argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill — House of Lords, 2021-02-25
Topic: Other
David Brownrigg Craig (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I had expected to speak to my Amendment 13 but, in view of what the Minister said, it would be detaining the House unnecessarily to go into a long explanation. I had thought to define the word "person" as either an expectant mother within 12 weeks of the expected week of childbirth or, as a mother, a person who has given birth to a child within the previous four weeks. In view of the Minister's acceptance of the word "mother", however, I see no further need to proceed with my amendment and will not move it.
Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill — House of Lords, 2021-02-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Helene Valerie Hayman (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I am glad to have had the opportunity, like the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, to bin the speech that I was going to make and to welcome the Minister’s comments. I also was glad that the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, for whom I have huge respect and who has done an enormous amount, has courageously spoken out on issues of discrimination. I was glad to hear her speak and that the case that she has argued has been put forward and heard For me, the message that has come from this debate is that it is tremendously easy to find ourselves in a horrible and destructive polarisation whereby we feel that we have to be on one side of an argument, at an extreme, and where it is difficult to make accommodations, understand and work through how we do the task that the Equality Act sets out of balancing and calibrating conflicting—or at least not obviously easy to reconcile—rights I have not received a lot of correspondence since my speech on Monday but I have had three letters from trans men who were worried that their rights were being taken away by this change of language. That would have been a serious issue. It now appears, unlike the argument put forward originally, that the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, was right and that no rights would be taken away from people whose sex at birth was female but who transitioned and gave birth. That is important because however small a minority is, we should protect their rights and the services that we give them. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that one has to be on one side or another and it is not possible to accommodate in language—and language does matter—the subtleties of the issues raised. As I said at Second Reading, that process is not aided by legislating in haste. More consideration might not have got us into a situation in which people on both sides of this argument, if I may phrase it like that, have found themselves subject to abuse. I sometimes despair at the quality and cruelty of public discourse in current times I therefore take lessons out of this. I am an unreconstructed old feminist and of course I have been worried by some of the developments in language, and those seeping into issues regarding women’s spaces and women’s rights. That is not because I believe in any way that trans people are a threat to women. The noble Baroness, Lady Barker, is absolutely right about that. There is no evidence or reason to believe that. I firmly believe that we should accommodate, support and be kind and sensitive in our language to those people. However, I also believe that we have fallen from those standards in our services for women recently and that today is important for drawing that line in the sand.
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2021-05-13
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anthony Tudor St John (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I agree that there is a persistent threat of new variants and support the necessity of Covid tests for international travellers, but the high cost of these tests has been well highlighted. What measures can the Government take to ease the financial burden on individuals and families trying to book a summer holiday after such a lengthy lockdown? Surely the Government should make all Covid tests VAT exempt.
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2021-05-13
Topic: Mixed Topics
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I declare that I have been involved in the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus. If this is to be a UK inquiry, can the noble Baroness confirm that the terms of reference will be developed with the devolved Administrations and that they will be involved, not just consulted; that they will be involved in the appointment of the chair, with a panel on which they are represented; and that they will be involved in the appointments of other members of the inquiry?
Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill — House of Lords, 2021-01-26
Topic: Other
Simon Russell (Crossbench, Unknown): We now come to the group beginning with Amendment 10. I remind noble Lords that anyone wishing to speak after the Minister should email the clerk during the debate. Anyone wishing to press this or anything else in this group to a Division must make that clear in the debate Amendment 10
Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill — House of Lords, 2021-01-26
Topic: Other
Harry Kenneth Woolf (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, in view of the speeches we have had from a number of noble Lords, there is nothing which I would want to detain noble Lords with regarding this amendment. I agree that it serves a useful purpose and particularly associate myself with the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, with regard to the openness of the Front Bench on behalf of the Government. Like him, I hope that will be something that will happily continue.
Domestic Abuse and Hidden Harms during Lockdown — House of Lords, 2021-01-19
Topic: Immigration
Ann Butler-Sloss (Crossbench, Unknown): I refer to my interests in the register. This is a very helpful Statement from the Minister, but I ask her to include forced marriage in government strategy, communication and training programmes. Will she also look at the position of some wives whose marriages are not registered and therefore fall outside the spousal domestic violence immigration status?
