensible. In just a matter of days, the energy price cap will increase by some 700 quid; in just a matter of months, it is anticipated that it will increase by a further £1,000. The Government’s response is 150 quid off council tax and £200 that they say is not a loan, but that is indeed a loan. Energy bills are anticipated to increase 14 times faster than wage increases. How on earth are people supposed to get by?
Energy Price Increase in April 2022 — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Energy
Stephen Mark Flynn (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Secretary of State does himself no favours by attempting to invent policies that are simply not reflective of the SNP’s position at this moment in time—but this discussion is about energy bills. If someone lives in the north of Scotland, their energy bill standing charge will increase by some 83%; if they live in the south of Scotland, it will increase by 100%; but if they live here in Westminster, in London, it will increase by just 38%. Scotland is energy-rich—oil and gas, wave, wind, tidal, hydro pumped storage. How on earth can the Secretary of State justify the inequity in such pricing?
Standing Charges on Energy Bills — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Energy
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): From this Friday, households will face an average 80% increase in standing charges for electricity. Negligent policy making and bad practice in the industry will be paid for by the poorest and most vulnerable consumers, who will pay the highest standing charges, with those in Scotland amongst the hardest hit. Will the Minister consider capping or even scrapping these standing charges on the basis that they are discriminatory to the poorest and most vulnerable consumers?
Contracts for Difference: Environmental Performance of Holders — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Environment
Questions: What steps he is taking to monitor the environmental performance of holders of existing Contracts for Difference in the context of new standards agreed at COP 26.
Thomas Sheppard (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I, like many people, have difficulty understanding how burning trees on an industrial scale and pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere can be any part of a low-carbon solution, or indeed why the British taxpayer subsidises private companies to do this. Given the Glasgow declaration and the new COP26 standards, is it not time to review whether the British taxpayer should remain the world’s largest subsidiser of tree burning and, in particular, whether contracts for difference on biomass awarded before 2015 would now be awarded were they to meet the new standards and targets?
Investment in Renewables: Household Energy Bills — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Energy
Carol Frances Monaghan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): For Norway to feed energy into our national grid it costs £1.36 per MWh, for Belgium it is 77p per MWh, for France, 17p and for Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands it costs not a penny. Can the Minister explain how Scotland can exploit its renewable potential when it costs £7.36 per MWh to feed into the grid?
Energy Transition Projects in Scotland — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Energy
Patrick John Grady (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am sure the rest of the UK welcomes that contribution to renewable energy as well, but local communities up and down the country, such as Partick in Glasgow North, want to champion the just transition by generating their own local renewable electricity. If the Local Electricity Bill, which has cross-party support on both sides of the House, is brought back in the next Session, will the Government make time and support it?
Energy Transition Projects in Scotland — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Environment
Alyn Edward Smith (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The University of Stirling has cut its carbon emissions by 43.8% since 2007. It has an ambitious target to achieve net zero by 2040, with fantastic plans for a solar farm, geothermal developments, the repurposing of an existing combined heat and power plant, and hydro. However, it is finding that those developments are held back by a lack of UK Government support and the rhetoric is often not matched by the reality. Will the Minister, in a constructive spirit, meet me to see whether we can crack through the paperwork and support those great projects?
Appointment of Lord Lebedev — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Government Operations
Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Minister has said that the House of Lords Appointments Commission takes a variety of information from a variety of sources and organisations. That is perfectly reasonable. Is he suggesting, however, that the opinions or information of the intelligence services should somehow be of less importance than information from another body?
Appointment of Lord Lebedev — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Government Operations
Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): My hon. Friend will have noticed that the Minister described the motion as a misuse of powers, implied that it would impede the Prime Minister in his constitutional role and argued that it is about a witch hunt against a single person. Is the truth not that the motion is about allowing us to understand whether or not the process of appointment has been corrupted? As my hon. Friend has mentioned Russian money, can he throw some light on why the Minister has doubled down on those ridiculous arguments?
Appointment of Lord Lebedev — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Government Operations
Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Perhaps the Minister could reply for himself. I have no idea why he would double down on those ridiculous arguments My right hon. Friend is right that this is not about an individual. It is about a corruption of process, and that was always going to lead us to a re-examination of the Prime Minister’s decision to send Evgeny Lebedev to the House of Lords for philanthropy and services to the media, as he put it. As we have heard, Mr Lebedev is a Russian businessman who derives his enormous wealth from his father, Alexander Lebedev, a former London-based KGB spy turned oligarch who still has investments in illegally occupied Crimea. At the start of this month, The New York Times said of Evgeny: "Nobody is a better example of the cozy ties between Russians and the establishment than Mr. Lebedev." Just how cosy that relationship is can be seen from the fact that the British Prime Minister personally campaigned for a peerage to turn plain old Evgeny into Baron Lebedev, of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation, for the rest of his life. I could go on about the absurdity of the House of Lords—the absurdity of a so-called democratic Parliament having an unelected upper Chamber into which family chieftains, high-ranking clerics of one denomination, failed and retired politicians and those with deep pockets who are prepared to bankroll a political party are thrust—but I will resist.
Appointment of Lord Lebedev — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Government Operations
Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): With the greatest respect, we most certainly are not. If this Government are so scared of shining a light that has to be shone, at this of all times, there will be accusations of a cover-up and a belief that there is something to be hidden—something that this Government do not want seen. The debate today is all about allowing transparency. That is what this House should be all about, but unfortunately the Government and Conservative Members seem to be terrified of it.
