argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Financial Conduct Authority and Blackmore Bond plc — House of Commons, 2021-06-30
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Peter Grant (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Before we adjourn, I wish to draw the attention of the House to the collapse last year of Blackmore Bond plc and in particular to look at what the Financial Conduct Authority did, what it could have done, and what it failed to do to prevent this Blackmore Bond plc was incorporated in July 2016, went into administration in May 2020, and has since gone into liquidation. Between October 2016 and November 2018, it raised £46 million in loans, known as mini-bonds, almost all of it from small-scale individual investors. They were repeatedly told that their investment was guaranteed to be paid back on time with regular interest payments. By the time the joint administrators had disentangled the company’s financial affairs, it was obvious that none of that £46 million was left to repay the bond holders. Their "guaranteed" investment of £46 million had been reduced to nothing Obviously, primary responsibility for that must lie with the company’s directors, Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh, who were also the joint owners not only of Blackmore Bond but of about two dozen related companies. I will disclose some information later that may help Members to understand just how culpable I believe those two are. However, whether their conduct is found, in due course, to be criminal, civilly unlawful or just downright despicable, the scandal yet again raises serious questions about the regulatory framework that allowed Nunn and McCreesh to persuade people to put money they could not afford to lose into high-risk investments where losing everything was always a possibility In fact, an experienced investment adviser, looking at the promotional material the company sent out, could only conclude that losing everything was not only a possibility but almost inevitable. That is probably why the directors of Blackmore Bond did not approach investment houses or experienced investors; they deliberately targeted people they thought would be an easy touch.
Financial Conduct Authority and Blackmore Bond plc — House of Commons, 2021-06-30
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Peter Grant (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): For the second time in a few days, the hon. Gentleman has managed to read my notes a couple of paragraphs ahead of me. I am going to come on to that. My concerns cover not just the Financial Conduct Authority but other regulators, such as Companies House, the Insolvency Service, the Financial Reporting Council and the professional bodies that regulate the audit of limited companies. Of those, only the FCA falls directly under the remit of the Treasury, so that is what I will focus on tonight, but I will continue to apply for debates so that the part played by other regulators can be examined.
Financial Conduct Authority and Blackmore Bond plc — House of Commons, 2021-06-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Peter Grant (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Minister gave the same dates on Amyma as me—between 2018 and 2019. Did it not strike him, as it struck me, that Amyma was an appointed representative of another company, but the concerns about it arose in 2017, before it appeared to be an appointed representative of anybody? Does he not agree that there is something to be looked at there and that the Financial Conduct Authority should be asking questions about it?
Human Rights Act 1998 (Amendment) — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Hannah Mary Bardell (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Given this Tory Government’s track record of either not consulting or railroading changes without consultation, will the Secretary of State confirm that any proposals to amend the Human Rights Act will be subject to a full public consultation lasting at least three months?
International Treaties on Human Rights: Obligations — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): By contrast with what the Secretary of State just said, the Joint Committee on Human Rights recently published a report that concludes that his Department’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will restrict peaceful protest "in a way that we believe is inconsistent with our rights." The report also singles out the provisions on noisy protests as "neither necessary nor proportionate" With findings like those, will the Secretary of State reconsider his assertion that the Bill is compliant with the European convention on human rights?
International Treaties on Human Rights: Obligations — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Elizabeth Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Secretary of State recently dismissed the relevance of international treaties, so it is interesting that today he is using what he says is compliance with the ECHR to convince us that his Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is not, as the Joint Committee said, "inconsistent with our rights." How relevant, then, is the opinion of the UN special rapporteur on human rights, who said last week that the Bill runs "counter to the" human rights "direction" that the UK "need to be going in" Is the Secretary of State not just a little bit embarrassed about that?
