argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Vulnerable Adults: Transport — House of Commons, 2016-01-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is right: councils in deprived areas will have the greatest social care needs, yet they will raise less than a third of what more affluent areas raise through this approach. I really fear that any revenue we raise across the city of Salford will barely touch the sides of the funding crisis in social care. Sadly, the Minister may be hoping to say that services such as in-house transport for vulnerable adults could be funded through a future increase in the social care precept, but that is not likely to be an option for Salford City Council. As I have outlined, councils in deprived areas have already been hit the hardest, and they will be hit worst again by the measures in the latest spending review The Government have had since 2010 to convince us that their argument for local government austerity is necessary. In that time, they have slashed the budgets available to councils for vulnerable adult transport and other essential services, while at the same time handing out tax breaks for millionaires, slashing inheritance tax and, despite their rhetoric, doing very little to crack down on tax avoidance. In fact, only in December we heard that five of the largest banks in the UK paid no corporation tax at all in 2014, despite making billions of pounds in profits The Prime Minister gave the game away in an interview on Monday morning, when he said that "if you are a Conservative, you don’t believe in a big state" I fear that that is what these cuts are all about: rolling back the state and going back to a time when the vulnerable relied on the philanthropic donations of wealthy people with a conscience The cuts that have been inflicted on my city are clearly a political choice, not an economic necessity. My and my hon. Friend’s city is living in fear, with the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, waiting for the next savage cut to drop I look forward to hearing the Minister’s comments and I hope he will be able to reassure me that my fears are unfounded. I also hope that as a result of this debate he will ensure that there is a much-needed boost to local government funding, in order to provide essential services such as the one I have outlined. I hope he amazes me with what he is about to say.
Vulnerable Adults: Transport — House of Commons, 2016-01-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Barbara Mary Keeley (Labour, Centre-left): Like my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour the Member for Salford and Eccles (Rebecca Long Bailey), I want to talk about Salford. It was one of the last authorities in the country that managed to hold on to moderate eligibility for social care, but the cuts that my hon. Friend spoke about mean that we have had to move from moderate to substantial. There is not the funding in the system that the Minister is outlining.
Vulnerable Adults: Transport — House of Commons, 2016-01-21
Topic: Transportation
Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister is quite right in what he says. The ability of my local authority to do more with less has been extremely amazing, but the fact remains that the review of special needs transport would not have occurred to this extent had the funding not been taken away. I do not dispute that it is right to review the service and the needs of individuals on an ongoing basis, but it should not have been done in such a forthright and extreme way. That would not have occurred had the funding not been taken away.
Vulnerable Adults: Transport — House of Commons, 2016-01-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour, Centre-left): I am quite concerned about the Minister’s comments. I spoke to the council this week and received similar comments, including notification that large numbers of the families were happy with the new service—I outlined that in my speech. I also highlighted that the council was aware that some families are not happy with the amended service, and it continues to work with them to try to reach a sensible conclusion on the matter. That is why I have raised this issue in the Chamber today.
Welfare Reform — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Labor
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): But the Secretary of State will know that research analysis from the House of Commons Library shows that three in four people who are currently receiving tax credits will see that in-work support reduced when they are naturally migrated over to universal credit. What does he have to say to those millions of workers whose in-work support will be revised downwards?
Welfare Reform — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Owen Smith (Labour, Centre-left): Politics is always about choices, about priorities and about values. This past weekend, we saw the values and priorities of the current Government laid bare in their decision to implement a so-called welfare reform that will see £1.2 billion cut from the incomes of disabled people to pay for—we are told—a tax cut for top-rate taxpayers. Will the Secretary of State come back to the Dispatch Box and honestly describe that as a welfare reform, and then justify those choices?