Appointment of Lord Lebedev — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: Law and Crime
Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The hon. Member is absolutely right. This is about why the Prime Minister chose to ignore the advice of the security services, but there is also a hugely important back story about what got us into the position where he did so, and the implications of that.
Appointment of Lord Lebedev — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: International Affairs
Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): That is right. A theme appears to be emerging on this side of the House. All we want to do is see what was there. All we want is to be reassured that the advice of the security services was not ignored, and that the appointment of Lord Lebedev was above board and beyond reproach. I do not think that, in a democratic system, that is too much for the House to ask As Putin’s army continues to commit its war crimes in Ukraine, we have to get to the bottom of how a man with such close connections to the Kremlin was parachuted into this Parliament. We have to establish exactly what advice was given to the Prime Minister by the security and intelligence services in the summer of 2020, and whether or not he chose to overrule that advice, or sought to alter it in any way, in order to get the outcome that he required We know that this was not a straightforward appointment. It could not possibly have been, particularly since, almost a decade ago, the head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, made it clear that he did not consider it at all appropriate for Mr Lebedev, then the owner of the Evening Standard and The Independent, to join him at MI6 headquarters for lunch. Advisers to the Prime Minister would have known for years of those security service concerns, and one would have hoped that an aspiring politician—or an aspiring Prime Minister—might be wary of becoming too close to Mr Lebedev, but that was not the case. It would appear that in return for favourable headlines in the Evening Standard, Mr Lebedev gained access to the centre of power in the Conservative party, and, particularly after 2019, the centre of the UK Government itself Surely Mr Lebedev’s very public utterings about the illegal annexation of Crimea should have set alarm bells ringing in the Conservative party. Did no one in the Conservative party hear or take notice of him calling on western Governments to "stop cold war rhetoric" when they condemned Russia for its aggression in Crimea? Did no one notice his justification that because Crimea had been Russian "for many years", this was not something to get overly upset about? Did his claim in 2014 that Russia would not be making "any further incursions into any land" fall on deaf ears The clues were all there, if people chose to look for them. On Syria, Mr Lebedev said that Putin had "shown leadership" in the conflict, and urged the west to accept his offer of a coalition. He followed that up by saying, "Let us keep Assad in power", because it would be the least worst option, and he doubled down on that by saying: "On this point I am emphatically with Putin." The list is endless. Where was the condemnation of the events surrounding the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, and how in the name of the wee man did our Prime Minister end up having an off-the-record talk with Lord Lebedev—or Evgeny Lebedev, as he was then—48 hours after the Skripal poisonings?
Appointment of Lord Lebedev — House of Commons, 2022-03-29
Topic: International Affairs
Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Skripal poisonings fit into this debate beautifully, because the fact is that an off-the-record meeting was held between the Prime Minister and Mr Lebedev within 48 hours, at the time of an international crisis, and we do not know why. [Interruption.] I am sorry; I thought that Members wished to intervene, but they are just chuntering Mr Lebedev and the Prime Minister socialised. They are widely known to have socialised in Mr Lebedev’s castles in Italy and elsewhere, and in London regularly. Mr Lebedev was present in 2016 at the private dinner when the now Prime Minister decided he was going to back the Brexit campaign. I have no idea what Mr Lebedev’s view on Brexit is, but I do know that, in the year before, he wrote this in his newspaper: "I have no doubt, based on conversations with senior figures in Moscow, that the Kremlin wants to make an ally rather than an enemy of Britain. And I also believe that it is in Britain’s best interest not only to work constructively with Moscow, but to be an active, engaged player on the world stage." I opened this speech by saying that when the Government tell us there is "nothing to see here", we should keep looking. The danger here, however, is that there is almost too much to see to make sense of. We know that the Prime Minister has been absolutely compromised by his relationship with Lord Lebedev. The public have a right to know if the Prime Minister gave an individual a seat for life in this Parliament against the advice of the security services. Desperately not wanting that to be the case is no reason for Conservative Members to block the release of this material. If there is nothing untoward, the Government should publish the material and put the matter to bed for once and for all. Then we could let Baron Lebedev return to doing hee-haw in the other place, as he has done with aplomb since he arrived there 18 months ago.
Union Connectivity Review — House of Commons, 2022-05-19
Topic: Transportation
Gavin Andrew Stuart Newlands (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): According to a written answer I received yesterday, the now publicly owned ScotRail pays the highest track access charges of any train operator; they are more than double the next highest figure and make up nearly a quarter of the entire total. The charges have increased by over 320% in the last five years. Does the Minister accept that those punitive charges reduce the Scottish Government’s capacity to boost even further the substantive investments made in transport decarbonisation, and will she commit to rebating ScotRail and the taxpayers of Scotland for those unjustifiable and exorbitant charges?
P&O Ferries: Staff Rosters — House of Commons, 2022-05-19
Topic: Labor
Gavin Andrew Stuart Newlands (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am back again, Mr Speaker, and I completely agree with the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh). The Government have unveiled plans to allow ports to surcharge or block ferry companies such as P&O if they do not comply with national minimum wage legislation. I welcome anything that makes life harder for the likes of P&O, but why are the Government ducking their responsibility to amend and enforce employment law, and instead palming it off to the private sector? Is it not time that maritime employment law was devolved to Holyrood, and that a Government committed to taking action against the likes of P&O? Is it not time that that Government were given the power to get on with the job?