argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Nationality and Borders Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-27
Topic: Immigration
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, Clause 10 talks about, to quote the Explanatory Notes, "cases where parents have chosen not to register their child’s birth, which would have acquired their own nationality for their child, which means that the child can register as a British citizen under the statelessness provisions." I seriously question how many parents have such a detailed understanding of nationality law that they choose not to register their child’s birth in order to register their child later under statelessness provisions to give them British citizenship. That is just not credible. How many cases can the Minister cite where parents have deliberately not registered the nationality of their child in order for that child to get British citizenship under the statelessness provisions This strikes me as a cynical attempt to tighten the law, in a similar way to that in which the Bill tightens the provisions around modern slavery, to give the impression of being tough—bordering on xenophobic —on immigration, when there really is not a problem. It should not be part of the Bill. The power in this clause given to the Secretary of State to deny British citizenship to a child, unless she is satisfied that the child cannot reasonably acquire the nationality of its parents, needs to be qualified at the very least Amendment 30 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, would give effect to the recommendation of the Joint Committee on Human Rights "to ensure that British citizenship is only withheld" from a stateless child born in the UK "where the nationality of a parent is available to the child immediately", without any legal or administrative hurdles. We will support this amendment if this clause stands part of the Bill These are decisions being taken by parents and the Secretary of State about an innocent child who has no influence over what is being decided about their future—decisions about something as fundamental as citizenship. For that reason alone, we strongly support Amendment 31: that the best interests of the stateless child born in the UK must be central to any decision whether to grant or refuse British citizenship This is what we have come to: seeking to deny stateless children born in the UK British citizenship. As I said on a previous group, British citizenship has benefits to society as well as to the individual concerned. This is not just about the best interests of the child, although it should be; it is about what is in the best interests of society. Keeping children stateless as they grow into adults surely increases their chance of being radicalised and becoming a threat to society. On the last group, the Minister kept talking about high-harm individuals. All the evidence points to one of the most important factors in radicalisation being people not feeling part of society or of this country. Keeping a child stateless surely will increase the danger of that person growing into a terrorist.
Nationality and Borders Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-27
Topic: Immigration
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, can the Minister clarify something? She gave us some figures; I did not have a chance to write to them down. She talked about the figures peaking at, I think, somewhere around 1,700 cases. Is that the number of stateless children born in the UK who are granted British citizenship, or are they cases where parents deliberately chose not to register their child’s birth in order to take advantage of the system?
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Jonathan Marks (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I will try not to repeat too much of what my noble friend Lord Paddick said. He pointed out—it is not a new point—that this has been a long and difficult Bill. I am bound to say that we must all hope that such a mammoth Bill, with such a wide range of diverse topics shoehorned into a single piece of legislation, will never be put before Parliament again. It has taken too many days, with too little time for the content involved and too much pressure, not just on MPs and Peers but on parliamentary staff, officials and those many organisations that seek to brief us about legislation. For us here, there have been too many early starts and too many late nights. It has been a very difficult experience None the less, I completely agree that the House has done its job well. We are very grateful to the ministerial team and their officials. On justice issues, I am, of course, particularly grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson, for the care, courtesy, approachability and engagement, not to say humour, that he has shown in our discussions. We have had some significant successes, from our point of view, on breastfeeding voyeurism and common assault in the context of domestic abuse. We have had some limited progress—my goodness, it is limited—on IPPs. That is clearly not the end of the story On Home Office issues, we are grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, for her care and the comprehensively courteous way she has dealt with the House, although I am bound to say that I share my noble friend Lord Paddick’s view that we have felt that she has not been able, on behalf of the Government, to make the concessions she perhaps might have liked to have made in some areas These Ministers illustrate the pressure there has been on all of us. In this context, I mention the tireless and efficient work of my noble friend Lord Paddick, who has borne the brunt of days and weeks of debate over many hours and days of sitting, and there have been many more days of preparation Before the Bill finally passes, we on these Benches regard it as largely profoundly regressive. On human rights issues, the House must expect Liberal Democrats and others in the Opposition to continue robustly to defend individual liberty in a way that we do not believe the Bill does. On justice, we will keep the pressure up for a humane sentencing system dedicated to rehabilitation and reform, combined with increasing use of community sentences. We will continue to work on women’s justice, where it seems that we are accepting very slow progress when we should be looking for dramatic improvement.
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-25
Topic: Other
Alan Beith (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I shall seek to answer the noble Lord’s question. I go back to February 1974. Imagine that Harold Wilson had said, "I’ve become the Prime Minister. I don’t have a majority. Mine is the largest party. I want to rerun the election straightaway." Add into that mix—which was not the case at the time—that he is the leader of the party that has the most substantial resources and has been the least damaged financially by the conduct of the election. But that is not what happened. Maybe Harold Wilson was advised that he should not do that, but that is the sort of circumstance that might be thought inappropriate.
