argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative, Centre-right): It was brought to my attention by parents this weekend that some Leeds City Council schools in my constituency are telling parents that if their child has an upset stomach or general malaise they need to go home, isolate and not come back to school until they have had a negative test. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that is not NHS England advice, and puts unwarranted pressure on the test and trace system? Does he agree that Leeds City Council should get a grip on this immediately?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid I do agree. All councils, including Leeds City Council, should make it clear that if students have coronavirus symptoms—and we all know what they are: a new continuous cough, a temperature or a loss of taste and smell—they should come forward for a test. If they have symptoms of another illness—not coronavirus symptoms—they should not come forward for a test. We have set this out very clearly once again in the prioritisation document that we have published today, and I hope that everyone will follow it.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Anthony Howe Browne (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend and his scientific advisers are absolutely right—the virus is not getting any weaker—but doctors, including many in my constituency of South Cambridgeshire, have made great progress in the treatment of coronavirus, and social distancing means that viral loads are less, making cases less severe for many people. Can he tell me what estimate he has made of the impact of these developments on the fatality rates for those who are affected?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, of course. My hon. Friend represents one of the finest hospitals not just in the country but in the world. The clinicians who work at Addenbrooke’s and across the country have improved the treatment of coronavirus. We know that treatment with dexamethasone has reduced the death rate. We know that, because of earlier oxygenation and later intubation, that has reduced the death rate. There is also progress with remdesivir. Nevertheless, while that has reduced mortality for those going into hospital, the virus remains deadly, so unfortunately we have to take measures to stop its spread, not least because we can either take measures now or we will end up with a much bigger problem, still having to take measures later.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Vitamin D is one of the many things that we have looked into, to see whether it reduces the incidence or impact of coronavirus. I have seen reports that it does, so we put it into a trial. Unfortunately, the results were that it does not appear to have any impact. That is the latest clinical advice, which is always kept under review.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Graham Stuart Brady (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that balancing the measures to tackle covid with the other health consequences, such as cancer patients going undiagnosed or not being treated in time, and the economic and social consequences is a political judgment, and does he further agree that political judgments are improved by debate and scrutiny?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Randox delivers a very significant number of tests every single day—it is a growing number. In fact, it is currently outperforming the allocation that we have asked it to deliver, and I pay tribute to every single person who works at Randox for the work that they have done and the part that they have played in keeping people safe. Everybody who gets a Randox test result, just like every other test result, has more information that they can use to keep themselves safe, and we have more information that we can use to try to keep the whole of society safe.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Andrew Theakstone Percy (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Secretary of State for his Department’s allocation to Scunthorpe General Hospital last week. I also wish him well with the ongoing work for some extra funding for Goole and District Hospital. On tests for schools, the feedback I have had from schools in my constituency has been very positive about the 10 tests with which they have been issued. Will he continue to seek to grow that number and look in particular at a lot of the rural schools where getting access to a test is particularly difficult due to transport issues?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): One of the good things about where we are now compared with where we were in March is that, in many areas, we are better prepared. We are better prepared in the NHS. We are better prepared in social care with the winter plan that we put out last week, and many employers and services, such as jobcentres, have been able to develop covid-secure approaches, which means that they can get on with the things that they need to do. The specifics of the question, of course, are for my right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary, but the principle of how we, as a society, manage to do more things while keeping ourselves covid secure is one that, thankfully, we have been able to develop over the past six months.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Jason McCartney (Conservative, Centre-right): I very much welcome the Health Secretary’s approach not only to save lives, but to protect livelihoods. I acknowledge and welcome his announcement on the new exemption for childcare. Can he confirm what those new arrangements are, and confirm that grandparents and others in my Colne Valley constituency—part of Kirklees, which goes back into local restrictions tomorrow—will be part of that exemption?