argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Syria: Refugees and Counterterrorism — House of Lords, 2015-09-07
Topic: Immigration
John Gummer (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my noble friend accept that the words of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury, remarking upon the fact that many Christians cannot stay in the camps because of intimidation, mean that the policy of the Government, which may be logical in every way, ought to be reconsidered in such a way that we can take those refugees who have had to leave the camps and find themselves on the continent of Europe? To refuse to do that would not represent or respect what the British people want.
Syria: Refugees and Counterterrorism — House of Lords, 2015-09-07
Topic: Immigration
Tina Stowell (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend heard what I said in response to the most reverend Primate and I do not really have anything to add to that. I have tried in my responses today to demonstrate that the Government are providing refuge to people in desperate need. We are building on a programme of support that has been extensive and very much at the forefront of what else is being provided by other members of the European Union. We will continue to do all that we can. I am sure we will continue to discuss this on other occasions, and I very much look forward to that.
Energy Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-09-07
Topic: Mixed Topics
Hazel Byford (Conservative, Centre-right): Perhaps I could express myself slightly more fully before the Minister responds. I looked at government Amendment 19 in terms of a national emergency—something out of the ordinary—and I was not quite sure, if it did not come in within the new clause, whether there was another way in which that sort of money can be accessed for the OGA. That was the presumed context within which I raised the issue. The noble Baroness is quite right that I am very keen to make sure that the Government live within their means. However, there are times—as we have seen in the international field when we have had major oil spills or something has gone really wrong—when emergency money has to be made available and I wondered whether that was within the context of the new clause in Amendment 19.
Energy Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-09-07
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Hazel Byford (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I have two amendments in this group, Amendments 26A and 30A. As we discussed earlier, the OGA may well choose to encourage small innovative companies to come into the business. The termination of rights under a licence, for whatever reason, may result in the failure of a company. The wording in the Bill seems to imply that the duty to retain information and samples will continue, but I am not sure how long that continues for. If a company ceases to continue in business for whatever reason, what happens to those samples? Is the implication of the clause that the OGA will be bound not to encourage innovation—which would be regrettable—other than in companies that are part of or allied to others and which would pick up the pieces in the event of bankruptcy? In other words, does this subsection of the Bill in practice restrict the OGA’s duty to have regard to, "The need to encourage innovation" I turn to Amendment 30A, picking up on the comments from the noble Baroness, Lady Liddell, about data sharing. In many businesses, not just the oil business, people are very wary about data sharing, and in many cases I quite understand why. My amendment goes to the other end of the question: what happens to some of these data? Do they get passed on, and what restrictions are there on data being shared and pooled for the benefit of everyone? Over the years, Governments and businesses have been required to release data, which have then been passed on to third companies in a way I am sure the Bill does not intend. My second amendment refers to that. In his letter to me, the Minister stated that, "information may be disclosed if any one of the factors listed under 27(5) applies" However, I still do not understand in what circumstances the OGA would disclose protected material simply because the person who had provided it had consented, although there was no need for disclosure under Clause 27(b), (c) or (d). Is there an implication that permission to disclose will be a standard part of any relationship with the OGA? Really, my amendment comes between the previous contribution relating to the concern that we should share data, which is quite right, and the question of how those data are used, not abused, in future These are two very simple amendments, and I am delighted to have spoken to them.
Energy Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-09-07
Topic: Other
Nicholas Bourne (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Baroness very much for those comments—I fully understand and sympathise with her position on the impact assessment. I agree that it would have been much more desirable to have the impact assessment in considering the amendments today. I thank her for her support on the amendments in relation to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee’s recommendations.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2015-07-17
Topic: Other
John Taylor (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, we have three Second Readings to get through today, and by custom we try to finish by 3 pm, although that is not rigidly enforced. For that reason, there is an advisory speaking time of six minutes. I hope that noble Lords will try to adhere to it so that those speaking at the end of today’s proceedings can also go home when they should. I thank noble Lords for adhering to this.
Online Safety Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-17
Topic: Other
James Stopford (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, for the convenience of the House, I remind noble Lords of the advice of my noble friend the Chief Whip at the beginning of business today that there is an advisory speaking time of six minutes for Back-Bench speakers.
Constitutional Convention Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-17
Topic: Other
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I apologise for interrupting the debate, but for the convenience of noble Lords who might have missed the announcement made earlier by my noble friend the Chief Whip, I remind the House that the advisory time for Back-Bench speeches is six minutes.