International Treaties on Human Rights: Obligations — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Elizabeth Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): So the Secretary of State does not respect international treaties and is not listening to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights; let us see whether he has a little more respect for the UK’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Will he join in the condemnation of the hon. Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson), who branded Travellers as thieves? What does he say to Travellers who described the Bill as "the single biggest threat to" their "traditional way of life" and said that it may "entirely eradicate nomadic life". Does the Secretary of State want to eradicate their way of life?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Joanna Catherine Cherry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Can the Secretary of State tell us why the Ministry of Justice has left the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme? Can he reassure me that his Department will continue to respect the rights of all its LGBT employees, and indeed the rights of all those with protected characteristics, including women and those who hold gender-critical beliefs?
International Travel — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Gavin Andrew Stuart Newlands (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Aviation is the hardest-hit sector, according to the Office for National Statistics. One third of the 6,000 jobs based at Glasgow airport and countless more in the supply chain are gone, a proportion that is common in the sector. In business travel, 60% of workers have gone and of those who remain, 80% are on furlough, and that is the key point: hundreds of thousands of jobs have gone while there is a job retention scheme in place This is the 36th time I have asked about support for the aviation sector since the start of the pandemic, back in the day when the Secretary of State was boasting of saving Flybe and the Chancellor was promising a sector-specific deal. With many parts of Europe now wary of the UK delta variant outbreak, five bleak winters in a row beckon for the sector. Are the Government finally considering keeping their word on grant support and extending its limited and capped business rates support to at least match the duration of the unlimited cover in Scotland? Crucially, is the Secretary of State lobbying the Treasury to extend furlough for the sector? Finally, does the clinical advice given to the Government fully support these decisions on double vaccines for travellers and travel to amber list countries?
International Travel — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Margaret Ferrier (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The travel sector, particularly the business travel sector, sees the reopening of US-UK travel as vital to being viable. Will the Secretary of State update the House on who sits on the US-UK travel taskforce, when it will publish its recommendations, and whether the reports of concerns over the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in the press this week will have any impact?
International Travel — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Secretary of State said in his statement that "this is a complicated policy that requires time to work through", but today he has pointedly and repeatedly failed to commit to additional support for the beleaguered travel sector until the return of free travel can be re-established. Does he understand the disappointment and anger at the failure to extend additional support to the travel industry to prevent the potential loss of tens of thousands more jobs?
International Travel — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Kirsten Frances Oswald (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): With greater restrictions being placed on UK travellers to Spain, Portugal, Germany and Hong Kong, there is no doubt that the aviation and travel sectors are still in a difficult place. We have already heard today the chief executive of the Association of British Travel Agents, Mark Tanzer, tell the Treasury Committee that 44% of ABTA members anticipate more redundancies as furlough tapers off. That is on top of 37% of those jobs already having been lost or being at risk, so action is plainly necessary. Does the Minister agree that there must be a tailored package of financial support, crucially including furlough extension, for the travel sector, as called for by the Travel Day of Action campaign?
EU Settlement Scheme — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Immigration
Elizabeth Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The hospitality sector, among others, has long warned that Brexit would mean it lost much of its workforce, and it has; but worse, more than 100,000 people who want to stay are waiting more than three months for a decision. Does the Minister realise that after this week employers will be scared to employ those workers? In a recent debate, he told me that everyone receives a certificate of application and that this would suffice. Well, the3million advised me today that many have never received this certificate. Why not? I have seen one, and it does not tell employers for how long it remains valid. Again, why not? The process also requires applicants to go through 14 stages on a website—if it is working. I do not envisage a big bang on 1 July but I do foresee huge problems in the coming months, with people willing to work and employers desperate to employ, but too much uncertainty about the legality of doing so. I appreciate the desire to go digital, but until that digital is working properly, why will the Government not provide physical proof for people, as they can apparently do for covid vaccination status? If it is too difficult, please just do what the Scottish Government and others have called for and extend the deadline—or, better still, scrap the scheme and have a declaratory scheme, which is what was promised by many of the Minister’s colleagues, including the Prime Minister, in the first place.