Domestic Abuse and Hidden Harms during Lockdown — House of Lords, 2021-01-19
Topic: Civil Rights
Indarjit Singh (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, measures like the "Ask for Ani" scheme outlined in the Statement are welcome and will help reduce domestic abuse and hidden harms in the majority community. Does the Minister agree that we need to do more to meet the sometimes differing concerns and hidden harms in minority communities? Does she agree that the Government should look beyond the routine round-table meetings with sometimes questionable faith leaders to clear social agenda-led initiatives for a more cohesive and fairer society?
Medicines and Medical Devices Bill — House of Lords, 2021-01-14
Topic: Other
Simon Russell (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I should inform the House that, if Amendment 45 is agreed to, I shall not be able to call Amendment 46 by reason of pre-emption, and that the debate on the group beginning with Amendment 46 will be postponed and take place on Amendment 66 Amendments 42 to 45
Medicines and Medical Devices Bill — House of Lords, 2021-01-14
Topic: Other
Simon Russell (Crossbench, Unknown): We now come to the group beginning with Amendment 50. I remind noble Lords that Members other than the mover and the Minister may speak only once and that short questions of elucidation are discouraged. Anyone wishing to press this or anything else in this group to a Division must make that clear in debate. Amendment 50
Medicines and Medical Devices Bill — House of Lords, 2021-01-14
Topic: Other
Simon Russell (Crossbench, Unknown): We now come to the group consisting of Amendment 68. I remind noble Lords that Members other than the mover and the Minister may speak only once and that short questions of elucidation are discouraged. Anyone wishing to press this amendment to a Division must make that clear in debate Amendment 68
Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-01-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Brownrigg Craig (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, from the Cross Benches, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Vere, and the Bill team. I am grateful to have this opportunity to speak As others have pointed out, the Bill must have gained an entry in the Guinness book of records. It started life in your Lordships’ House with its First and Second Readings over a year ago. After Committee in early February, it sat month after Covid month in the pending tray, then, at the last minute, the Bill team had to drag it swiftly into a new framework—one created by that large amendment to ANO 2016 that took effect so close to Report. However much forewarned, it cannot have been a straightforward task to draft and present so faultlessly the plethora of government amendments required to bring the Bill up to date. That was a great effort that all should admire For the noble Baroness herself, it must have been a considerable challenge to master her brief on this complex subject so fully and comprehensively, and I pay tribute to her, too. I admit to having been something of a thorn in her side, but she willingly and courteously exchanged, both on and off the Floor, on our respective views. In her reply to my amendment on Report, she got one point spot on: she said that she suspected that I might not be reassured I expect the issue to resurface, but honest differences are the meat and drink of legislation. Given the complexity of this subject, the noble Baroness earns credit for her steady determination. When discussing drones a year ago in Committee, she said, referring to the future of manned and unmanned aircraft traffic management, that it would be "a whole new world of pain."—[Official Report, 10/2/20; col. 2111.] I hope that the passage of the Bill has not been too painful for her. From the Cross Benches, I thank her and the Bill team for their efforts.
Medicines and Medical Devices Bill — House of Lords, 2021-01-12
Topic: Other
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, on this very important amendment. It is an example of how, with high moral standards, the Ministers involved have been listening. With others, I wish to sincerely thank the noble Lords, Lord Bethell and Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, and the noble Baroness, Lady Penn, who have listened to very difficult information and accepted the important responsibility we have on the world stage.
Message from the Queen — House of Lords, 2021-04-21
Topic: Other
Andrew Parker (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I have the honour to notify your Lordships that Her Majesty the Queen, having been informed that your Lordships have elected the Lord McFall of Alcluith to be Lord Speaker, has pleasure in confirming your Lordships’ choice Furthermore, I have the honour to present to your Lordships a message from Her Majesty the Queen, signed by her own hand. The message is as follows: "I thank you most sincerely for your expression of sympathy in the great loss which I have sustained by the death of my beloved husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. I am greatly moved by your kind comments and by your sincere condolences, which bring me comfort at this time".
Afghanistan — House of Lords, 2021-04-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jean Coussins (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, troop withdrawal is guaranteed to exacerbate the danger to Afghan interpreters who have helped our Armed Forces. The new relocation and assistance policy is welcome, but can the Minister reassure the House that the embassy staff administering it will proactively identify interpreters needing protection who could be in danger if they approach the embassy for help? Can she also confirm that the new scheme covers family members and that it will absolutely not be contracted out to a private company?
Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities — House of Lords, 2021-04-21
Topic: Civil Rights
Karan Bilimoria (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, the CBI, of which I am president, recently launched Change the Race Ratio, an initiative to promote ethnic-minority participation in business. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities made 24 recommendations. However, the disclosure of the ethnicity pay gap—one of the most transformative steps a company can take to address race inequality at work—was not one of them. Surely this should be a recommendation, as closing the UK’s ethnicity pay gap is about making our society fairer and more inclusive. Do the Government not agree that diverse companies perform better on every metric and that transparency should be the watch- word? While progress has been made on race inequality over the past few decades, there is still a long way to go.
Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities — House of Lords, 2021-04-21
Topic: Civil Rights
Simon Woolley (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, yesterday was a momentous day. Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd. President Biden responded by stating that we must acknowledge and confront systemic racism. In spite of the overwhelming evidence from many, including the medical association, representing 150,000 doctors, Dr Sewell’s report stated that the evidence they found did not show systemic racism. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of black and white young people who took to the streets to protest for Black Lives Matter were dismissed in the report as well-meaning idealists but wrong in their assertion of systemic racism Yesterday the government Minister Kemi Badenoch, who seemed to attack anyone who did not agree with her, including the excellent race equality organisation the Runnymede Trust, none the less stated, to my great relief, that no one, not least the Government, is denying institutional racism as distinct from verbal racism. She went on to say that it is not everywhere, and I think we can all agree with that. But the report said, and the Minister confirmed, that Dr Sewell and his commissioners did not find systemic racism in this report from the deluge of evidence, including from myself. Given that dramatic but welcome U-turn in acknowledging systemic race inequalities, were the commissioners incompetent or in wilful denial?
Domestic Abuse Bill — House of Lords, 2021-04-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jane Susan Campbell (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I will speak to Lords Amendments 1, 2 and 3 and Motion A, moved by the Minister. As I have stated, I will not oppose the Motion First, I thank the Minister for our helpful meeting today; despite the technological challenges, we had a very good exchange. At that meeting, I explained why I have decided not to pursue further attempts to incorporate carer abuse of disabled people in the Bill. Although I think we all agree that the abuse of disabled people frequently takes place within a domestic setting, it has become clear that the Bill is confined to abuse by an intimate partner or family member. There is no appetite to widen its scope at this stage In addition, this long-awaited Bill, with its multi- functional role, will demand a great deal of resources to change the domestic abuse culture. I would not wish to hold up the task of addressing the horrendous domestic abuse experienced by thousands of adults and children every day—no way I am currently confident—especially after our conversation this morning—that the Government have taken on board the deep concerns expressed across this House at the exclusion of disabled people from the Bill. I believe that they are committed to finding alternative means to address carer abuse, as the current protections are clearly inadequate I was therefore very pleased that, in the consideration of Lords Amendments in another place, the Minister, Victoria Atkins, announced in response to my amendments that "the Government abhor all abuse, and we have every sympathy for the spirit of these amendments" in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell "Abuse of disabled people by their carers must be called out and acted upon ... we have listened carefully to the experiences and concerns raised in this House and the other place ... That is why the Government intend to carry out a review of the protections for people at risk of carer abuse. We will engage with ... the disabled sector on the scope of the review, but it would broadly seek to examine the protections offered against carer abuse and the support available to victims. We have listened and we will act."—[Official Report, Commons, 15/4/21; col. 519.] I should be grateful if all sides of the House would strongly support and engage with this review. I hope it will not keep anything off the table, including further legislative protections if necessary. I hope that the review will commence as soon as possible. Of course, I shall be chasing it and look forward to working with the Government and especially with disabled people’s organisations Carer abuse—as evidenced throughout the pandemic and during earlier debates and pre-legislative scrutiny—must not continue unchecked. Disabled people deserve to have equivalent protection—no less.