Welfare Reform — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Owen Smith (Labour, Centre-left): For the benefit of the House, may I translate what the Secretary of State has just said? What he means is that he will take away £1.2 billion, completely eroding access to personal independence payment for 200,000 people, and cutting it by a third, from £70 to £50, for a further 450,000 people—people who are quite often unable to use the toilet or get dressed unaided. That comes on top of the cuts to ESA that went through the House last week. Before I came to the Chamber this afternoon, I asked disabled people what question they would like to put to the Secretary of State. One answer stood out. It was quite simply, "How does he sleep at night?"
Disability and Employment — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Carolyn Harris (Labour, Centre-left): Last Friday we heard that an additional £1.2 billion is to be cut from the PIP budget. That translates into £2,000 a year less for more than 60,000 claimants. What method or madness led the Minister to think that cutting support could help PIP claimants into work or to achieve independent living?
Disability and Employment — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Labor
Stephen Pelham Pound (Labour, Centre-left): The establishment of a taskforce is occasionally a mechanism for kicking the can down the road, but in this case I give the Minister credit for his good intentions. Will he consider adding the Royal British Legion to the list of consultees, because there is a real issue of disabled ex-servicemen and women having a great deal of difficulty getting into work?
Disability and Employment — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (Labour, Centre-left): The Government have sunk to a new low with this cut to the personal independence payment. As my hon. Friends have said, by 2020 some 640,000 disabled people will have their personal independence payment cut, a third by £2,865 a year and two thirds by £1,400 a year, stripping disabled people of their independence and their dignity. That is on top of the £24 billion cut to 4 million people since 2012. What are the Government’s estimates of how many of those disabled people will be in work, and how many will be unable to work as a consequence of those cuts?
Disability and Employment — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (Labour, Centre-left): Well, a Government Member is saying, "Listen to the answer." Again, I am afraid, it is a non-answer—a hallmark of this dodgy, inept and unjust Government. Let us see whether they can do a bit better with this question Social security spending on disabled people as a percentage of GDP is lower now than it was in 1960. The Conservative manifesto for the last general election pledged not to cut social security support for disabled people. How and why have the Government gone back on that commitment, and how much more do they think disabled people will be able to take?
Family Stability — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Frank Field (Labour, Centre-left): Would the Secretary of State like to confirm that if we look at the current poverty data, we see that there are almost no poor children in households where there is a parent in work and one parent is available for part-time work? What lesson does he draw from that?
Family Stability — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Conor Patrick McGinn (Labour, Centre-left): If we are talking about cause and effect, I fear the question is the wrong way around. What I would like the Secretary of State to explain is how increasing levels of poverty under his Government are affecting family stability. Perhaps he might answer that question.
Disability: Welfare Support — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): Disabled people, particularly those with mental challenges, report that the work capability assessment is exacerbating their ill health, even to the point that they want to take their own life. Those constituents are vulnerable and fragile. The situation is made worse by changes in benefits, financial hardship, and threats of future cuts. Rather than deny the problem, will the Secretary of State order an independent review of those with mental health challenges to assess the impact of the system from a service user’s perspective?
Disability: Welfare Support — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
David Julian Winnick (Labour, Centre-left): In view of Friday’s statement, why do the Government have such a compulsive need to hit out at disabled people at every opportunity? Does the Minister not realise how difficult it is for those people to lead their lives while their income is being undermined by the Government? This can only be described as an ongoing Tory war against the disabled.
Universal Credit — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Neil Coyle (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State made reference earlier to unreliable predictions. He predicted that by today’s date 8 million people would be on universal credit, but the DWP confirmed last week that fewer than 365,000 people are on universal credit—a staggeringly pathetic success rate of 4.4%. The only reason why the Government are pushing out universal credit now is to deliver the tax credit cut that will hit thousands of working families in my constituency, so is it not time the quiet man went silent on pretending that universal credit is a success?
Universal Credit — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Labor
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): I hope that the Secretary of State does not think that this is a load of rubbish. I visited this morning, with Dame Steve Shirley, a wonderful place where young people with autism are prepared for work. They are very concerned about how universal credit is going to affect them, because they have already seen education not being allowed in their personal plans. Remember that autism costs this country £34 billion a year. If we do not get those young people into employment, the sum will increase and the misery of the families will also increase.
