argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Technology
Dean Russell (Conservative, Centre-right): First, as a member of the Joint Committee on the draft Online Safety Bill, I thank my hon. Friend for his words Does my hon. Friend agree that the Bill will have a profound impact on real people—especially vulnerable people and young children—like Zach Eagling? He has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and was targeted with cruel flashing images, as many people have been on social media to trigger seizures, cause harm to their lives and potentially even risk death. The Bill will, in its own small way, not only help those people but make sure that people like Zach are supported through our support of the proposed Zach’s law. It will also make sure that tech firms are held to account for the harm that they may do.
Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Technology
David Mervyn Johnston (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend and his Committee for their work on this issue. Does he agree that, as big tech companies can analyse our search histories to suggest purchases and can even read our messages to suggest a reply, it is ludicrous for them to say that the sorts of things we want them to do to keep people safer are too difficult?
Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Technology
Damian Noel Thomas Collins (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. These companies are engaging in mass surveillance and data gathering to target their users with ads. The same technology and data they use to target people with ads and other information, such as recommending content through recommendation tools, could be used to stop bad things happening. We discussed this throughout the inquiry and in the report. He is right that it is not that it cannot be done; it is that there has not been a requirement in law for it to be done, and that there has been no regulator with proper investigatory powers checking whether the companies are actually doing it.
Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Technology
Damian Noel Thomas Collins (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with the hon. Lady. We address this issue in the report, which goes further than the Bill currently does by saying that the companies do not seem to have an effective policy. They have to deliver on this, and there are various technologies they can use. The Bill does not mandate a particular technology, but it says there should be an effective system, and it will be the regulator’s job to check The regulator can also insist on much better research on a platform’s audiences. Ofcom says that 50% of 10-year-olds are on social media. I believe the companies know this and can identify it. Indeed, reports have shown that some advertising is targeted at people who are known to be under 13. Again, the regulator should have access to such data and information to bring more light to this problem.
Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Technology
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my hon. Friend on the report. One of the challenges relates to where these social media companies are based, where their servers are and where international accounts are held. What account has the Committee taken of how we can control the international aspects, as well as the national aspects, of harmful social media content?
Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Technology
Damian Noel Thomas Collins (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the impact on children. Important work on this has already been done and this Government have passed legislation on the design of services, which is known as the age-appropriate design code. In our report and in the Bill, we stress the importance of risk assessment by the regulator of the different services that are offered, and of the principles of safety by design, particularly in regard to services that are accessed by children and products that are designed for and used by children. I spoke earlier about the regulator’s power to seek data and information from companies about younger users and to challenge companies whose platform policy is that those under 13 cannot access their content and ask whether they have research showing that they know people under that age are using it but allow them to keep their accounts open anyway. Keeping children off the systems that are not designed for them, and from which they are supposed to be deliberately excluded, could be an important role for the regulator to take on.
Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Technology
Damian Noel Thomas Collins (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. We are also grateful to the hon. Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (John Nicolson), who is a member of the Committee. He is not in his place today. The question of the next chair of Ofcom was not one that the Committee was asked to consider. The Government will run a process, and the DCMS Committee will hold a hearing for the pre-appointment scrutiny of the new candidates. The hon. Gentleman is right to say that online safety will be a big job for Ofcom. The world will be watching, and we have to get the legislation right and ensure that Ofcom has the resources it needs to do the job. It believes that it has, and that it has the powers to do the job, but it should be an ongoing role for this House to scrutinise that process and ensure that it is being run effectively.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Alicia Alexandra Martha Kearns (Conservative, Centre-right): The thefts of catalytic converters across the country is seriously concerning. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Home Office and Crown Prosecution Service need to treat this as organised crime by gangs, and that it should be dealt with by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency? Only then will we deal with it, because these catalytic converters are stolen from Melton, or from his patch, one day and are in Poland the next.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: International Affairs
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree that it is not acceptable. I think most hon. Members across the House will be sympathetic to people fleeing Afghanistan. We rightly made promises and commitments, but unfortunately the resettlement scheme is still not available. As I said, that is causing a lot of angst and anxiety I turn to two local issues that I am sure are seen across the country. There has been a huge spike in concerns about planning matters, as well as concerns about fly-tipping and potholes, which are appearing once again in Harrow. Those potholes need to be fixed, because they cause damage and all sorts of unnecessary and unacceptable problems on the roads. We have also seen a large spike in casework about illegal houses in multiple occupation—not registered ones—which, when they spring up, give rise to a lot of noise, nuisance and antisocial behaviour. I am sure that I am not alone in experiencing that I turn to important international events. Sir David Amess was a great supporter of the Iranian opposition, the Maryam Rajavi and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which represent a democratic alternative to the current regime. In Iran, there are huge demonstrations against the Government, which are not well publicised. In many cases, people are being severely oppressed with terrible consequences across the piece. It is time that Ministers in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office took action. We know that discussions with Iran are ongoing over the so-called nuclear deal—I think they may not be going anywhere—but we must be clear with Iran about its attempts to foster terrorism and further incursions around the world; that is vital. The appeals of the terrorists who tried to bomb the 2018 NCRI will come up shortly in Brussels, and I hope that FCDO Ministers will have a lot to say when those appeals are dismissed. I was at the conference, and I would not be here now had the terrorists succeeded. Many others from across the political spectrum are in the same situation We will commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January in this place. We are still looking to build an education centre and museum adjacent to this mother of Parliaments. I look forward to that happening, and to further progress in the new year On Equitable Life, the Government have still failed to pay the total sum of £2.6 billion to the people who are owed that money due to the worst case of Government maladministration that there has ever been. I will continue to press them to pay that money—that debt of honour—because more than 1 million people have still received only 22% compensation. Given that we have compensated other schemes to the level of 80%, that seems grossly unfair to all those who have suffered loss.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: International Affairs
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): Last week I took part in a Back-Bench debate on Bosnia, and I warned that the situation there was deteriorating sharply. My great concern was that very shortly we would see again conditions like those that started the Bosnian war in the 1990s. But over the past seven days the situation has become even worse. Now the leader of Republika Srpska has set a short timeline of six months before he intends to quit the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Thus I feel I must warn the House again about what could easily happen in Europe, and within two hours’ flying time of London. The situation in Bosnia today is extremely fragile and very dangerous. It could be likened to what happens when you pick up a lemonade bottle. It looks calm. Wriggle it around a bit, put it down; it still looks calm. Undo the top, and everything spews out. Well, in Bosnia the lemonade top is getting very loose. Having been the first British UN battalion group commander in Bosnia in ’92, what happens in Bosnia matters to me. It is not just me. The Army lost 57 soldiers in the last Bosnian crisis, and they died trying to save people’s lives At one stage, I witnessed what might happen again if Bosnia is allowed to split up. The Vance-Owen plan of 1993 allocated various regions of Bosnia to the various factions. Cantons were designated primarily as Serb, Croat or Muslim. Immediately the plan was announced, various sides took matters into their own hands. In particular, I watched as Bosnian Croats attacked Bosnian Muslims to take immediately the areas allocated to them by that political plan.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: International Affairs
