argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Farming Businesses: Resilience — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an important point and we have acted to deal with that problem. From April this year the Government extended tax averaging for farmers to five years, up from the previous two years, so that they can better offset good years against bad years. In addition, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has a number of schemes, such as the time to pay scheme, which means that it shows forbearance to farmers who are suffering cash-flow difficulties.
Farming Businesses: Resilience — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: International Affairs
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): For the time being we remain in the European Union, and all existing arrangements continue. Only once we have concluded negotiations and left the European Union will we put future measures in place. On capacity in the civil service, some areas and some EU dossiers have a long-term horizon with which we will perhaps be less engaged and involved, and that will free up capacity for some of the planning work that we need for our own domestic policy.
Farming Businesses: Resilience — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Caroline Alice Spelman (Conservative, Centre-right): I record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince) for providing us with a taste of Colchester yesterday. One of his constituency’s soft fruit farmers emphasised his concern about his resilience, and his dependence on EU migrant labour. Are plans in place to ensure that farmers are supported should migrant labour be reduced?
Farming Businesses: Resilience — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): As my right hon. Friend will know, I have worked in the soft fruit industry, and I am familiar with the challenges that certain agricultural sectors face with seasonal labour. Ultimately, the decision that she refers to will be for a new Prime Minister, the Cabinet they choose, and the negotiations that they seek. In recent years we have had models such as seasonal agricultural worker schemes, and there are ways to ensure that the required labour is available.
Farming Businesses: Resilience — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: International Affairs
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I disagree with the hon. Lady. The Government put forward an assessment of the potential impacts of leaving the European Union, which was hotly debated during the referendum. Ultimately, the British public made an assessment of what they wanted to do, and the assessment is that they want to leave the EU. The job of the Government now is to implement that decision.
Endangered Species: Hunting Trophies — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Environment
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are absolutely clear that we will not allow the import of trophies from critically endangered species when it is unsustainable—tigers, for example. We have also increased the protection and controls on six other species, ranging from elephants to polar bears. We remain absolutely committed to banning the import of lion trophies unless we have significant improvements in lion conservation.
Endangered Species: Hunting Trophies — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Environment
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Minister for that answer and the general thrust of it. Does he agree, however, that it is morally wrong to kill the most endangered species merely to put a trophy on the wall, and that it would make sense to look to ban more widely the importation of those trophies that come from the most endangered categories?
Endangered Species: Hunting Trophies — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Environment
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree absolutely. All hon. Members would agree strongly that, if a species is critically endangered, it is not suitable to be hunted, let alone put on a wall as a trophy. We will look closely at scientific evidence across the range of endangered species. It will be extremely relevant to focus on that, with September and October being the time for the CITES conference in Johannesburg.
Endangered Species: Hunting Trophies — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: International Affairs
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): We are looking closely at what Australia and France are doing. We have been working on a common EU-US position in order to change practices in Africa. It makes a huge difference that we do this together as 700 million people in the EU and the US rather than trying to do it individually.
Endangered Species: Hunting Trophies — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: International Affairs
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): As my colleague the Minister of State has pointed out, the details of our position in relation to Europe will have to be determined by a future Prime Minister, but we played a very active role in drafting that plan and pushing for its contents. The hon. Lady will see in what we are doing in Vietnam our commitment to that plan. I reassure her that, certainly as long as I am in this position, the UK’s position is absolutely unequivocal.
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: International Affairs
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): As I have said, while we remain in the EU, all existing arrangements remain in place, including our current rural development programmes. Nothing changes until negotiations have been concluded and a new partnership with the EU is put in place.
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I can give farmers throughout the UK the reassurance that, for the time being, we remain in the EU, and all existing arrangements remain in place, including all existing support payments, until we leave the EU, and until a new type of partnership and a new domestic agriculture policy are put in place.
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my hon. Friend on the energy, enthusiasm and intelligence he brought to the leave campaign. Having met farmers in my constituency in Kettering before the vote, it was clear to me that the senior leadership of the National Farmers Union had signed up to "Project Fear" and was trying to scare farmers and rural dwellers into voting for remain. Now that the result has been decided—in Kettering, we voted overwhelmingly to leave—can we make sure that everyone involved in rural communities and farming talks up rural communities and farming, because we have a very bright future ahead of us?
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his kind comments. It is important, now the debate has concluded and the country has made its decision, that we move on and focus on next steps and the future. This week, I visited the Livestock Event and had meetings with many farmers. What I find interesting is that once we get past the initial shock—for some—of the decision, people engage with the detail of what might be possible in the future and become more excited about the potential for our future.
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the Minister agree that leaving the European Union will provide us with a tremendous opportunity to develop a tailor-made package of measures designed to support and help UK farmers? In fact, there is nothing to stop us starting to work on putting that package together right now.