EU Settlement Scheme — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Immigration
Deidre Leanne Brock (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It has been clear that the Government have no idea how many EU citizens were in the UK, or how important they are to the NHS, the economy and our cultural and educational institutions. It is also clear that the settlement scheme is overly bureaucratic and unwieldy, so I am going to press the Minister again: will the Government at least extend the deadline by six months so that the mess they created can be sorted out?
EU Settlement Scheme — House of Commons, 2021-06-29
Topic: Immigration
James Neale Hanvey (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): During the Brexit campaign, the Prime Minister promised automatic settled status for EU nationals living across these islands. What we have got is a vague reassurance of consideration of reasonable grounds. My concern is about the most vulnerable people in my communities and across these islands: those in care homes and the care system and those who are very hard to reach. When the guillotine falls tomorrow, will the Prime Minister have made liars of us all? What will happen to those people? What is the mechanism for establishing reasonable grounds and how will people be treated? Will they lose their homes? Where will they be held? Will they be deported?
Union in Scotland: Public Opinion Polling — House of Commons, 2021-07-08
Topic: Civil Rights
Allan Hopkins Dorans (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Last month, the first-tier tribunal on information rights ruled that the Cabinet Office must release polling information that it has gathered on attitudes to the Union in Scotland within a month. Will the Minister confirm that he will be releasing that information, as he has been ordered to do, and whether he will also release the details on how much that information cost to collect?
Public Bodies: Transparency in Service Delivery — House of Commons, 2021-07-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Neale Hanvey (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): As legislators, we have an important and indeed necessary relationship with upholding the spirit and the letter of the law. However, in my experience hon. Members seem more likely to be sacked for their attempts to uphold such a principle. What message does the continued opacity, prevarication and law-breaking of this Government’s most senior Ministers and advisers give to our children, public bodies and industry, or does the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster simply have no shame over his own unlawful conduct?
International Travel — House of Commons, 2021-07-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Peter Grant (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Secretary of State has quite rightly sounded a note of caution in saying that anyone who chooses to travel to an amber list country needs to be prepared for the possibility that it could become a red list country before they return. What happens if someone has booked to travel to an amber list country and it becomes red before they travel? Has he had discussions with the travel industry and the travel insurance industry to determine whether passengers will be entitled to a refund in those circumstances, or will they simply have to sacrifice their holiday and lose all their money?
International Travel — House of Commons, 2021-07-08
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I confess that I was quite surprised by the response that the Secretary of State gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes (Peter Grant) on the issue of travel insurance, given that consumer body Which? has found that many travellers are "being left with a false impression" about the travel insurance protection they would enjoy in the event of covid-related disruption to their plans, with less than 1% of UK travel insurance policies providing people with full, comprehensive cover for covid-related disruption. In view of those concerns, will the Secretary of State undertake to have discussions with the travel insurance industry to ensure that consumers can have confidence that they are appropriately covered in the event of disruption to their travel plans?
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-07-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It is right today that we remember the sacrifices of our troops in Afghanistan. In his statement, the Prime Minister said that 3.6 million girls are now going to school in Afghanistan and that the Girls’ Education Challenge fund has helped more than a quarter of a million Afghan girls into the classroom. He said that our priority must be to work alongside our Afghan and other partners to preserve what has already been achieved. In response to the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), he said that there would be an increase in funding for the Global Partnership for Education this year. Will he therefore tell us whether that increase will cover the more than 25% reduction for education for girls in Afghanistan that has already taken place on his watch?
Covid-19 Vaccine Damage Bill — House of Commons, 2021-09-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
Martin John Docherty-Hughes (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am eating into the time for my own Bill, but I wonder if the hon. Gentleman would agree that his Bill would not be required if his own Government agreed a date for an investigation into the Government’s handling of the pandemic, just as the Government in Scotland have agreed to do?
