argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): I cannot comment on the operations of the French Government, but I can say that we stand ready to support them in joint efforts to see that children and other refugees are appropriately housed and supported. We are providing funding to identify vulnerable children and ensure that the necessary facilities are there. We have given and will continue to give the French Government that support.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): I utterly reject the right hon. Gentleman’s assertion. The joint working that our enforcement agencies are engaged in in confronting the people traffickers, going after the gangs and seeing that there is not such exploitation is part of the joint agreement that was signed last August. We are supporting the French Government to identify the vulnerable and see that they are given support, and we will continue to do so.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Minister give a categorical assurance that children and young people who have a legitimate claim to be in the UK because of having close family relatives here will not be disadvantaged by starting their asylum claim in France? Although he has made it clear that there is not currently any formal process for the UNHCR to be involved in processing such claims, will he consider that for the future?
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): I can certainly say that if there are children who qualify under the Dublin regulation—in other words, if they have close family here—we will stand by our obligations. We will ensure that they are processed efficiently and effectively, which is precisely why we are taking the action we are with the French Government My hon. Friend highlights the issue of the UNHCR’s role. There is a clear process, and we are working to ensure that it operates. As I have said, we believe that it can be made to operate efficiently and effectively, and we will work with the French Government to achieve that.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): French non-governmental organisations operate in the camps to help identify unaccompanied children and to help them to register with the authorities so that they can be properly looked after. That is the right approach, and it is precisely what the French Government seek to do. There is a process between the French Government and the asylum system, and that is the way in which assistance can be given. I strongly urge everyone to get behind that process, to ensure that children in need receive the care they require.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): The fact that there are many unaccompanied children wandering across Europe without any effective means of support is the biggest stain on how the European Union is operating its border and asylum policy. Will the Minister confirm that many thousands more children would be in such an awful plight were it not for the fact that this Government are providing such a huge amount of aid to Syria and neighbouring countries so that other children do not make this perilous journey?
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): My understanding is that the French Government are approaching this work on a phased basis. Places of worship and schools will not be subject to the clearance as a consequence of the court ruling, and the French authorities are focused on areas with unoccupied tents and are encouraging migrants who remain to move to the new accommodation in Calais or elsewhere in France. On children in need of support, I underline again the need to ensure that claims are made, and the NGOs are going in there and helping to identify children in need of help.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Michael Ellwood Berry (Conservative, Centre-right): The Minister will remember the evidence given by the Mayor of Calais to the Home Affairs Committee and what she has said in public, which is that the majority of those in the camps have been informed that they need to claim asylum in France, but they do not want to do so because they want to come to the UK. Does he agree that it is incumbent on the French Government and the Calais authorities to ensure that children, who cannot make asylum applications on their own, are assisted in doing so, and that adults are informed again that they must claim asylum in France, which is a safe country?
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): In respect of asylum processing and deciding whether to uphold claims, we in this country have done a great deal to ensure that claims are properly assessed and that straightforward claims are dealt with within six months. The Government have done a great deal of hard work to introduce that effectiveness into the system, and that has been recognised in the recent independent inspector’s report.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
Damian Noel Thomas Collins (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the Minister agree that we and the French Government should make efforts to encourage people to seek assistance in France from the authorities, rather than living in squalor, vulnerable to criminal gangs? Does he also agree that we must make sure that we have strong security at our borders, so that people realise that it is not worth putting their lives in the hands of people traffickers, because they will end up losing their lives, as so many have done?
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend knows from his constituency interests the work that the Government have done to secure the port area around Calais and the Eurotunnel terminal at Coquelles. We keep that security under review in a joint group with the French Government. He makes the powerful and important point that asylum claims should be made at the earliest opportunity so that help and assistance can be given at the earliest opportunity.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a clear question of people claiming asylum, and children are being supported by the work of the NGOs that the French Government have put in place precisely for that purpose. We have taken a consistent joint approach, building on the agreement of last August, to support the French Government in their work to ensure that those in need of help get it.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
Andrew James Bridgen (Conservative, Centre-right): Everyone has concerns for vulnerable children in the camps in Calais. When children have identified that they have relatives in the UK, how many of those relatives the UK Government are preventing from travelling to France to be reunited with the children? Why does he think refugees would rather be in the UK than in France?
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): These issues are often complex. The factor at the forefront of our minds is always what is in the best interests of the child. When we receive applications under Dublin or under family reunification, we always have to assess what is in the best interests of the child and whether the parents or other close family members can support the child. We give that focus to every case.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): Has the Minister had any discussions with his French counterpart to find out the reasons why the migrants in Calais did not claim asylum in the other safe countries that they travelled through before arriving in France?