Constitutional Convention Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Bridges (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I entirely agree that there is a need for a union narrative. I believe that this House has heard that many times—perhaps not many times but a number of times—from my noble friend Lord Dunlop and from me. As I said, it should be based on the principles of fairness, balance, proportionality and respect for different parts of the union, and I believe that, as we continue to debate these issues in, for example, the Scottish Bill and other pieces of legislation coming to this House, we will continue to flesh that out As I was saying, Alan Trench, a fellow at the Constitution Unit, commented: "What is vital for Wales is of much less importance in eastern England. To the extent there is a ‘Scottish’, ‘Welsh’ or ‘north-east English’ interest in the Union, each of these is different. Trying to set up a convention to resolve these issues without being clear about what the interests of the various groups are, and how they relate to each other, will be impossible" Finally, there is an interesting reference to the fact that: "At least 50% of the members of the convention must not be employed in a role which can reasonably be considered to be political" I understand the gist of the clause, but I think that a lawyer would be able to rack up quite large bills contesting its implementation. Those considered political might include trade union workers, pollsters and even journalists, while a seasoned activist with very clear political convictions could be considered an ordinary member of the public just by nature of his or her employment. Who these people are and how they are to be chosen is another potentially contentious issue on which the Bill gives little indication. As the outcome of a convention depends on its members, does it not worry noble Lords that there appears to be significant confusion and inconsistency as to who should participate in this one Those points may sound frivolous, and the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, may say that I am nitpicking, but they reflect a serious flaw, because the debate over who gets to debate these matters would be acrimonious, generating heat not light. As I said, we would need a convention before the convention has begun just to deliberate on all that.
Constitutional Convention Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-17
Topic: Other
Michael Bruce Forsyth (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend has done the easy bit, which is taking apart the Bill. Will he address the point made by my noble friend Lord Norton of Louth? What about looking at the way that all these piecemeal reforms hang together and where we are now? What are the Government going to do to provide a lead?
Constitutional Convention Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-07-17
Topic: Other
James Bridges (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sorry to beg to differ with my noble friend, but I believe that we are providing a lead by setting set out our plan in our manifesto and now delivering on that plan. That is the lead for which we got the mandate. I am sorry that we disagree on this point, but we clearly do.
Right to Buy: Housing Associations — House of Lords, 2015-10-12
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, councils should effectively and efficiently use their resources. Where there is an increased need for housing across the country, it makes no sense for a local authority to keep high-value, vacant council houses when it could sell them to fund the building of new homes that will reflect its local housing need and increase overall housing supply. We want to work with both local authorities and local associations to ensure this one-for-one additional housing.
Right to Buy: Housing Associations — House of Lords, 2015-10-12
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, as I just said, where there is a need for housing across the country, it makes no sense at all for local authorities to keep hold of their high-value, vacant council houses. Selling such properties will mean more money to fund the building of new homes. That will better meet their local needs and some of the money will go to support housing association tenants to buy their own property. This is part of our wider effort to help anyone who works hard and wants to get on the property ladder to achieve their dream. We are legislating to require local housing authorities, as the noble Lord said, to pay the Secretary of State a sum in line with the anticipated receipt from the sale of high-value council housing, and councils will be able to retain some of the sale funds to support new housebuilding locally to increase the overall housing numbers in their area. We will announce more detail in due course, obviously through the housing Bill. In terms of our aspiration on affordable housing, our aim is to deliver—
Right to Buy: Housing Associations — House of Lords, 2015-10-12
Topic: Housing
Rachel Trixie Anne Gardner (Conservative, Centre-right): At what stage will we know details about such things as a sinking fund for those buying these housing association properties? That will definitely be an important feature as this has proved such a bugbear for those who bought their council flats and now find that they cannot afford the repairs.
Right to Buy: Housing Associations — House of Lords, 2015-10-12
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I stand corrected by the noble Lord, who is far more expert than I am. However, the federation has confirmed that the offer is sector-wide and that it will encompass all housing association tenants. If necessary, the Homes and Communities Agency will be given additional powers to assess housing associations to a new homeownership standard. If necessary, we will take further steps to ensure that the right to buy is available to them, in line with our manifesto commitment.