Domestic Abuse Bill — House of Lords, 2021-04-21
Topic: Immigration
Ann Butler-Sloss (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London. It seems perfectly sensible that we should all wait until the report has come out. What worries me is what appears to be a lack of understanding by the Government. It is perfectly obvious that if a victim thinks that she—particularly she, but sometimes he—will be subject to immigration control, she is not going to come forward and say that she has been abused. It is an obvious way for a victim to be kept under the control of the abuser. I worry that, in looking at this, the Government have not taken into account the obvious dangers to a victim of the use of their data by immigration control I am also concerned about the DDVC. A number of victims of domestic abuse do not manage to come within its rules and are therefore in danger of being deported despite being sufferers from domestic abuse.
Domestic Abuse Bill — House of Lords, 2021-04-21
Topic: Immigration
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I express my sincere and deep thanks to those who have spoken so powerfully and eloquently in support of this amendment—my heartfelt thanks to all of them. I know that those who represent these very vulnerable women will also be extremely grateful I also want to thank the Minister for his response, but my greatest disappointment is that he misrepresents our amendment. He talked about a "deferred commencement". The whole point about this revised, compromised amendment is that it provides very clear provisions which leave it to the Government, first, to complete their review but, secondly, to decide whether they want this to go through both Houses of Parliament. The Government have a huge majority in the Commons and can certainly prevent a resolution going through. This is not a deferred commencement, it is a conditional commencement: conditional on the outcome of the review and on support from the Government, to be perfectly frank about it. It is not exactly a wild amendment at all; it is very, very modest I welcome that the review will be talking to the relevant organisations to try to understand the appalling consequences of this sharing of information with the Immigration Service. I hope they get at that information and publish it in the review, because it is there, we know it is—I have heard lots of information about these appalling cases. We depend on the review being thorough—we do not know whether it will be—and on the Government supporting the protections this amendment seeks to provide. On that basis, I want to test the opinion of the House.
EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement — House of Lords, 2021-01-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Carlile (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, until 31 December last year the United Kingdom was a fully active member of the Schengen Information System. This gave the UK authorities immediate alerts and information about suspected persons, objects and dangers. We are now out of the Schengen Information System. Please will the Minister in his reply give us chapter and verse on how such important information will now be obtained as quickly and effectively as before? What is the "comprehensive package" for security referred to in paragraph 134 of Her Majesty’s Government’s summary of the agreement? Will the Government come clean today and tell us the other adverse changes affecting national security and the pursuit of crime How much slower will the process of disclosure of criminal records be? This is often vital in determining whether a suspect is truly a genuine suspect. How have these and many other matters of real security concern been left unresolved in the very general statements in part 3 of the Government’s summary of the agreement? If the UK and the European Union are to remain as safe as possible, how is this going to be achieved? Please can we have answers, if not in the debate then in a letter afterwards Finally, I just wanted to make a protest about how short this debate has been and how little time has been allowed. It gives the impression of a deliberate attempt to stifle informed debate on matters on which there is considerable expertise in your Lordships’ House.
EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement — House of Lords, 2021-01-08
Topic: Mixed Topics
Ajay Kakkar (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I thank the Minister for the thoughtful way in which he introduced this debate I declare my interests as professor of surgery at UCL and chairman of UCLPartners. As my noble friend Lord Patel indicated, there was real anxiety among the science community in the United Kingdom about no agreement being reached, so the co-operation and trade agreement as it pertains to science has been broadly welcomed. I shall focus my comments in two areas: first, our participation in Horizon Europe; and secondly, the question of clinical trials regulatory alignment It is envisaged that we will participate in Horizon Europe through an association agreement, but that agreement has yet to be negotiated. It is possible that applications for funding to the new Horizon Europe scheme will commence this spring: what arrangements do Her Majesty’s Government propose to make in case the agreement has not been fully negotiated with regard to our provisional participation and, indeed, interim funding to ensure our science base is not undermined? The current co-operation agreement also states that withdrawals from Horizon Europe can be initiated by either party with 45 days’ notice. This risks undermining confidence in the programme and, indeed, our global science base. How do Her Majesty’s Government propose to ensure that the science base is secured, and funding secured, for the entirety of the period to 2027 in case of early departure? It has been recognised throughout discussions on the withdrawal agreement that alignment of the regulation of clinical trials is critical. What arrangements do Her Majesty’s Government propose to make now to secure that vital alignment of regulation? How do they propose to prioritise that within the context of the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill currently being considered by your Lordships’ House?