Universal Credit — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State told "The Andrew Marr Show" show on 6 December: "Nobody will lose any money on arrival on universal credit from tax credits because they’re cash protected, which means there’s transitional protection. They won’t be losing any money." If there were any doubt about that reassurance, the Secretary of State repeated it earlier to my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne). But according to the Library, only 27% of the final case load for universal credit will have got there through managed migration, so 73% of them will not have received transitional protection. Apply that to the current tax credit claimants in work, and 2.3 million families will be worse off as a result of moving from tax credits to universal credit. [Interruption.] Oh, I will give you the question. Will the Secretary of State apologise to those families for giving such nonsensical reassurances?
Universal Credit — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: What estimate his Department has made of the likely average change in income for a disabled worker as a result of changes to the universal credit work allowance.
Christian John Patrick Matheson (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for that response, but the Library disagrees and suggests that next year, disabled people will lose £1,700 on average. May I suggest respectfully to the Minister that nobody chooses to be disabled, that they are that way through illness, accident or simply bad luck? Now is the time not to pile more misery on those unfortunate people, but to give them a bit of dignity by not making this dreadful cut.
Women and the State Pension — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Angela Rayner (Labour, Centre-left): I am really disappointed that the Minister still does not recognise that those women were given a totally inadequate notice period. Given that unfairness and the Secretary of State’s earlier comments—this Government are pretending they want to take people out of poverty—will the Minister look at the six options we have presented to the Government to deal with this injustice? Will he, as many Members of his party would support doing, allow those affected—[Interruption.] I am coming to that, if the hon. Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman) would listen. Will the Minister allow those affected to take a reduced state pension at an earlier age and be paid a lower state pension for a longer period?
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Naseem Akhtar Shah (Labour, Centre-left): In the light of research published by the Children’s Society, which shows that 104,000 children in Bradford are adversely affected by the benefit freeze and that in my constituency alone 29,500 children are living in poverty, does the Minister not think he would be better off arguing with his Chancellor about his Budget rather than needlessly pushing more families and children into poverty?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Social Welfare
Daniel Stephen Zeichner (Labour, Centre-left): My constituent Nick Dale is 36 years old and has a complex range of disabilities. His care package has just been reduced by Cambridgeshire County Council from 17 hours a week to 6.5 hours. The council told him he should see this not negatively but as a way "of utilizing the strengths and resources that he may not realise he has within himself." His mother is appalled by his loss and the patronising tone—borrowed from the Government. If I lift the Secretary of State’s wallet in the Lobby tonight, would it help him utilise hidden strengths he did not realise he had, or is he as furious as I am about the way Nick Dale has been treated?
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Tom Watson (Labour, Centre-left): (Urgent Question): I seek not to embarrass you in any way, Mr Speaker, but to ask the Lord President of the Council if he will make a statement on the adherence to the rules and conventions of the Privy Council in the light of the suspension of collective responsibility in connection with the European Union referendum.
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Government Operations
Tom Watson (Labour, Centre-left): Last Wednesday, The Sun published a front-page story relating to the EU referendum, which it said was based on two "impeccably placed" sources. The right hon. Gentleman will know that every member of the Privy Council swears a solemn and binding oath to the Queen that they will, in the words of the oath, "keep secret all Matters committed and revealed unto you" My hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) has written to the right hon. Gentleman asking for an investigation. Will he please confirm that that will take place? Will he also confirm that the Privy Council rules have not been suspended as a result of the referendum? Three members have categorically denied that they are the source, yet the Justice Secretary has only said: "I don’t know how The Sun got all its information" That is hardly categorical The sovereign’s constitutional impartiality is an established principle of our democracy, and it is incumbent on those in political office to ensure that that remains the case. Such a breach would be particularly serious and significant. Had the Justice Secretary disclosed this information, he would have breached the principle of confidentiality and prayed in aid the monarch in a politically controversial manner, but he would also have undermined his role as the Minister responsible for upholding the rule of law. Does the Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House therefore agree that the public have a right to know whether the Justice Secretary was a source of this story, and will he now urge his colleague to confirm or deny such allegations There has been a referral to the Independent Press Standards Organisation to investigate a complaint about the story, but IPSO cannot investigate whether a Privy Counsellor has broken his oath. Only the Minister or the Prime Minister can order that investigation. A cover-up will not do. Surely any member of the Privy Council who was a source of this story, or whose special adviser or ally was, stands in contempt of his Privy Council oath, and should be removed from office if he will not honourably resign himself.