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with my hon. Friend that more enforcement is, sadly, necessary to ensure that these rules are followed across the board, because if people follow the rules across the board, it will be easier to get a grip on the virus and the overall impact on the economy and on education, for instance, will be lower. So that is the approach that we are taking both in the example he cites and more broadly.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I would urge the hon. Gentleman to take a lead from the SNP Front-Bench spokesman, the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Dr Whitford). These are very serious times, and since the Prime Minister had a conversation with the First Ministers of all the devolved Administrations this morning, as I set out, and I have regular and frequent engagement with all the other Health Ministers—in fact, I was having a text exchange with my Scottish opposite number just before coming into the Chamber—I think the most important thing is that we take as united an approach as possible. That is the approach that the Scottish Government are taking, and we are working closely with them.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Marco Longhi (Conservative, Centre-right): I also welcome the statement that the Secretary of State has brought to the House today, particularly the emphasis he places on fighting this common enemy as one united front. What assurances can he give the House that our care homes will protected, with lessons learned from the first wave of covid-19?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course I would be very happy to work with the hon. Lady on this question. We do have to make sure that our hospitals are covid-secure. I would be happy to meet her to discuss the specifics at the Royal Free.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): The trouble with authoritarianism is that it is profoundly inimical to civil liberties. It is also increasingly incompetent. It relies on acquiescence, and acquiescence for lockdowns, particularly national ones, is draining away. For instance, if students are told not to go to pubs, they will simply congregate in rooms, which is even worse. If the Secretary of State does not listen to me, will he at least listen to Professor Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious diseases? He wrote in The Sunday Telegraph: "It is profoundly disappointing that six months into this pandemic, having rejected every alternative proposed, we keep coming back to lockdown" He suggests—[Interruption.] I am trying to be constructive. He suggests that we rely on encouraging people to look after themselves, to protect the vulnerable and to take responsibility for their own lives. That is the Conservative way.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): As a Conservative, I believe in as much freedom as possible consistent with not harming others. One of the sad things about this virus is that because of asymptomatic transmission, if people put themselves at risk of catching coronavirus and get ill, they are not only putting themselves at risk but putting others at risk as well. That is the Conservative principle behind protecting the health of the nation in the face of this pandemic.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): We have protected the number of tests in care homes. The challenge is that when the system is running hot and the number of tests going through is very close to capacity, that can have an impact on turnaround times. We saw that in the past couple of weeks. Thankfully, those turnaround times are coming down again, as well as our managing to protect the over 100,000 tests a day that go to social care. While some people may call for other areas to be prioritised—for instance, the testing of children—the most important thing is that we protect those who are most vulnerable to this virus, and the most vulnerable live in our care homes.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Pauline Elizabeth Latham (Conservative, Centre-right): I know the Secretary of State is very keen to get more tests. SureScreen in my constituency has developed an antigen test that is ready in 15 minutes. It will be able to ramp up its production to 1 million by November, rising to 2 million a week. Will he please look at its test and make use of this expertise? I think that he will be going to a Cobra meeting tomorrow, so will he explain to the Prime Minister that we live in a democracy, not a dictatorship, and we would like a debate on this in this House?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Defense
Bernard Christison Jenkin (Conservative, Centre-right): At a time when we do not yet have the world-beating track and trace system or enough tests because of logistical problems, why are the Government excluding senior military commanders from key decision making and preventing them from bringing to bear their logistical capabilities?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): On the contrary, the military’s support has been absolutely brilliant in expanding the testing system—test and trace—and it is engaged in the development of our vaccine roll-out plans. The work that senior military personnel have done is absolutely first rate.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Duncan Charles Baker (Conservative, Centre-right): My constituency of North Norfolk, and Norfolk more widely, has seen some of the lowest infection rates in the entire country thanks to the dedication and sacrifice that many people have made in my area. Can the Secretary of State assure me that any further major national restrictions will reflect the low levels of infection in constituencies such as mine?