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): The reasons are often quite complex. The Chair of the Home Affairs Committee highlighted the role of people traffickers and smugglers, as well as those who sell false hope through a whole host of different means and networks, including social media. Other reasons may relate to the existing diaspora communities and the whole issue of language. Through the actions on which we are supporting the French Government, and indeed those that we are taking ourselves in the camps, we are giving the clear message that people should claim asylum in France.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): I would say to anyone in that situation that they should claim asylum in France, which will ensure that there is a direct connection and that we can make the system work. I stress that the fact that different messages are being given does not help the situation. In respect of the whole issue of the clearance of the camps, I understand that the court specifically ruled that it should go ahead with the exception of places of worship and schools. The French Government should therefore adopt that approach in the actions they are taking.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman (Conservative, Centre-right): Before I entered this place, I worked as counsel on hundreds of asylum and trafficking cases. A core principle of the Dublin regulations is that the first country of entry should take responsibility for the claimant, which imports fairness and equity into the system. Will my right hon. Friend reassure the House of his commitment to that principle, and confirm that to discard it without legal basis would be undemocratic and illegitimate?
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with my hon. Friend about the benefits and the strength of the Dublin arrangements. We believe that they should be upheld, not undermined. They include the core principle that those who make a claim should do so in the first safe country in which they arrive. Equally, the principle of family reunification for close family members operates under Dublin III, and the Government stand by that principle.
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): I recently met constituents from St Stephen’s church in Worcester who have been to the camp in Dunkirk. They describe the situation for children as appalling. There is very poor sanitation, and with men-only kitchens, there is a danger that children and the women looking after them are missing out on food. I completely agree with the Minister that everyone in the camps should claim asylum in France, but where that does not happen over a long period, what more can we do to reach out and get that information to the most vulnerable? How can we make sure that the humanitarian assistance that reaches the camps reaches the most vulnerable in the camps?
Child Refugees: Calais — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Immigration
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): I again underline the specific facilities there, such as the 400 places for women and children, and the 1,500 places in the new containerised area. We are giving support at 102 centres away from the Calais area to which people can go to receive support, which will ensure that they can make their case. On the specific element of vulnerability, we are supporting the French Government and ensuring that the NGOs are in the camps. Equally, our own officers are going into the camps to reiterate the message that help and support can be given, and that the way to get it is to claim asylum. In that way, we can ensure that assistance is given as early as possible.
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I have a huge amount of respect for my right hon. Friend. That is why I will answer his specific point. The question is exactly the reason for prescribing this guidance only in respect of the in/out issue rather than more broadly. That is what the guidance says. This broad approach was set up by the Prime Minister in January, and then discussed and agreed in Cabinet on 20 February as the best way to take forward the position whereby Ministers could disagree with the Government position.
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): It is very decent of the Minister to dole out bowls full of respect, but my sense is that, on the whole, although that is enormously important to hon. and right hon. Members here assembled, they are generally more interested in his answers than in his respect.
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Civil Rights
William Nigel Paul Cash (Conservative, Centre-right): The Minister calls on the law. The question of voter trust in this referendum, as I said to both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary on 3 and 25 February, is paramount. For the voters who will decide this question, knowledge is, as we know, power. Does the Minister deny that under sections 6 and 7 of the later and express provisions of the European Union Referendum Act 2015, a legal duty is imposed on the Government to provide referendum information and the voter is entitled to accurate and impartial information, as the Minister for Europe agreed in reply to me when the House debated that Bill, through and from the Government and all Ministers of the Crown equally, and that this therefore being a statutory obligation overrides any prime ministerial prerogative such as the Cabinet Secretary acted upon in the guidance of 23 February? Does the Minister therefore deny that civil servants as Crown servants are legally obliged to provide such information accurately and impartially to all Ministers within their Departments so that the voters are properly informed and empowered to answer the question in the referendum?
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Crispin Jeremy Rupert Blunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I find it hard to believe that on 20 February the Cabinet was aware of the implications of what it was doing. The central purpose of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 was to achieve fairness in elections and in referendums, but now the Government have parked themselves on one side of the argument, dwarfing any influence from either of the campaign groups. Their action also goes against the strategic objective of offering the people a referendum to resolve the question of Britain’s role in the world one way or another. That question will hold only if the process is seen to be fair, but all this runs against that strategic objective.