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Immigration
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Can the Prime Minister explain, then, how many people he thinks are eligible for relocation and are still to sign up? He says that the Government are doing "everything we can" to get these people out, so what does "everything we can" mean? How are they identifying these people and where they are, especially if they are already in hiding in fear of their lives?
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Civil Rights
Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): My right hon. Friend will be aware that yesterday the Nobel laureate Nadia Murad said: "I know what happens when the world loses sight of women and girls in crises. When it looks away, war is waged on women’s bodies." Sadly, she is correct. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, if we do not act now and go so much further than the Government are proposing to protect women and girls, this political disaster will become a catastrophic moral failure?
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Immigration
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I agree with my hon. Friend I just reflected on the fact that 3 million people have already been displaced. We need to show a generosity of spirit that recognises the scale of the challenge we face, so that women do not face the loss of their human rights, so that women do not face persecution and, yes, so that women do not face even worse, including death It is important to say that, if we are to support the Afghan people, this crisis needs to mark a point of fundamental change in this Government’s approach to refugees. In the past few months alone, this Government have introduced a hateful anti-refugee Bill that would rip up international conventions and criminalise those coming from Afghanistan in need of our refuge. The UK Government have spent a sizeable part of their summer making political play of turning away migrants and refugees in small boats who are desperately making their way across the channel.
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Immigration
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): My goodness, my goodness, my goodness. I do not think the hon. Gentleman has been listening to anything we have been saying over the past few days. I will talk about this in more detail, because I have been asking for the resettlement scheme to work on the basis of the Syrian scheme that we had in the last decade. I tell the House that the Scottish Government stand ready to work with the UK Government—[Interruption.] We are talking about people who are facing extreme risk, and that is what we get from the Government Benches. They should be careful, because people in the United Kingdom, and perhaps people in Afghanistan, are listening. Perhaps a bit of dignity from the Government Benches would not go amiss I want to make sure that every local authority in Scotland has the opportunity to take refugees from Afghanistan, and that is precisely the position of the Government in Scotland, but is has to come with the Government in London and the devolved Administrations working together. There has to be a summit of the four nations to discuss exactly how this will work.
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Immigration
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is correct, and my area of the highlands has refugees from Syria, too, and they were made most welcome by the community. In view of the hostile environment that we are seeing once again from the Conservative party, let us reflect on the fact that these are people who came here to receive sanctuary and who have gone on to make a contribution to our life. They were welcome, refugees are welcome and Afghans are certainly welcome in every part of Scotland.
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Immigration
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I will make some progress before giving way again We have just had it demonstrated that the hostile attitude and approach to refugees truly exists and extends to those from Afghanistan. Since the most recent conflict began, in 2001, the Home Office has rejected asylum for 32,000 Afghans, including 875 girls. The total number of Afghans in the system stands at 3,117, so if we are to have any confidence that this is a turning point, this UK Government need to rethink radically how they respond to the refugee crisis unfolding before our eyes.
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Immigration
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I will discuss that a little later on—[Interruption.] I have to say to Government Members that these are serious issues. I welcome the hon. Member’s intervention, and I will give the real-life example of what happened with Syria. Scotland took 15% of the refugees who came from Syria—
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Other
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Twenty per cent.—so we have done our bit, and we stand ready to do our bit again. I commit myself as leader of the SNP here, and I commit my Government to work with the Government here in London—but they have to extend the hand of friendship to us.
Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-08-18
Topic: Immigration
David Melvyn Linden (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): There has been much focus today on making sure we offer sanctuary for people from Afghanistan, but last night I was speaking to my Carmyle constituent Mohammad Asif, who is originally from Afghanistan. He wants to make sure that we also offer humanitarian protection to those who are already seeking asylum in the City of Glasgow. On the point made by the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton), yes, the City of Glasgow has done its fair share to welcome refugees and we stand ready to do a lot more, but I have to say to him that 30 refugees per parliamentary constituency is a paltry number that he should be ashamed of.