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an important point. He represents the oldest constituency in the country, so this is an important matter for him and his constituents. This comes back to the central point that it is critical to get the right balance between the measures we take nationally and those we take locally, according to local rates of infection.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course I am working to exactly that end. If somebody has the symptoms of coronavirus, they should self-isolate even if they cannot get a test. I understand how frustrating that is, and I am working as hard as I can to try to get those turnaround times as fast as possible.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I implore the hon. Gentleman to support all those who are working so hard to deliver the tests that people need. Every other question on testing is, "Can we have more tests, please?" and we hear stories about just how much these tests are needed. I think we should be there supporting the people who are doing the testing.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
William Peter Wragg (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend has many invidious choices to continue to make, but, further to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Sir Graham Brady), the wider health implications of covid-19 cannot be overstated. They include delayed cancer diagnosis, missed stroke and heart attack treatments, and the cancellation of elective surgery. Will my right hon. Friend therefore confirm that the Nightingale hospitals will be brought back online to minimise impacts on wider healthcare?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): The Nightingale hospitals are there, ready to go if they are needed. They are currently mothballed and can be reopened very rapidly. We are working incredibly hard with the NHS to ensure that this time around there is the absolute minimum disruption to other treatments, but of course the first, best minimisation of impacts on other treatments is not to have a sharp rise in the number of people going to hospital with covid. Our plan learns from what happened before. Of course there is the much more widespread capability for testing, both in the NHS and outside, thanks to the hard work of companies such as Randox and others. That means that we will be better placed than last time around to keep the rest of the NHS running, but it does not mean that we can rest easy in terms of rising cases, because of course the easiest way for the NHS to operate is to keep covid cases low.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I would be very interested in the examples, especially of people being sent long distances, because, as I said earlier, the information I have been given is that that problem has been resolved. I am working incredibly hard to resolve all the other problems and to bring to bear the record testing capacity that we have.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a good point on which to end, because my right hon. Friend has worked incredibly hard over the last four or five days to try to ensure that we find a way to protect people who use informal childcare without unnecessarily harming others by widening the exemption beyond what is needed. It is important to control the virus and keep listening to people as to how best to do that, and she has helped enormously. Her final point is critical, which is that we all have a role to play in taking seriously the rise in cases and hospitalisations that we have seen and making sure that we are all doing our bit to control coronavirus.
Terminally Ill People: Welfare Support — House of Commons, 2020-09-14
Topic: Health
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): I would like to thank all the organisations and charities that supported the consultation, which took longer than we had hoped due to covid-19. It is clear that there are three themes: the need to change the six-month rule, to improve consistency and to raise awareness of the support. We are working at pace across government to bring forward proposals.
Terminally Ill People: Welfare Support — House of Commons, 2020-09-14
Topic: Health
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): I pay tribute to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, which has been at the heart of this review. The Secretary of State and I are committed to delivering an improved system that raises awareness of the support, improves consistency and tackles the issue raised around the six-month rule. We are determined that this will be done as quickly as possible.
Support for Shielding People: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-14
Topic: Health
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): We have already made changes to the eligibility for statutory sick pay so that people can qualify from the first day rather than wait until the fourth day. We have extended it to those with symptoms, those who need to self-isolate, or those who need to self-isolate ahead of a hospital procedure. Those on low incomes also have the opportunity, subject to their personal circumstances, to get additional financial support through either universal credit or new-style ESA.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-09-14
Topic: Health
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): We rightly took a decision to suspend face-to-face assessments following Public Health England’s guidance. We continue to keep this under review, but wherever possible, we are either doing a paper-based review or a telephone assessment, and we are automatically renewing reassessments that are due within three months by six months, and we review that on a regular basis.