Afghanistan: Humanitarian Crisis — House of Lords, 2022-01-13
Topic: Immigration
Lindsay Granshaw (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Taken together, given the expertise in the FCDO in relation to Afghanistan—even with cuts in funds—will the department play a key role in the MoJ/Home Office decisions made under the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme on who will be admitted to the United Kingdom because their lives are in danger in the country? The situation since August has been totally unacceptable.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Other
Susan Garden (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The noble Lord, Lord Howarth of Newport, should be taking part remotely. If the noble Lord is there, would he like to speak? We will continue with the debate and when we can get hold of him, we will bring him in.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Other
Timothy Francis Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I want to follow up on that question. It was in 2018 that the consultation took place; is the Minister aware of that? We are now four years down the track and nothing has come out.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-02-04
Topic: Mixed Topics
Joan Walmsley (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I have been in this House for 22 years and I have been asking for this for at least 20 of them. It really is time that the Government got on with it. At the time, I was told that most wine comes from abroad and we cannot legislate for what is put on the labels, but it cannot be impossible to put information on the shelf labels or online. If people do not know what they are putting inside their bodies, they cannot moderate it.
Conduct Committee — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Civil Rights
Meral Hussein-Ece (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I think I am the only member of the Conduct Committee in the Chamber, so may I say that this is the first I have heard of this and express my disappointment. I support everything that the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, said. I always listen very carefully to him and I have enormous respect for his contributions. I assure him that this subject—the freedom of expression and of opinion—has been debated by the Conduct Committee, and it is understood and agreed that it is in no way a breach of the Code of Conduct. I am pleased to hear that the commissioner has rejected the complaints, and that is the way it should be I want to give a reassurance, because this Motion refers to our committee’s members and its new members; we are looking forward enormously to working with them. They are clear on this matter, as was the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance. I can still hear him saying very clearly that freedom of opinion in a view is in no way a breach—it cannot be. When it transcends into bullying, harassment, sexual harassment or misconduct —trying in any way to bully or belittle members of staff or the public—then it would be investigated. Expressing a view in this Chamber would never constitute that. The four lay members are clear on that as well. We are all agreed on it; there is no question of it, so I give that reassurance to the noble Lord and to the House.
Subsidy Control Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Fox (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Sorry to intervene, but to be clear so that I understand: what the Minister has just said is, I think, that if I have a business which has an operation in County Antrim and an operation in Hereford, and they are both technically eligible for a subsidy for the goods they make, the operation in Hereford would be eligible for a subsidy under the UK scheme but the operation in County Antrim would not be. Is that correct?
Subsidy Control Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jeremy Purvis (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The Minister is being generous in giving way this evening. For the record, will the Minister say—it was hard to discern from the comments on the processes—what the geographical area of a market is? The Bill refers to market failure, and the Minister has referred to it. He also referred to many public bodies that will be local authorities. When I emailed the subsidy control email inquiry, asking, as a resident of the Scottish Borders, whether Northumberland is a market, in order to discern whether it will be a market failure, I was told that there is no Northumberland market. So, what are the geographical areas of a market? The Government are not going to have the geographical indices for deprivation, whereas previously, we knew what the markets were in respect of state aid support.
Building Safety — House of Lords, 2022-01-11
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Robert Andrew Stunell (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the Minister for his Statement; it is very welcome. Following on from that last point, there is a clear problem created by the insurance industry, which has made matters significantly worse. Will he have meetings with the insurance industry to guide them through the new British standard that will be published so that we do not go through another two years of overengineered responses based on an extravagant risk-based system?
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-17
Topic: Civil Rights
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I want to take a slightly different view of this. We support misogyny being treated as a hate crime and, personally, I do not understand the arguments of the Law Commission in relation to domestic violence and sexual offences. The same objections could be made to existing hate crimes such as homophobia, but they exist alongside these serious offences without difficulty. I wonder whether proposed new subsection (4) in the amendment is necessary May I suggest an alternative way out of the gender debate? I wonder whether, in line with the Law Commission’s report on hate crime in relation to other aspects of hate crime, the words in brackets—"or perceived sex"—should be added to the word "sex" at the end of new subsections (1)(a) and (1)(b) proposed by the amendment. I am thinking of the following hypothetical example. A man who shouts demeaning and derogatory terms for a woman, indicating a hatred of women, and who without provocation attacks a stranger in the street, indicating that the attack is motivated by a hatred of women, should be charged with the aggravated misogyny offence, whether the assailant is mistaken in identifying the victim as a woman or not. It should not matter whether the victim is a woman or not; it is the motivation of the attacker that is important. If that motivation is hatred of women, it should be an aggravating factor However, despite my concerns about the wording of the amendment, we have waited long enough for this important and necessary change in the law. Any defect in the wording of the amendment can be addressed in the other place, and if the noble Baroness divides the House, we will support her.
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, we support all the non-government amendments in this group. In particular, we agree that, just as protesters can be given permission to use amplification equipment in the vicinity of Parliament under existing legislation, large demonstrations should be able to block roads temporarily, given the necessary permission. We will vote for Amendments 133A and 133B should the noble Viscount, Lord Colville of Culross, divide the House In Committee, I spoke at length on why we oppose this clause and support Amendment 137A. I refer noble Lords to the Official Report.
