argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
EU Withdrawal Agreement — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: International Affairs
Christina Elizabeth Rees (Labour, Centre-left): I think that that was a Cairnsbotic answer Yesterday, the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, cleared Government business in the Welsh Assembly so that he and his Cabinet Ministers could make urgent statements on how a no-deal outcome would be so disastrous for the people of Wales. Will the Secretary of State tell us if he will be voting for amendments put forward in this House to avoid a no-deal outcome, or will he, like his Prime Minister, put party before country?
UK Shared Prosperity Fund — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: International Affairs
Jessica Elizabeth Morden (Labour, Centre-left): EU structural funds have been crucial for communities across Wales, and it is vital that Wales must not be left behind—we need that assurance. Why has it taken so long to get any detail from the Government on the shared prosperity fund, not least the consultation, which was promised by the Government before Christmas?
UK Shared Prosperity Fund — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Government Operations
Susan Elan Jones (Labour, Centre-left): In the late 1990s, the Secretary of State’s party was voting against the existence of the National Assembly. In 2005, it had a manifesto option of abolishing the Assembly. Can he understand why many Opposition Members do not believe that he truly wants to involve our National Assembly for Wales in the governance of the UK shared prosperity fund?
Universal Credit: Low-income Families — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Ruth Stephanie Nicole George (Labour, Centre-left): Twenty-six per cent. of people in Wales have a disability and 39% of them are in poverty—both the highest proportion in the UK. What assessment has the Minister made of the number of people who lost severe disability premium when they transferred on to universal credit and the impact on those individuals, their families and their communities?
Universal Credit: Low-income Families — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (Labour, Centre-left): Many organisations in my constituency do great work mitigating the effects of the universal credit roll-out, but it is still causing great hardship. Have Ministers asked the Prime Minister to fully stop the roll-out, or are they simply not standing up for Wales?
Severn Bridges Tolls — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Transportation
Christopher James Evans (Labour, Centre-left): May I begin by associating myself with the comments that the Secretary of State made about Steffan Lewis? As his local MP, I always admired and respected him, and his passion for Wales will be greatly missed within the Assembly. It is a loss to Welsh political life The closing of the tolls at the M4 bridge creates massive opportunities. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with other Government Departments to bring regional offices and Government jobs to Wales?
Economy — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): The decision on Wylfa Newydd is a massive setback, not only for Anglesey but for the whole north Wales economy, and the project was a central plank of the north Wales growth deal. When it comes to major infrastructure projects, the Secretary of State has a record of unmitigated failure; he has a kind of reverse Midas touch. When will he start to speak up for Wales in Cabinet? If he is not prepared to speak up for Wales, will he step aside and let someone else have a go?
Leaving the EU: No Deal — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: What assessment he has made of the potential effect on (a) the economy and (b) public services in Wales of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Anna Rhiannon McMorrin (Labour, Centre-left): May I associate myself with the Minister’s comments on Steffan Lewis, who was one of the most able and talented politicians that Wales has ever had With days to go until we crash out with no deal, we know the devastating impact. The CBI is warning us, the Army is on stand-by to slaughter lambs set for export, and the Government are refusing to rule out no deal. What does the Minister say about that, given that the Prime Minister is not going to get her deal through?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: International Affairs
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): Sunday is Holocaust Memorial Day, a time for us all to reflect on the horrors of genocide and to recommit to never again allowing the poison of antisemitism and racism to disfigure our society in any way. The Prime Minister was also right to acknowledge the other genocides that have happened since the second world war. It is up to us to try to prevent such horrors from ever happening again anywhere in the world After the overwhelming defeat of the Prime Minister’s deal, she says she wants solutions to the Brexit crisis that command sufficient support in the House. The Chancellor and the Business Secretary agree that there is a "large majority" in the Commons opposed to no deal, so will the Prime Minister listen to her own Cabinet members and take no deal off the table?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: International Affairs
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): Actually I reached out to the Prime Minister last September when I offered to discuss our deals with her. It appears that, while the door to her office may well be open, the minds inside it are completely closed. She has shown no flexibility whatsoever on taking no deal off the table The Chancellor reassured businesses that amendments would be put down that "would have the effect of removing the threat of no deal...which is binding and effective" Given that those amendments are now tabled, will the Prime Minister confirm that, if passed, they would rule out no deal?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Foreign Trade
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): The only consistency in the Prime Minister’s strategy seems to be running down the clock by threatening no deal as an alternative to her dead deal The CBI says that the "projected impact" of no deal on the UK economy "would be devastating". Leaving with no deal would be a hammer blow to manufacturing in this country, costing jobs and damaging living standards Last week, the Justice Secretary was asked whether he ruled out a customs union. He said: "I don’t think we can" However, that same day, the Leader of the House said that we cannot be in a customs union. Can the Prime Minister be clear? Do her Government rule out a customs union with the European Union?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Foreign Trade
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): My question was: does the Prime Minister rule in or rule out a customs union? It is not complicated. She could have said yes, she could have said no. It is a key part of what Labour is putting forward and it is backed by the TUC, representing millions of workers; by the CBI, representing thousands of businesses; by the First Ministers of Wales and Scotland; and indeed by many members of her own party, including apparently her own chief of staff. So can the Prime Minister explain why she is ruling out a customs union as a solution to the crisis? She could for once actually answer the question.