Right to Buy: Housing Associations — House of Lords, 2015-10-12
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I confirm to the noble Baroness that houses that have a specific charitable purpose will retain it. I also confirm that the Government make no bones about the fact that they support people’s aspiration to own their own home. Contrary to what the noble Baroness thinks, the building of extra homes on at least a one-for-one basis by housing associations will add significantly to the housing stock in this country.
Right to Buy: Housing Associations — House of Lords, 2015-10-12
Topic: Housing
John Patten (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it is indeed very good news that a majority of housing associations are in favour of this excellent opportunity afforded to them. Can my noble friend say when next there will be an opportunity to have an estimate by the Government of what individual tenants, many of whom wish to have this opportunity, are thinking, and when that will be published?
Right to Buy: Housing Associations — House of Lords, 2015-10-12
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend makes a very important point, because at the heart of this policy are the tenants and their aspiration to own their own home. I will segue into the previous point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, about right-to-buy properties not keeping pace; in fact, that programme has literally just started.
Right to Buy: Housing Associations — House of Lords, 2015-10-12
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, whatever the ONS chooses to do in terms of classification, we are absolutely determined to deliver 275,000 affordable homes by the end of this Parliament. Noble Lords should not forget that the 2015-18 programme is still in its initial year, as I said to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis. We saw housing associations—the providers—maximise outputs at the end of the 2011-15 programme, which has caused an inevitable lag in starts in the current programme.
Arrangement of Business — House of Lords, 2015-12-17
Topic: Other
John Taylor (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it may be for the convenience of the House if I make a short Statement about recess dates for Easter. To save Members reaching for their diaries, as is the custom there will be a printed copy of the dates in the Printed Paper Office. I stress that I make this Statement with the usual caveat that these dates are subject to the progress of business; they are provisional dates. We will adjourn at the end of business on Wednesday 23 March and return on Monday 11 April.
House of Lords: Strathclyde Review — House of Lords, 2015-12-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Tina Stowell (Conservative, Centre-right): Absolutely, my Lords, we should use it in exceptional circumstances. However, back in October, a new process was introduced concerning how this House exercised its veto. We have debated in this Chamber whether the amendments were fatal or non-fatal. We exercised that veto on something that related to taxation and spending; we have never done that before. That was unprecedented As a House, we need to look at—what my noble friend Lord Strathclyde was asked to look at—how we could provide certainty and clarity so that we carry out our role of scrutinising and challenging the Government more effectively and remove this confusion. He has set out in his report three options and has recommended one. His recommendation is, if you like, a compromise solution. It means that instead of that theoretical power, which we do not use very often, the House will have a new power to ask the House of Commons to think again. That was what a lot of noble Lords had been asking for recently, after the events of October. I urge the House to consider very carefully what is in my noble friend’s report. He has canvassed widely in this House and the other place and has come forward with a set of proposals and one that he is recommending. It merits our strong consideration before we rush to any decision The noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, asked me some questions. She asked specifically when the Government will respond. We will do so in the new year, as I said, but we will not do so until we have had a substantial debate. We can discuss in more detail the contents of my noble friend’s report The noble Baroness made reference to the use of secondary legislation. My noble friend’s report does not say that this Government, or previous Governments, have been using secondary legislation more than in the past. The graph in his report shows that the use of secondary legislation has been quite consistent over about 20 years The noble Baroness asked whether we would be consulting further. Clearly, we are listening; I want to hear from noble Lords today and we will again hear what noble Lords have to say in the debate in the new year The noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, mentioned that he and his party do not want to give up the veto of this House. He suggested that there should be a Joint Committee to look at this matter. He referred to the Joint Committee on Conventions, which the noble Lord, Lord Cunningham of Felling, chaired back in 2006. There was a convention in this House—the Joint Committee reviewed it when it did that important work in 2006—but, regrettably, that convention has now broken.
House of Lords: Strathclyde Review — House of Lords, 2015-12-17
Topic: Other
Tina Stowell (Conservative, Centre-right): I am hugely grateful to the noble Lord for that very important contribution. My noble friend has drawn on some of the extensive work done over the past decade or more by the commission chaired by my noble friend Lord Wakeham. The noble Lord, Lord Butler, is right; my noble friend Lord Strathclyde has come forward with a recommendation that deserves proper consideration, and I really hope that that is what this House will give it.
