argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Leaving the EU: Research and Staffing — House of Commons, 2018-01-29
Topic: Immigration
Questions: What assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on future participation in EU research programmes and staffing levels in higher education.; What assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on future participation in EU research programmes and staffing levels in higher education.
Carol Frances Monaghan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I welcome the Secretary of State and his team to their places. He will no doubt be aware of the challenges of getting young people, especially girls, into STEM careers. Given the importance of those subjects to our economic development, does he agree that the UK’s immigration policy for prospective academic and research staff from the EU should not be restrictive?
Leaving the EU: Research and Staffing — House of Commons, 2018-01-29
Topic: Immigration
Questions: What assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on future participation in EU research programmes and staffing levels in higher education.; What assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on future participation in EU research programmes and staffing levels in higher education.
Carol Frances Monaghan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Royal Society of Edinburgh said in its evidence to the Migration Advisory Committee that the UK risks undermining the Scottish Government’s efforts on developing interest in and the uptake of STEM subjects if restrictive immigration policies are put in place. What discussions has the Secretary of State had in this area with the Home Secretary and with university principals, to commit to looking at a tailored immigration policy for Scotland?
Armed Forces (Flexible Working) Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-01-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am amazed that it took the hon. Lady so long to make that point. As she knows, because she attends these debates—sometimes—the changes in taxation have actually brought in a tax cut for the vast majority of serving personnel in Scotland, including some in her own constituency. They are among the lowest-paid members not only of the armed forces but of the public sector across the UK. By contrast, the pay freeze for someone on, say, £21,000 represents a cut of £400. I am willing to engage in a debate on pay, and I am happy to defend my Government’s record, but would she accept that it is time for the pay cut imposed by her Government to go? Nothing?
May Adjournment — House of Commons, 2018-05-03
Topic: Other
David Melvyn Linden (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Speaking on behalf of the SNP Whips Office, we would never suggest that my hon. Friend is anything but a whinger. Will he join me in paying tribute to the staff in the SNP Whips Office—Anne Harvey, Christopher Mullins-Silverstein and Kieran Reape—for all their hard work?
May Adjournment — House of Commons, 2018-05-03
Topic: Other
Christopher Charles Stephens (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for giving way and for renewing our acquaintance. In the previous Adjournment debate I challenged him to give up Conservatism for Lent. Can he tell me how many people in England are going to give up Conservatism today?
National Living Wage: Under-25s — House of Commons, 2018-05-03
Topic: Civil Rights
David Melvyn Linden (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. What he has said takes us back to the central point that a fair day’s work should result in a fair day’s pay If the Minister looks at the data, he will see that 2.5 million young people do not live with their parents. That is 2.5 million young people paying for shopping, rent and utilities. Statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that approximately 20% of mothers are under the age of 25. The discriminatory exclusion from the national living wage means that they must get by on poverty pay The current national minimum wage—and we should bear in mind that that legislation was passed in the last century—is not only a clear example of direct age discrimination, but an example of discrimination based on class. It flies in the face of the very concept of social mobility. How can a 22 year-old first-year apprentice on a miserable £3.70 an hour be socially mobile? That is what the law currently allows, as is stated on the UK Government’s website. That is what an employer who is thinking about employing an apprentice is encouraged to do A recent report by KPMG showed that one in five people are struggling to escape from low pay. For example, one in four women earns less than the real living wage. Put simply, that means skipping meals, living in debt and using payday loans just to get by. The fact is that there is a solid evidence base out there that makes the case for equal pay for under-25s.
Small Business Sector — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Lisa Cameron (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The all-party group on disability, which I chair, has published an inquiry report highlighting the fantastic contribution of entrepreneurs with disabilities, but they still face many challenges, such as in accessing finance. Will the Secretary of State meet the all-party group to discuss this issue and ensure a truly inclusive economy?
Non-UK EU Nationals: Small Businesses — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Stephen Patrick Gethins (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): In my constituency, fruit and veg producers and the tourism industry rely heavily on EU seasonal workers. Does the Minister recognise the damage that continued uncertainty is doing to those businesses? Two years on from the referendum, when will they get a bit more certainty so that we can maintain those EU seasonal workers who contribute so much to our economy?