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman, who should not be called an hon. Friend but is, is right. I am going to come to that In the fighting around Gornji Vakuf, no quarter was given to man, woman or child. I recall watching tank fire destroying house after house. I remember watching people being mown down. I tried for several weeks to stop the fighting, often by trying to get ceasefires. All day I sat in rooms trying to get ceasefires, often by putting my wonderful soldiers in the middle of a battle between two sides, which is a very dangerous thing to do. As an aside, may I pay tribute to my escort driver, Lance Corporal Wayne Edwards, who lost his life on 13 January 1993 in the fighting around Gornji Vakuf? I had agreed to him being used to escort three women through the fighting—through the town—and I still feel guilty, because I had the responsibility of giving him the order to do that. Wayne was shot dead through the front of his vehicle while trying to get three women who needed to get hospital to a place of safety. Truly, Wayne Edwards gave his life so that others could live. That is about as noble a soldier’s death as there can be The main lesson of my tour in Bosnia was that it cannot be split up and it must remain a coherent state. My time there occurred in perhaps the most torrid period of the Balkans war, but I left the country two years before an appalling genocide. This was without doubt the foulest atrocity of the war. It occurred in July 1995 at Srebrenica, a small town in eastern Bosnia, where 8,372—as far as we know—men and boys were murdered by the Bosnian Serb army in what was undoubtedly one of the worst acts of genocide since the second world war.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: International Affairs
Andrew John Bower Mitchell (Conservative, Centre-right): I am most grateful to my right hon. Friend, who is making an extremely compelling speech. I have been in the recent past to Srebrenica, and I stood in stunned amazement at the extraordinary example of man’s inhumanity to man. Will he emphasise to those on the Front Bench that this is a region of the world where Britain has deep roots, real knowledge and the ability to help move the dial with many of the disputatious parties? Will he take this opportunity to emphasise that to the Foreign Office? There is a big role for Britain to play at this point.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: International Affairs
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is so right; we can make a really big difference here. In my time in Bosnia two years before Srebrenica, we managed to get to Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. It took us four days. The only reason I went there was because I heard people pleading on commercial radio for someone to come and help them and stop them being killed. The Bosnian Serb army had just about surrounded Srebrenica and Konjević Polje. We got there. I recall about 20 people killed around us. A couple of my soldiers were wounded, but no one was killed. After a few weeks, when we got about 2,000 people out, mainly women and children, we were ordered to withdraw. I did not want to withdraw, but we were ordered to withdraw. Now, is it not weird that if Republika Srpska splits away, Srebrenica will be in that part of Republika Srpska?
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: International Affairs
Alicia Alexandra Martha Kearns (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. and gallant Friend for the point he is making. Does he agree that one of the most important reasons why Republika Srpska cannot break away, and why we must maintain the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is that if it does, that would be officially to mandate ethnic cleansing? It would be to say that if someone ethnically cleanses and commits genocide, they can wait 20 years and we will allow them to break away and celebrate their ethnic cleansing, because they will have succeeded in their goal. That would be utterly wrong, and we must stand firm against that.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: International Affairs
Alicia Alexandra Martha Kearns (Conservative, Centre-right): As my right hon. Friend mentions what the Government could do, is he aware that Republika Srpska has raised £30 million on the London stock exchange to fund their debt since April? That is something that the Government can look at. That is something that the Treasury is doing. We know that Serbia is funding guns and arms to go into Republika Srpska. We know that Serbia gets those arms from Russia. So clearly there is something going wrong when we are enabling Republika Srpska to fund itself from within London.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: International Affairs
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. "For a while" is about to end In summary, there is no doubt that Bosnia cannot sort out its own problems. It requires international help. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. About 100,000 people were killed in the country between 1991 and 1995. That must not be repeated. We, the United Kingdom, could and should—we are the only country that can really do it in my view—lead the initiative to save Bosnia. I ask the Government please, please, to put this as a top priority of this Administration. Please God, let us not stand by and watch huge numbers of innocent people die again.
Christmas Adjournment — House of Commons, 2021-12-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Paul John Holmes (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman rightly mentions constituency security. He will know—I will have to raise this later—that contracts have changed, but we are still seeing unacceptable delays and works not being completed to our constituency offices, despite our consistently trying to get the authorities to act on it. Has he experienced that, and have any colleagues spoken to him about that problem?
Western Balkans — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment her Department has made of the (a) political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and (b) potential for a renewed conflict in western Balkans.