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Law and Crime
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): The Leader of the House prayed in aid the former Deputy Prime Minister’s categorical denial that that conversation ever took place. Could not this matter be put to bed very simply and straightforwardly by the Justice Secretary, who is an honourable man, coming to the House himself and categorically denying that the conversation ever took place?
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Government Operations
Joan Marie Ryan (Labour, Centre-left): I have always considered it an honour and privilege to be a member of the Privy Council, and I take very seriously the trust that is placed in those of us who are part of it. I believe that the allegations carry a great deal of currency, and that if they are not properly investigated, they could undermine the whole of the Privy Council and everybody in it. The Prime Minister was right to say that it would be very serious if a member of the Privy Council was the source of the newspaper story in The Sun. I therefore think that it behoves the Government to ask the Member involved to come to this House and to make a statement himself, in order to lay this matter to rest.
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Law and Crime
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): The Leader of the House is clinging to the defence that he is using today, but it is clear that the Secretary of State for Justice wants people to believe that he was the source and that the story is true. Given that the right hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Sir Nicholas Soames), whom we all respect tremendously on such matters, considers this to be treason, the Leader of the House’s rather flippant approach massively undermines the importance of this important role.
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: International Affairs
Joanna Meriel Stevens (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister has described the EU referendum as a once-in-a-generation decision and "more important than a general election". Does the Leader of the House agree that public confidence in the outcome of this significant vote rests largely on members of the Government on both sides of the argument behaving fairly and abiding by agreed rules and conventions?
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Law and Crime
Clive Stanley Efford (Labour, Centre-left): I am racking my brain trying to think of a previous occasion when the Leader of the House has agreed so readily with the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr Clegg). Surely the Leader of the House must accept that the Justice Secretary’s failure unequivocally to state that he had nothing to do with this is the reason he is answering this urgent question now. Should the Justice Secretary not either make such a statement or resign?
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Labor
Justin Piers Richard Madders (Labour, Centre-left): Millions of working people throughout this country know that when an allegation of gross misconduct comes to an employer’s attention, it is usually expected that an investigation will follow and that if the allegation is proven, dismissal is a potential outcome. Doing nothing creates a precedent that others may rely on in future if other allegations are made, so does the Leader of the House agree that the failure even to investigate this shows a lack of courage and creates an unwelcome precedent?
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Government Operations
Melanie Onn (Labour, Centre-left): I am disappointed to hear the response of the Leader of the House, because Buckingham Palace is sufficiently concerned by this story to have made a formal complaint to the press watchdog. There are two impeccable sources involved, so why are the Government not taking the matter seriously by holding an investigation?
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Government Operations
Michael Joseph Patrick Kane (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister has described the situation as "very serious". Does the Leader of the House agree with him that it is very serious if a member of the Privy Council has breached confidential codes and been the source for The Sun story? If he does, why is he not launching his own investigation?
EU Referendum (Privy Council) — House of Commons, 2016-03-14
Topic: Law and Crime
Naseem Akhtar Shah (Labour, Centre-left): Yesterday, the Sunday Telegraph reported that Government sources had described the alleged leak by the Justice Secretary as a "sackable offence". Will the Leader of the House confirm that the Justice Secretary had the support of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues to remain in post?