Non-UK EU Nationals: Small Businesses — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Immigration
David Melvyn Linden (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Analysis shows that EU citizens contribute £4 billion a year to the economy in Scotland. We see that happening in small businesses along Shettleston Road, for example. Does the Minister agree that the devastating effect of free-movement restrictions will have a colossal impact on small businesses in Shettleston and in Scotland as a whole, and will he support the calls from the Scottish Trades Union Congress for immigration to be devolved to Scotland?
Non-UK EU Nationals: Small Businesses — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Immigration
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Federation of Small Businesses says that the right of EU staff to remain in the UK is vital. In Scotland, 45% of tourism and leisure businesses rely on EU staff for their workforce. They fear that they will not be able to recruit for their future needs, and their fear is heightened by the possibility that the immigration skills charge—which is currently up to £1,000 a year—will be applied. Can the Minister categorically assure employers that they will not be subjected to any charge for EU workers post-Brexit?
Non-UK EU Nationals: Small Businesses — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Immigration
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Scottish Affairs Committee, the Home Affairs Committee in its report, and the Economics Committee in the House of Lords all see the sense of a differentiated immigration system for Scotland. Can the Minister confirm that he, too, accepts that there is a clear case for a policy that recognises the different needs of businesses in Scotland?
Tributes (Speaker Martin) — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Other
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank you, Mr Speaker, for your very kind remarks, and I thank those who have followed you On behalf of the Scottish National party, I join the tributes paid to Michael Martin and send our deepest condolences and sympathies to his wife Mary and the whole family. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of them Very few of the current SNP group served in this House under Michael Martin’s Speakership, but those who did, and the former Members who did, have spoken fondly of their memories and the high regard in which he was held by Members right across the House. He was, as you and others have said, Mr Speaker, proud of his Glasgow roots and his Scottish heritage. His love of the pipes was well known, and I believe he once had the unique honour of playing his set of pipes at the top of the Elizabeth Tower Some of our longer serving staff members recall the occasion when the Serjeant at Arms informed the SNP group that bagpipes would not be permitted at a reception on St Andrew’s Day. When this came to the attention of Speaker Martin, he immediately intervened and ensured that the pipes were liberated and heard loudly across Portcullis House. I am also informed that two weeks before his resignation the recipe of his Speaker’s whisky was changed. Apparently, the few bottles that now remain change hands for exorbitant prices on eBay and so on There are few of us in the SNP who served under Michael, but my hon. Friend the Member for Argyll and Bute (Brendan O’Hara) did have the unenviable task of standing against him in the 1987 general election, attempting to overturn his robust majority of 26,000. The story goes that one day Michael stopped a woman in Duke Street to ask for her vote, only to be told that she would be voting SNP. Michael responded robustly, advising that the young candidate was, shall we say, something of an upstart, to which the woman replied, "Really? That’s my son you’re talking about!" My hon. Friend to this day claims that his mother did vote for him and not Michael Martin, but perhaps we will never know In later years, some of our Members who now represent Glasgow constituencies—my hon. Friends the Members for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady), for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss) and for Glasgow East (David Linden)—lived in his constituency. Despite any political differences they might have had, they were all well aware of Michael’s diligence as a constituency MP, and of the affection and high regard in which he was held by the local community. I am sure you will agree, Mr Speaker, that being Speaker of the House is not an easy task, but the tributes today make clear the respect the whole House had for Speaker Martin. He began a process of reform and modernisation that you, Mr Speaker, have continued, and which will no doubt carry on into the future. That can rightly be considered an important part of his legacy To have risen from his roots in poverty to the Chair of the House was a significant and considerable achievement. Michael was an inspiration to many. Michael, rest in peace.