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Rebecca Faye Clark (Pow) (Conservative, Centre-right): Many farmers and landowners are about to sign higher-level stewardship contracts, but there is a dilemma for Natural England. Many are 10-year contracts and in these uncertain EU times they are being put on hold. Will the Minister give assurances that these precious pieces of environmental biodiversity will not be at risk and that something will happen to protect them?
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Government Operations
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend puts her finger on an important point, which is that there will be areas and elements where we need continuity. We are having discussions across Government about how to ensure we secure that continuity without prejudicing what a future Prime Minister might want to do.
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: International Affairs
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): I have regular discussions with my opposite numbers in the devolved Administrations. I hope I will be able to meet the new Welsh Administration when I next go to Council in Europe, which is in about two weeks’ time, and discuss these issues in more detail. I also hope to attend the Royal Welsh show this year.
Rural Development Programmes — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): We have always had a commitment to review the allocation of common agricultural policy budgets—the so-called convergence uplift, as the hon. Gentleman refers to it—during 2016. I had a meeting and early discussions with NFU Scotland in January. Now that the Scottish elections are over and we have passed the referendum purdah, I would expect to be able to progress those discussions with the Scottish Government in the autumn.
Data: Public Availability — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Environment
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): Last summer, I set a target for DEFRA of releasing 8,000 datasets. By this summer, I am delighted to say that we have achieved 11,000 datasets, which means that more than a third of Government data is DEFRA data. This is bringing real benefits to people, providing information about air quality, better flooding data and landscape data for farmers and architects.
Data: Public Availability — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that our research base and our agri-tech are vitally important. That is the future of agriculture, with more precision farming and better use of data. I am determined to do all we can to protect and grow that. That is why we are investing £160 million in our agri-tech budget. Of course we need to plan even more for the future.
Data: Public Availability — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): We are looking at further research in this area. More research is due to be published and there are already many published pieces of research. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the decision on the use of neonicotinoids in the UK is made by the independent pesticides committee. It is made by Ministers, but we follow the scientific advice of that committee, whose minutes are fully published.
Regional Food and Drink — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): We launched the Great British Food Unit in January to promote our fantastic British produce around the world. In April, I was in the US working to open the market for beef and lamb, as well as promoting fantastic British products such as the classic gin and tonic.
Regional Food and Drink — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Foreign Trade
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): In my opinion, it is never too early for a gin and tonic! I completely agree with my hon. Friend. Now that the British people have made the decision to leave the EU, the Great British Food Unit is even more important. We already have missions planned for the Gulf, China and Japan to open more markets for fantastic British food. I am going to increase the resources going into the Great British Food Unit to make sure that we turbo-charge our efforts to export more British food right around the world.
Regional Food and Drink — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for a very enjoyable visit to Gloucester Services. I am delighted that its chief executive, Sarah Dunning, has agreed to be one of our food pioneers, promoting Great British food around Britain and around the world. I look forward to talking to my hon. Friend about how we can protect these great products when they are not just a matter for the European Union, but are more widely known around the world.
Regional Food and Drink — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): We absolutely are ensuring that Departments are backing British food. For example, more than 90% of the dairy products sourced by the Government come from the United Kingdom. There are, of course, some products, such as coffee, that we cannot yet produce in the UK, although now that we are able to produce our own aubergines, tomatoes and chillies, I am sure we are not far away from that.
Regional Food and Drink — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I think the number of protected food names has risen to 74, but the website may not have been updated This is an extremely important issue, and it is one of the issues on which we are working at the moment. However, I hope that we will develop a British protected food names status in the future.
Regional Food and Drink — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Foreign Trade
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I was delighted to visit Belfast and the huge show there, and to taste some of those products for myself. They are truly outstanding, and I am working closely with the Northern Irish Minister on promoting them throughout the world. They were heavily represented on our recent trade mission to China, and we will certainly be doing more work on that in the future.
Badger Culls — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): During 2015, badger control operations in Somerset, Gloucestershire and Dorset were all successful in meeting their targets. According to the Chief Veterinary Officer’s advice, the results show that industry-led badger control can deliver the level of effectiveness that will enable us to be confident of achieving disease control benefits.
Badger Culls — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): TB is costing the country £100 million a year, and that is why we have to act. The veterinary advice is clear—we cannot have a coherent strategy to eradicate TB without also tackling the disease in the wildlife population. Following advice from the World Health Organisation, the vaccination operations in Wales, as in England, have been suspended because there is a lack of vaccine.
Farmers: Support Payments — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): Until we leave the EU it will be business as usual; farmers will continue to receive support payments. We are developing options for future domestic policy. Ultimately this will be a decision for the new Prime Minister. I am working very closely with organisations such as the National Farmers Union, the Country Land and Business Association, and environmental groups, which will have a role to play in helping us develop these policies.