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-17
Topic: Housing
Dorothy Thornhill (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, we on these Benches support the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Best, to which I have added my name. In view of the hour, I too will be brief, as the two noble Lords have already said it all. I thank the Minister for the time that she gave us both in meetings and in numerous emails. I genuinely believe that there is real commitment to undoing this blot on our societal conscience. Therefore, given the genuineness of that feeling, it is massively disappointing that it appears that the Government have decided not to seize the only opportunity that we can see in the legislative calendar to actually repeal this piece of legislation There is widespread support for repealing this Act. To do so would actually be popular and uncontroversial, unlike much of this Bill. It is unequivocally the right thing to do. The fact that in Scotland it has been repealed for years and that most police forces rarely, if ever, use the powers in the Act is surely evidence enough that, in reality, it is of little use in tackling the current issues of homelessness, where there are, as the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, said, a raft of alternative measures at the disposal of the police and local authorities. It will be a great disappointment for many if this can is to be kicked further down the road. That is why, if it comes to a vote, we will be supporting the noble Lord, Lord Best. To steal a slogan from somewhere else, why do not the Government "Just Do It"?
Procurement Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Fox (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the Minister for giving way. I am confused and I am sure he can help me. Clause 82(1) specifically says: "A contracting authority may not, in carrying out a procurement, below-threshold procurement or international organisation procurement, discriminate against a treaty state supplier." The Minister just said the opposite of that in the case of below-threshold procurement. The Bill is very clear that a below-threshold procurement does not let off the contracting authority from having to give the contract to a treaty state supplier.
Procurement Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-05-25
Topic: Other
William John Lawrence Wallace (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I do not want to detain the House, but, since my noble friend Lord Strasburger made some serious points about a major contract, could the Minister possibly say that he will undertake to meet him and others to respond to some of the points he made?
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Robin Teverson (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 53 in my name—we go from Amendment 1 right the way to Amendment 53. It is much more restricted than the amendment moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes. I suppose I have been rather defeatist in this amendment, in that I have assumed that the Government will not say thank you to the noble Baroness for her amendment, which I support. I think her speech was absolutely right. This bank should be regulated like any other bank in terms of prudential regulation. If that cannot be the case, we have to ensure that employees of the bank who are making important decisions about taxpayers’ money and the public sector balance sheet are fit and proper persons. The way to do that is to apply the Financial Conduct Authority’s regime for management, which in ancient history I used to know as approved persons. They should keep to the regulations that come from the FCA. If it is impossible for the bank to be regulated in the way that other banks are, it is essential that we as taxpayers and as parliamentarians are confident that those employed by the bank to make those decisions are indeed fit and proper persons. That is the simple cause and reason for my amendment.
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Susan Kramer (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Perhaps the Minister could clarify one thing for me. As I read the two documents put together, the instruction must be published but not the fact that the bank has looked at it and deemed it to be improper, infringing "propriety" or "of questionable feasibility, or … unethical" In other words, that opinion of the bank can be completely suppressed, as I understand it, by the language of the Bill and of this document. If that is not correct, it would be most helpful if the Minister could tell me.
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Robin Teverson (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I am sorry—perhaps I could intervene very briefly. I find it an interesting explanation from the Minister that they are not going to apply regulation because it is a smaller and younger bank. I suspect that would not apply to any other bank that was founded in the private sector. As the Minister said, the framework document goes through the senior managers and certification regime. But it says, regarding "governance and conduct": "This would include, as far as is reasonably practicable and appropriate for the Company, abiding by the principles of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime" I understand that, but either you apply it or you do not. You cannot sort of half-think about it. It is one of those things like "You’re either pregnant or you’re not", or whatever—sorry, that is probably an inappropriate way to put it—so I do not understand how the framework document approaches this. Maybe I have it wrong; as I said, I am used to the old approved persons regime and not up to date on this, but I do not understand it.
UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Susan Kramer (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I am sorry to remain persistent on this, but the Minister just said that the bank is not required to publish its letter of reservations. Is it not correct to say that what the document says is that the shareholder may effectively prohibit the bank from publishing its letter of reservations—so it is a gagging clause? That is what it says in the framework.
Asylum Seekers: Removal to Rwanda — House of Lords, 2022-06-14
Topic: Immigration
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration says that he has seen no impact of the Rwanda policy on numbers attempting to cross the channel in small boats. One hundred crossed just yesterday. The civil servant in charge of the Home Office says that he has not seen any evidence to show that the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will act as a deterrent. Israel tried the same policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda and it failed. When will the Government admit that their Rwanda policy is less about stopping people smugglers transporting people across the channel and has everything to do with the UK abdicating its moral responsibility to give genuine asylum seekers sanctuary in this country and its legal responsibilities under the UN refugee convention?