Engagements — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Foreign Trade
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): The International Trade Secretary promised 40 trade agreements the second after Brexit. This morning, he could not name a single one. His own Business Minister said that he was not impressed by "sham trade agreements" and "not prepared to sell business down the river for other people’s political dogma." So why is the Prime Minister prepared to sell people’s jobs and living standards down the river, rather than negotiating a customs union that would be part of a sensible deal for the future?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): What the Prime Minister clearly did not have time to mention was the rising levels of in-work poverty, personal debt and the problems that people face in surviving at work. The door of her office might be open, but the minds are closed—[Interruption.] The Prime Minister is clearly not listening—[Interruption.]
Engagements — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: International Affairs
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Across the country, people are worried about public services, their living standards and rising levels of personal debt. While a third of the Prime Minister’s Government are at the billionaires’ jamboree in Davos, she says she is listening, but rules out changes on the two issues where there might be a majority: against no deal and for a customs union—part of Labour’s sensible Brexit alternative. If the Prime Minister is serious about finding a solution, which of her red lines is she prepared to abandon? Could she name a single one?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Yasmin Qureshi (Labour, Centre-left): I thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting the urgent question, and the Minister for her reply Members will be concerned by the failure of the multiple vital IT systems that our courts require, including systems supplied by Atos and Microsoft. Indeed, I saw those failures at first hand last week, when I visited one of the Crown courts. The chair of the Criminal Bar Association described our courts system as being "on its knees" following that failure, and blamed "savage cuts to the MoJ budget" Reports in The Times suggested that there is a risk of defendants being released before trial. Will the Minister confirm whether any defendants have been released without trial? What costs has the failure incurred? Have Atos and Microsoft paid any penalties for failures on the contracts so far? Can the Minister guarantee that all costs arising from the failures will be recovered from the suppliers Of course, such failings do not happen in a vacuum. The Ministry of Justice has faced cuts of 40% in the decade to 2020. The Government are pursuing a £1.2 billion courts reform programme, which has seen hundreds of courts close, thousands of court staff cut and a rush to digitise many court processes. Are the plans to cut 5,000 further court staff by 2023 still being pursued Will the Minister explain why the Government ignored the Association of Her Majesty’s District Judges, which called for courts closures to be stopped until "fully functioning IT systems are demonstrated to be up and running successfully" Finally, will the Minister now commit to a moratorium on further cuts, closures and digitisation of our courts until a Bill has been brought to the House so that we can fully scrutinise the Government’s plans?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Eleanor Claire Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): Prisons being issued urgent notifications, private probation services needing bailouts, trials collapsing because of disclosure failures, MOJ staff on strike over the failure to pay them the London living wage—and now the court system is in disarray. When will the Minister finally understand that the 40% real-terms cut to the MOJ budget since 2010 has consequences, and that austerity has left the justice system at breaking point?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Stephen Pelham Pound (Labour, Centre-left): As we must do this, may I declare a personal, rather than a pecuniary, interest? I have been married to a senior member of the west London magistracy for many, many years. Mrs Pound is incandescent with fury, because those on her particular bench find it impossible to operate within the common platform. The iPads with which they have been issued are useless, and many defence barristers and solicitors are having to print out copies of the documentation before they come to court. Will the Minister accept that it is our unpaid magistracy who have been making this system work despite the IT nightmare? Will she take this opportunity, on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, to pay tribute to and thank the magistrates for making a broken system work?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Stephen James McCabe (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Minister accept that it is not quite fair to characterise this as a single or unusual event, and that her Department has been receiving reports of failures in the criminal justice secure email service for at least six months now?