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): I apologise that we do not have our normal cohort of Ministers here this morning. One of our colleagues tested positive for covid yesterday, and the Foreign Secretary is at a very important meeting with our NATO partners, where she will raise the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is serious, with Republika Srpska attempting de facto secession. We fully support Bosnia and Herzegovina’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. We are working with allies to support the peace stabilisation force EUFOR, enhance NATO’s posture and support the High Representative.
Western Balkans — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment her Department has made of the (a) political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and (b) potential for a renewed conflict in western Balkans.
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): We see a concerning pattern of Russian behaviour. The aim is to hamper Euro-Atlantic integration in the region. The UK’s approach is clearly set out in the integrated review. The UK takes the threat from the Russian state extremely seriously and we will continue to call out Russian aggression.
Western Balkans — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment her Department has made of the (a) political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and (b) potential for a renewed conflict in western Balkans.
Roger James Gale (Conservative, Centre-right): It is clear that the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has worsened considerably as a result of the separationist ambitions of Republika Srpska, which is backed by the Russian Federation. Can my hon. Friend the Minister tell me what discussions the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has had with the new High Representative and what steps we are taking as a nation to try to stabilise the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
Western Balkans — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment her Department has made of the (a) political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and (b) potential for a renewed conflict in western Balkans.
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): We are fully committed to supporting High Representative Schmidt. At the NATO foreign ministerial meeting in Riga today, the Foreign Secretary will focus attention on Bosnia and Herzegovina and encourage greater engagement from the alliance to play an enhanced role. She will call on allies to contribute personnel to the NATO headquarters in Sarajevo and to support work to counter disinformation and strengthen defence reform. The UK will do its part.
Western Balkans — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment her Department has made of the (a) political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and (b) potential for a renewed conflict in western Balkans.
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said earlier, the political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina is serious, which is precisely why the Foreign Secretary will raise it today. We are working hard to prevent it from becoming a security crisis, but the risk of miscalculation or exploitation remains. The hon. Lady asked about UK aid. Our embassy in Sarajevo supports a range of programmes that promote stability, security and prosperity, and targets programmes in support of civil society and media freedom.
Western Balkans — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment her Department has made of the (a) political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and (b) potential for a renewed conflict in western Balkans.
Andrew James Bridgen (Conservative, Centre-right): Given the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is it time to look again at the rulings of the Dayton accords? Are the UK Government willing to put in the political effort to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated?
Western Balkans — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment her Department has made of the (a) political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and (b) potential for a renewed conflict in western Balkans.
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): Let us be clear that Srebrenica was a genocide, as confirmed by international courts. We must not forget the victims. The UK has urged all political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region to reject hate speech; to condemn any glorification of the perpetrators of genocide and war crimes; and to respect the courts. It is precisely because it is so important that we work with our NATO partners that the Foreign Secretary will raise the situation in Riga today.
Belarus — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): The Foreign Secretary will also be discussing Belarus with NATO partners today We remain deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Belarus. The UK has imposed over 100 sanctions designations. The action by Lukashenko to engineer a migrant crisis is an attempt to undermine Poland and others in the region. The Prime Minister emphasised our commitment to Poland’s security when he met the Polish Prime Minister last Friday. The UK will continue to work closely with our partners in holding Lukashenko to account.
Belarus — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Maria Frances Lewis Miller (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. The situation in Belarus is truly disturbing. More than a year on from the 2020 presidential elections in Belarus, over 30,000 people have been detained, with widespread allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and hundreds of civil society activists and human rights defenders being detained. What can my hon. Friend do for those who are detained—for example, Mikita Zalatarou, who was just 16 when he was arrested, and has allegedly been tortured and kept in solitary confinement?
Belarus — House of Commons, 2021-11-30
Topic: International Affairs
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): We are appalled by reports that there are now over 850 political prisoners in Belarus, and we strongly urge the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those held on political grounds. We are supporting mechanisms through the UN, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and independent non-governmental organisations to investigate human rights violations in Belarus and hold those responsible to account. As I said earlier, we have also taken direct action through over 100 sanctions designations.