Tributes (Speaker Martin) — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Joanna Catherine Cherry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I want to pay a brief tribute to Michael Martin as a symbol of the social mobility of a generation of the working class in the post-war years. My dad was born in a tenement in Maryhill, just next door to Springburn, and I know that their generation did not always have an easy time of it, facing prejudice and snobbery, particularly if they were of the Roman Catholic faith. Mr Speaker, you said that Michael Martin was the first Roman Catholic to hold your great office of state since the Reformation. Catholics now regularly hold high office in Scotland and across the UK, but that was not always the case, and a significant degree of sectarian abuse from certain quarters is still directed towards those of us in public life who are from the Catholic tradition. Let me add my very personal and sincere thank you to Michael Martin for breaking through that particular glass ceiling. May he rest in peace.
Tributes (Speaker Martin) — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Other
David Melvyn Linden (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): One of the great honours that the hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Mr Sweeney) and I have is sharing the community of Carntyne, where many of my family come from and where many of them still live today. I had the pleasure of spending some time at the weekend with the Labour Councillor Frank McAveety, discussing some memories of Michael Martin and his days in Springburn Labour party—some of which cannot be repeated in this House, I am afraid I think there is something hugely inspiring about the fact that this is a guy who was a sheet metal worker in Glasgow and was raised to his position in the House of Commons. He did not come here and pull the ladder up behind him, and he made sure that apprenticeships were available. That is something that chimes with me, as a former modern apprentice Let me return to the subject of Carntyne and the members of my family who live there. Not all of them will have been Labour voters, or Scottish National party voters, and I still do not know how some of them voted. What is left with me, however, is the memory of my gran, who lived in Michael Martin’s constituency, saying—this was probably the greatest tribute that could be paid to someone by a wee old lady in Glasgow—"He was an awfully kind man." I think that that is how we in the House should remember him.
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the hon. Lady for her support. I hope to at least press new clause 19 to a vote, because there needs to be some action on SLPs, and tying it to a bank account is a good way of doing that The SNP is extremely proud of Scotland’s reputation as a successful place to conduct business, but with SLPs continuing to generate new scandals, there is an ever-growing reputational risk to Scotland, and indeed the UK, if action is not taken. I would like to take this opportunity to dig the Government up for their shenanigans on SLPs Owing to the diligent campaigning by the former Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, Roger Mullin, the UK Government launched a consultation on SLPs on 16 January last year and closed it on 17 March last year. We then had an election, in which my dear friend did not get re-elected. We waited. Questions were tabled, and we were told again and again by Government that a response on the consultation was imminent. There was nothing. A month ago, we were told that it would be a matter of weeks, but probably not until after the Bill came back. Last week, we were told by officials that the report on SLPs was awaiting sign-off in Government, and on Sunday there was an announcement in the press that action was going to be taken, with a "Crackdown on abuse of UK businesses for foreign money laundering". When we get to the detail, what in fact is it? It is another consultation—it is a consultation about a consultation That simply will not do. The UK Government are well aware of the problems with SLPs, which are well documented. The Secretary of State mentioned earlier the evidence that led to the bringing into scope of the person of significant control. We know that that was required, and there was evidence on it. We are waiting for fines to be levied on people who have not registered their persons of significant control.
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am just about to finish. [Interruption.] Let me finish this point, and I will then give way Landownership is hidden behind such entities. Just a few weeks ago, The Sunday Post highlighted the very important point that Scottish property is held in 22 different tax havens by 776 companies. Just last year, overseas firms bought £200 million of Scottish land and buildings, ranging in size from council estates to country estates, and the total value of such property is estimated to be £2.9 billion. This costs taxpayers in Scotland and here in the form of the capital gains tax revenue that is missed because the property has gone somewhere else. It has left the country, and there is no transparency. If the hon. Gentleman really wants to justify it, I will happily take an intervention from him.
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Housing
Hannah Mary Bardell (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Given that across London almost 40,000 properties are owned by companies based in tax havens and given the scandal after Grenfell of trying to find people homes, does the hon. Lady agree that there is huge concern about these companies and organisations, and whether we are able to tackle the housing issue?
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Hannah Mary Bardell (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Does the hon. Lady agree that it is disappointing to hear Conservatives saying that the money will move elsewhere? If we do not make a start, how will we move forward? The gender pay gap reporting has done exactly that.