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): What compensation will be made available to victims of crime who wait so long to get justice, and to other court users who often give up days of work? There is a massive loss of productivity in the system already, and issues such as this continue to aggravate the situation. Will there be a compensation system that is open, so that people can claim back for such lost productivity and make other claims they may have in relation to this matter?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Andrew Francis Slaughter (Labour, Centre-left): My constituents have contributed £43 million to the stalled digitisation process, thanks to the closure and sale of Hammersmith magistrates and county courts. Their reward is to travel for an hour or more to courts at Clerkenwell or Hendon. The Minister says the courts system is running well; it is not: it is in freefall. Will she at least postpone any further closures until she can guarantee a working service?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Mary Theresa Glindon (Labour, Centre-left): Earlier this week, a constituent contacted me because of MOJ cuts. He is concerned that Newcastle county court is at least 22 staff short and is two months behind with its workload. As well as overstretched staff having the added problem of the IT failure, he is extremely concerned that they cannot deliver for the people they are there to serve. How does the Minister respond to these legitimate concerns?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Ian Colin Lucas (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister says that she wants the user at the heart of the system. Under this Government, Wrexham in north-east Wales is run by an administrator in Llanelli in south-west Wales. That has led to our having a magistrates court without any cells—the equivalent of a pub without any beer—and the result is that the users have to go to a different town. All of this is as a result of Ministry of Justice incompetence. How can we have confidence in the administration of the justice system when this sort of chaos is an everyday occurrence?
Courts IT System — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Nicholas Dakin (Labour, Centre-left): When the Government closed Scunthorpe magistrates and family courts, against the wishes of local people, much was made of the way in which digitisation would mitigate the risk of threats to access to justice. Given this shambles, what evaluation is being done of whether, where there have been court closures, access to justice is still being delivered effectively?
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Steven Mark Ward Reed (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to my hon. Friend and neighbour for her intervention. It is telling that Shurgard saw fit to remove all the language about safety from its website after the fire. I hope that, during the debate, we will expose the fact that the facility was far from being as safe as it was marketed to its customers.
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Marsha Chantol De Cordova (Labour, Centre-left): I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. He has picked up on a crucial point—that the storage centre claimed that it was safe, and so on. Does he agree that when the Minister responds he should refer to the specific case of those individuals, who have lost everything because of the social system and are now living in a bed and breakfast? These must be considered special cases, in which the Government need to step in and act.
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Steven Mark Ward Reed (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s intervention and completely agree with her. I hope that when the time comes the Minister is able to respond to that point. People who have been left in severe hardship as a result of what happened have had nowhere to go for the help that they deserve.
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Steven Mark Ward Reed (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, with which I have great sympathy. I believe that in this particular case the investigation is also in the hands of the police, because we do not yet know whether arson lay behind the tragedy at the Shurgard facility on Purley Way in Croydon.
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Environment
Jonathan Cruddas (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is getting to the fundamentals of the issues. Let me give an example. I met a bunch of laggers, who handed me a document about the combustible compounds contained in phenolic foam insulation, which is used in multiple buildings. That document was 15 years old, and it detailed the combustible properties of that foam, which is still used and passes Government tests. The whole industry has to put up its hands on its historic culpability and the way it has dodged the inspection regime. These are life and death issues for our constituents.
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Government Operations
Thangam Elizabeth Rachel Debbonaire (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend makes incredibly powerful points that must be taken seriously. Does he agree that the Government need to trace it back to the source and say which local government Ministers did or did not take seriously the Lakanal House report recommendations?