House of Lords: Strathclyde Review — House of Lords, 2015-12-17
Topic: Other
John Wakeham (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord, Lord Butler, has pointed out that we recommended something like my noble friend Lord Strathclyde’s third consideration. I was on the Opposition Benches at the time of the report, if I recall rightly. We made that recommendation because we wanted a better way for this House to discuss statutory legislation. It was deliberately designed to do that and, from talking around the House, I know that a lot of people believe that such a proposal is right. While I understand that Front-Benchers have their role in these matters, there is a great deal more support in this House for a proposal of this sort; my noble friend Lady Stowell can take comfort from that. I hope that she will consult widely with people before we finally reach a decision.
House of Lords: Strathclyde Review — House of Lords, 2015-12-17
Topic: Other
Tina Stowell (Conservative, Centre-right): As my noble friend may not have had an opportunity to study my noble friend Lord Strathclyde’s report, he might not yet have spotted that it includes a reference to the other place and its role in secondary legislation. My right honourable friend the Leader of the House of Commons is also making a Statement today in the other place about this same topic As for when we will schedule the debate in January, clearly we will have to consider the timetabling of it alongside other matters when we return. However, my main commitment to this House is that there will be a substantial debate; it will be in government time; and we will do so early in the new year.
House of Lords: Strathclyde Review — House of Lords, 2015-12-17
Topic: Other
Tina Stowell (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not want to rehearse again the events of October. When the noble Baroness has had an opportunity to study the report carefully, she will see that it refers to delay. My noble friend Lord Strathclyde recommends Option 3, and in it he sets out his argument about why delay should not feature as part of his recommendation. That will be something which we will no doubt debate further when we have the debate in January, which I have already committed to.
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting — House of Lords, 2015-12-17
Topic: Civil Rights
Alastair Cooke (Conservative, Centre-right): The communiqué issued at the end of the Malta meeting included a ringing reaffirmation of the Commonwealth’s commitment to human rights, declaring them to be, "equal, indivisible, interdependent … and universal" However, we were entitled to expect those fine sentiments to be accompanied by an explicit indication of the need for determined action in an area to which I am glad that Members of this House and the other place now regularly return, as has happened in this debate—I refer to the criminalisation of homosexuality in the overwhelming majority of Commonwealth countries. Gay people in both Houses of our Parliament have a responsibility to encourage change among our Commonwealth friends and partners Gay people in this country have witnessed a transformation in their position in our society, securing an acceptance, understanding and legal status that they have never had before in our history. It is natural for us to want to extend the benefits of change that we have gained over the last 50 years to gay people in Commonwealth countries, united to us by ties of kinship, affection and history This is not a question of seeking to impose British liberal values on other countries where earlier intolerant, illiberal British values were planted in days of Empire. The values that we promote are universal and international, embodied in the UN charter and, more recently, in the Commonwealth’s own charter. It was good that, in Malta, the issues that concern LGBT people so deeply were discussed in the Commonwealth People’s Forum; it would be better still to have them drawn into the main sessions of the conference itself It is now four years since the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group unanimously recommended that, "Heads of Government should take steps to encourage the repeal of discriminatory laws", against homosexuals. This matters not just as a fundamental human rights question, but as a precondition for relieving so many Commonwealth friends from the pain and suffering of AIDS, to which my noble friend Lord Tugendhat made reference. The EPG was quite explicit on that point, saying that, "discriminatory laws … impede the effective response of CW countries to the HIV/AIDS epidemic" I repeat the statistic that my noble friend gave us: countries of the Commonwealth comprise 60% of people living with HIV globally, while representing 30% of the world’s population. It is a statistic to keep always in the forefront of the mind. CHOGM adopted the important EPG report in 2012. What has become of it? We all know that change is unlikely to come quickly everywhere throughout the Commonwealth, but gay people hope and pray for the creation of sustained, serious momentum for change.
Local Government Finance — House of Lords, 2015-12-17
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, in answer to the second part of the noble Baroness’s question, that will be determined in due course. As I said to the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, the Government will not let the councils that will really struggle in that area fall beneath a certain level. Regarding the rural services delivery grant, this is not a false dawn. The increase is a quadrupling, so the Government recognise some of the problems rural areas face. The more sparsely populated they are, clearly, the more money they need per head to provide basic services.
Enterprise Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-12-15
Topic: Domestic Commerce
John Taylor (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I have it in command from Her Majesty the Queen to acquaint the House that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Enterprise Bill, has consented to place her interests, so far as they are affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the purposes of the Bill.