Policy on International Law: Strength of the Union — House of Commons, 2020-10-01
Topic: Health
Michael Andrew Gove (Conservative, Centre-right): First, I apologise to the hon. Gentleman for any delay in answering his written questions. I will take that up with the team in the Cabinet Office Of course, Government do undertake research, and that research reinforces to us the vital importance of serving every part of the United Kingdom effectively. The research that we undertake, for example, reveals that, across the United Kingdom, people believe it is vital that Governments work together to deal with the current covid pandemic, and it is important that the good co-operation that we have recently enjoyed with the Scottish Government continues.
Cross-Government Communications: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-01
Topic: Health
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I fully recognise that the rules have got more complex—were Matt Lucas recreating the "Baked Potato Song" now, he would have to write an opera. They are more complex because we have regional and local lockdowns, as opposed to a blanket lockdown, and I think that is what the nation wants: we want to keep our economy going and to give people as much freedom as we possibly can, while fighting this virus. By and large, although the public are fed up, they are following the rules and they are working together, with collective responsibility, to beat this virus. All Members of this House can help to deliver the messages by putting them on their Twitter feeds and by communicating them. Only by working together are we going to defeat this virus.
Regional Economic Opportunity — House of Commons, 2020-10-01
Topic: Health
Julia Louise Lopez (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his question. It is an incredibly challenging time for constituents in Bolton North East and in many other areas of the country, and I know they will appreciate his advocacy. Local lockdown decisions are determined following advice from national medical experts, local leaders and directors of public health, in accordance with data provided by the Joint Biosecurity Centre. We consider case rates, trends in the data and causes, but also local geography, before making judgments about whether restrictions are needed. We of course keep all these measures under constant review I share my hon. Friend’s concern for the hospitality sector, and I have spoken to the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully), about the taskforce he is setting up as Business Minister to work through some of the issues for the night-time economy in particular.
Government Contracts: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-10-01
Topic: Health
Julia Louise Lopez (Conservative, Centre-right): The private sector has played a vital role in the Government’s response to the covid-19 outbreak, such as delivering over 15,000 ventilators in under four months to support the NHS and changing production facilities so that by December we expect that UK manufacturers will be meeting 70% of the demand for personal protective equipment, compared with just 1% before the pandemic. Being able to procure at speed has been critical in providing that response. However, we have been clear that all contracts, including those designed to help tackle coronavirus, must continue to offer quality public services and achieve value for money for taxpayers.
Covid-19: Discussions with Devolved Administrations — House of Commons, 2020-10-01
Topic: Health
Michael Andrew Gove (Conservative, Centre-right): We and the devolved Administrations recently published a joint statement showing our commitment to work together to protect the health of our citizens, to protect our communities, and to enhance our economic recovery. Ministers from all the devolved Administrations attended Cobra on 22 September following bilateral discussions with the Prime Minister the day before. Of course I have regular meetings with the First Ministers of all the Administrations.
Covid-19: Discussions with Devolved Administrations — House of Commons, 2020-10-01
Topic: Health
Desmond Angus Swayne (Conservative, Centre-right): If the effort against covid is a war, then the first principles are the selection and maintenance of the aim. In March, the aim was to flatten the curve and protect the NHS. Has it changed?
Covid-19: Discussions with Devolved Administrations — House of Commons, 2020-10-01
Topic: Defense
Michael Andrew Gove (Conservative, Centre-right): No. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right, as a distinguished Territorial Army officer as well as a very successful former Defence Minister. Yes, our aim is to flatten the curve, to protect the NHS and to save lives.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-10-01
Topic: Health
Michael Andrew Gove (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady makes an important point. The important thing to say is that, when it comes to the delivery of all public services, what is right is what works. We need to ensure that we have an effective mix of public sector and private sector delivery. It is the case that we would not have been able to increase testing capacity to the current levels that we have without the involvement of the private sector, and it is central Government, local government and the private sector working effectively together that ensures that we can both test, and track and trace, in the way that is best guaranteed to keep our respective constituents safe. So we look at the evidence, but we also ensure that we do everything we can to have the innovation of the private sector and the compassion of the public sector working hand in hand.