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Other
Hannah Mary Bardell (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek your guidance. New clause 6 has just passed in a spirit of cross-party co-operation. I find it interesting that the right hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) spoke so vigorously against the new clause. What can we do to ensure that Members who speak so vigorously against an amendment put their money—as we know, the DUP have rather a lot of it—where their mouth is, proverbially speaking?
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I rise to speak to the amendments in my name. I will rattle through them and say why they have been tabled. The primary concern is about Companies House. Very much as the hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds) has just said, we have laid out our serious concerns at all stages of the Bill. It is disappointing to get to this stage and find that the Government are still not listening to those concerns Companies House does not have the adequate resources or powers sufficiently to monitor and ensure the integrity of the company incorporation data submitted to it.
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. Registering with Companies House seems to be the easiest thing possible. It is baffling that anything else, such as a tax return, a passport application or a driving licence application, needs to go through the gov.uk verify scheme, but Companies House does not have that requirement. Just tightening up those rules would help hugely both to ensure the accuracy of the information and to clamp down on those who wish to abuse the system. It is in all our interests to make sure the system is accurate, but it is not accurate Worse, there are only about 20 people at Companies House policing some 4 million firms’ compliance with company law. There are no proactive checks on the accuracy of the information submitted, which, as the hon. Member for Oxford East has just said, allows a significant amount of false and misleading data to be submitted to the companies register.
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The difficulty in all this is with enforcement. As the hon. Member for Oxford East pointed out, it has been very difficult to get anything to happen in the case of "the chicken thief". The only person to be prosecuted so far is a whistleblower, which does not lead me to believe much will be done to those who abuse the system. The volume of data at Companies House makes such abuse very difficult to tackle. Indeed, investigative journalist Richard Smith has flagged up such things and has found it difficult to get any action. If a person submits the wrong name and address on their form, either deliberately or accidentally, how is the agency supposed to track down that person to get them to correct the information Not making the system accurate allows hon. Members to stand up in this place and say that transparency of registers does not work, but we know it does work if it is done properly and if we invest in it properly. We need to be careful to make sure that our own integrity is right, because if we are leading on transparency and beneficial registers across the world, we need to make sure that what we are doing here—the intention around Companies House—is what is carried out in practice. Companies House needs more resource to allow that to happen.
Royal Bank of Scotland Closure: Kilwinning — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): This petition from the residents of the North Ayrshire and Arran constituency attracted 559 signatures, which were gathered by me, dedicated Kilwinning Scottish National party activists, and our Kilwinning SNP councillor, Scott Davidson The petition states: The petition of residents of North Ayrshire & Arran, Declares that proposed closure of the 3 branches of the publicly-owned Royal Bank of Scotland in the areas of Kilbirnie, Kilwinning & Saltcoats will have a detrimental effect on local communities and the local economy. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges Her Majesty’s Treasury, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Royal Bank of Scotland to take into account the concerns of petitioners and take whatever steps they can to halt the planned closure of these branches And the petitioners remain, etc [P002136]
Royal Bank of Scotland Closure: Airdrie — House of Commons, 2018-05-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Neil Charles Gray (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I rise to present this petition from the residents in and around Airdrie in my constituency who are opposed to the closure of the Royal Bank of Scotland branch in the town. The petition gathered several hundred signatures, as local private customers and businesses who will be impacted by the closure wished to voice their displeasure. I hope that through this petition and others presented by my right hon. and hon. Friends, the bank may see sense and call a halt to the closures. That is a more distant hope when we see today’s news of further RBS closures, following last week’s announcement of the bank’s £1.2 billion first quarter pre-tax profit. That profit could easily be used to maintain a better branch network than the one that is currently being decimated. It is time that the UK Government used their shareholding on behalf of the taxpayer and acted The petition states: The petition of residents of Airdrie and its surrounding area, Declares that the closure of the town's Royal Bank of Scotland branch will have a detrimental effect on both the people of Airdrie and the town centre itself The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons asks the Royal Bank of Scotland board to revisit the decision given that the bank is still 70% publicly owned And the petitioners remain, etc [P002142]