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Owen William Paterson (Conservative, Centre-right): On a daily basis, Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have to make difficult choices between the interpretation of European law and regulation and the delivery of decisions that would benefit United Kingdom citizens. I have dealt with a number of cases in the past which I would like to discuss with the current Minister of State. I shall be meeting him this evening. Will I be able to ask him questions about past cases, so that he can, without fear or favour, have access to a full briefing, all the opinions and all the history of what happened before and after the decision concerned, although the end result might be thoroughly disobliging to the case for remaining in the European Union?
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): The right hon. Gentleman is a most dextrous parliamentarian, and I am sure that he can recover very quickly. I think the accurate characterisation would be that he had been standing. He did not do so on this occasion, probably because he was chuntering from a sedentary position. He then stood again at my exhortation. He has now had plenty of time in which to formulate his question.
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Minister set out what the harm would be in allowing full transparency of these data? Surely there would be much greater harm if at the end of the referendum we were left with people feeling that it had been an unfair process.
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): What we are saying is that the Government have a position and the civil service will advise on that position. If Ministers have taken a personal decision to campaign personally, in a personal capacity, against the position of the Government, it is inappropriate to ask civil servants to support that other position, which is not the position of the Government.
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): Several of my constituents have contacted me and asked where they can get the facts to decide in their own minds how to vote. It is, after all, the people, not the Government, who will decide this matter, so is it not the duty of the civil service to provide facts to our people to enable them to decide how to vote? In these circumstances, is it not fair to ask the Cabinet Secretary, in his capacity as a neutral observer, to prepare a document for the people who will make this decision?
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Stewart Jackson (Conservative, Centre-right): Would a reasonable and fair-minded person not conclude that having been rebuffed in their attempts last September to alter on a sui generis basis the purdah rules relating to the referendum, the Government have come back and undermined the sovereignty of this House by using the civil service to achieve the very same objective?
EU Referendum: Civil Service Guidance — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not think that is right. This House passed the European Union Referendum Act 2015, which required the Government to take a view and therefore the civil service follows the Government view. The Conservative party, as my hon. Friend says, is neutral on this matter, but the Government are not. That is a matter for how the party machine acts, rather than how the Government act, because as I have said many times, the civil service is duty bound by tradition and by law to follow the position of the Government of the day. That is why the guidance is constructed thus
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
Bernard Christison Jenkin (Conservative, Centre-right): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. During the exchanges that we have just had, it was noted that the Minister did not refer to the question and answer brief that has been circulated by the Cabinet Office to civil servants, which carries some of the wider interpretation of the letter. I wonder how I can draw the House’s attention to the fact that we will be publishing it on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee website later today or tomorrow.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): I read out the self-same question and answer, which uses the words "may have a bearing". At what point may we have an explanation of what "may have a bearing" means? Who will arbitrate on that?
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a matter for the Government. Legendarily, the Minister for the Cabinet Office is always keen to address the House—indeed, in the past he has likened himself to Disraeli, who had a notable enthusiasm for addressing the House. If he wishes to respond to the hon. Lady with that legendary succinctness for which he is renowned, we are happy to hear from him, but he is not under any obligation to do so.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): We are extremely grateful to the Minister. I am not sure, from the head movements of the hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs Main), that he has satisfied her, but I am not sure any Minister would have been able to do so. None the less, the Minister has graciously come to the Dispatch Box.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I will come back to Members who are expectant—[Interruption.] Well, expectant of the opportunity to raise points of order, I should perhaps say. But perhaps I may be permitted to take other points of order first. We will come to those illustrious denizens ere long.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order. The answer is that I have had no advance notice of this matter. It would be only fair for me, from the Chair, to say at this stage that whether it amounts to what she has described as a major change of policy or is merely a temporary pause or tactical judgment, I do not know. Suffice it to say that if there is a change of policy or a significant change in Government intentions for a notable period, the House would expect properly to be informed of that, and there are means by which Ministers can inform the House: either through the device of an answer to a written question or by a written ministerial statement. To my knowledge, neither has thus far been forthcoming. The hon. Lady’s point of order and my response to it will shortly be heard by the Wales Office, and I hope that proper account will be taken of it. If the hon. Lady needs to return to the point, doubtless she will do so.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order, the thrust of which she was kind enough to give me advance notice. I think that I am right in saying that she also gave notice to the Minister concerned.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2016-02-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I fear that it would be hazardous for me to tread on the terrain of what might be called the "known unknowns" or even the "unknown unknowns". That would be difficult. The question, though a very good and legitimate one, is, I fear, at this stage hypothetical, but it is a problematic matter. The best I can say to the right hon. Gentleman is that the Chair, of course, will keenly attend to events and to the process of question and answer, and we will have to look at this matter as and when it arises, on a case by case basis. I will not be looking at it proactively, but if Members raise the matter with the Chair, the Chair will do his best to respond.