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Education
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): One justification for not having sprinklers in schools is that it is easy to vacate a building. Having been a teacher for 11 years, I know that it would need only a couple of young children to go a-wander, as they can sometimes do, to create a risky situation. If I can dare to use this opportunity to put another point to the Minister, I would ask him not only to look at banning combustible materials, but to look again at putting sprinklers into schools.
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Energy
Steven Mark Ward Reed (Labour, Centre-left): I completely agree with my hon. Friend’s point about the cladding manufacturers seeking better reassurance for themselves. Of course, it is not just the cladding that is flammable; it is the combination of the cladding with the insulation. Because the Government permit what are called desktop studies—
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Environment
Steven Mark Ward Reed (Labour, Centre-left): —which have allowed a particular cladding to be enriched with a particular form of insulation, they do not always know what is being put together and how dangerous that will be, and the cladding manufacturers do not want to know that their products are being used in ways that threaten life.
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Education
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): The announcements fail to recognise that most schools are not particularly high. I do not understand why the Government do not include all schools in this list, or else they are pretty much ruling out every school in the country.
Fire Safety and Cladding — House of Commons, 2019-01-23
Topic: Government Operations
Steven Mark Ward Reed (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to the Minister for giving way again and for saying that he is keeping an open mind on these issues. That is the right thing to do, and I commend him for it. He mentioned the independent expert panel again. I reiterate a point that I tried to make in my speech. An expert panel is not fully independent if some of its members have a financial interest in a particular outcome. Will he commit to reviewing the panel to ensure that there are no such conflicts of interest?
New Trade Agreements: Human Rights — House of Commons, 2019-02-07
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: Scrutiny of our trade deals is vital as we leave the EU. Given the Government’s commitment to an inclusive and fair trade policy, will the Secretary of State seek a debate in this place to talk about the scrutiny of our trade deals?; I would be foolish not to accept such a generous offer, Mr Speaker. Fylde is one of the biggest exporters of any constituency in the country and, with Brexit fast approaching, trade deals are more important to the sector than ever. What has been done to ensure that future trade deals are processed with the least possible delay and with the best interests of business in mind?
Judith Mary Cummins (Labour, Centre-left): Two weeks ago, the Joint Committee on Human Rights heard how the Canadian Government had to make a substantial pay-out and issue a public apology to a chemicals company after they were sued for taking a public policy decision to ban a chemical additive to protect human health. The Committee was told that investor-state dispute settlement provisions in trade and investment agreements can "impact very negatively on human rights." Does the Secretary of State recognise that danger? If so, will he rule out such ISDS clauses in future trade agreements? If not, what counter-evidence will he present to the Joint Committee on Human Rights?
British Businesses Investing Overseas — House of Commons, 2019-02-07
Topic: Foreign Trade
Elizabeth Anne McInnes (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for that answer, but people are quite rightly concerned that setting up overseas subsidiaries or acquiring foreign enterprises could lead to job losses or relocations. Will the Minister confirm the net number of jobs created in the UK as a result of his Department’s support for outward direct investment?
Preferential Trade Agreement with India — House of Commons, 2019-02-07
Topic: Foreign Trade
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister might know that, in the Leeds city region, which includes Huddersfield, we have many brilliant businesspeople from an Indian background and they of course have very good partnerships with India. They are totally demoralised at the moment, partly because of this Secretary of State. I would not wish him to go into hell, but they have no confidence in him and they have no confidence in shrinking the potential market for India from 650 million to 65 million people.
Leaving the EU: UK Steel Sector — House of Commons, 2019-02-07
Topic: Foreign Trade
Questions: What steps he is taking to ensure that the UK steel sector can continue to trade without disruption after the UK leaves the EU.
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): The very fact that the Secretary of State is even considering zero import tariffs threatens the survival of our steel, ceramics and tyre industries. There will be no incentive for our partners to negotiate new trade deals, or to renegotiate existing ones, as the Secretary of State will have given away the shop before negotiations start. Thousands of workers whose jobs will have gone will no longer be the consumers he says will take advantage of cheap imports. When is he going to admit he is wrong?