Farmers: Support Payments — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said, until we leave the EU those schemes will be in place, but when leaving takes place, after article 50 is triggered and the process is gone through, this will be a decision for the new Prime Minister. It is not a decision I can make at this stage.
Farmers: Support Payments — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Neil Quentin Gordon Parish (Conservative, Centre-right): It is not only important to keep the basic farm payment going but vital that we get it fixed, because the Rural Payments Agency is still having big problems. Lots of the payments to farmers have not been ratified and not properly made. What is actually happening with the Rural Payments Agency?
Farmers: Support Payments — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I can tell my hon. Friend that 99.6% of farmers have now received a payment. This year, for the first time, the system has had prepayment cheques to make sure that we did not overpay farmers and then end up having to claw back the money. That means that there will be a reconciliation period when we make the adjustments—that is taking place at the moment—so that farmers who had a problem in their application will receive the extra payment over the next few months. We are fully on track for payment on time next year.
Food Prices — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Macroeconomics
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): DEFRA monitors retail food prices through the consumer prices index. Year on year, food prices have continued to fall, with a 2.8% fall in the year to May 2016. We also monitor trends in household expenditure on food through the family food survey. Following a period of higher food price inflation, retail food prices have fallen by 7% since their peak in February 2014.
Food Prices — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): As I explained earlier, one of the factors that has an influence on food prices is exchange rates. A number of analysts have been saying that in fact the pound has been unsustainably high against the euro for some time, caused by concerns about the weaknesses of the eurozone, and that the correction we have seen was overdue anyway. Exchange rates go up and down, but the crucial thing is that we have a competitive food supply industry in this country.
Apprenticeships — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Questions: What recent steps the Government have taken to work with industry to increase the number of apprenticeships in the food, farming and agri-technology sector.
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are committed to trebling the number of apprentices in the food and farming sector by 2020. I am delighted that the Skills Minister has committed to the apprenticeship levy being used by major organisations such as supermarkets and food manufacturers through the food supply chain, so that they can help small and medium-sized enterprises and farmers to take on apprentices.
Apprenticeships — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Questions: What recent steps the Government have taken to work with industry to increase the number of apprenticeships in the food, farming and agri-technology sector.
Huw William Merriman (Conservative, Centre-right): As chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on bees, I got a tremendous buzz from welcoming apprentices of British bee farmers who are completing an innovative three-year programme in an industry with sales of over £100 million per year. What steps are the Government taking to encourage more honey providers to take on apprentices?
Apprenticeships — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Questions: What recent steps the Government have taken to work with industry to increase the number of apprenticeships in the food, farming and agri-technology sector.
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Honey is an important product for our country, generating over £100 million. As I have said, the apprenticeships that are created through the apprenticeship levy can be found throughout the food chain. DEFRA has its own beekeeper apprentice helping to maintain our hives at Noble House—DEFRA’s headquarters—where we produce our own Whitehall honey.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): Two weeks ago, the British people voted to leave the European Union. I will be ensuring that food, farming and the environment have a strong voice in the exit negotiations and in establishing our new domestic policies. Until we leave the EU, it is business as usual for farmers and the environment, and I am meeting relevant organisations to assure them of that. DEFRA’s work continues: we will shortly be publishing the national flood resilience review; we will be continuing with our Great British Food campaign and our work to open up new markets; and we will be developing 14 local environment plans.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for her question and welcome her to the Dispatch Box. She was a fantastic advocate for her constituents during the difficult flooding in York, and I look forward to working with her As for agricultural workers, my constituency is a great producer of salad vegetables and onions, and I fully understand the importance of EU workers to our agricultural industry. It will be one of the key things that DEFRA will work on, putting the case across Government to ensure that we continue to have that supply of workers.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): It is absolutely clear that it is business as usual while we remain members of the EU and that those workers will continue to work in those areas. The reality is that I cannot make decisions for a future Prime Minister. That is the fundamental issue here and that is why my job over the coming months is to be a strong voice for farming and the environment in the overall negotiations.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-07-07
Topic: Foreign Trade
Questions: Following the floods in Carlisle, I am concerned that a group of leaseholders will not be able to get insurance under Flood Re. They consist of 68 long leaseholders with a management company as the freeholder with responsibility for insurance. That management company has not been able to obtain insurance so far. Will the Minister look into the issue and consider amending the legislation if necessary?; Scotland’s food and drink industry exports £725 million-worth of produce to the European Union. Given the disastrous Brexit vote, what impact does the Minister believe any restrictions on the seasonal workforce will have on the industry north of the border?
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. It shows why we are turbo-charging the work of the Great British Food Unit, to make sure that we open up new markets and get more of our products out into the world, as well as into the European Union. I am clear that agriculture and food has major export growth potential, which is why I am having a meeting today with the Business Secretary to talk about our trade negotiations and making sure that food is a key part of those.