argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Speaker of the House of Commons — House of Lords, 2017-06-14
Topic: Other
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): Mr Speaker, we have it further in Command to inform you that Her Majesty does most readily confirm all the rights and privileges which have ever been granted to or conferred upon the Commons by Her Majesty or any of her Royal predecessors. With respect to yourself, Sir, though Her Majesty is sensible that you stand in no need of such assurance, Her Majesty will ever place the most favourable construction upon your words and actions Mr Speaker and the Commons then retired.
European Union: Final Withdrawal Agreement — House of Lords, 2017-10-26
Topic: Other
Joyce Anelay (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, when I became Opposition Chief Whip I had the pleasure of working with the noble Lord, who was then the Government Chief Whip. He knew his procedure and rules then and he is right now.
European Union: Final Withdrawal Agreement — House of Lords, 2017-10-26
Topic: Other
Joyce Anelay (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Governments always listen to views. I am known for never having called anybody’s views stupid. Even if I disagree with them, I listen and reflect. That is what I have always done and I shall always continue to do so.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to both noble Baronesses for their broad welcome of the publication of these statistics. On the question of the delay, no one has ever done this before and there was no template for us to follow. No other country has done this. It was a complicated exercise. We wanted to make sure that the data were of the right quality, and that has contributed to the delay from the hoped-for date earlier this year. We are taking steps to address some of the problems that have been mentioned, particularly the 20 hot spots, which we have not announced yet, where there will be special measures by the DWP to help those who find it difficult to get into work, such as mentoring, which the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, mentioned, traineeships and other steps to help people into work The noble Baroness asked a good question about the devolved regions. The Minister, my noble friend Lord Bourne, is meeting the devolved regions tomorrow. The initial indications are that the Welsh Assembly is quite anxious to participate but so far the Scottish Parliament has been somewhat more reluctant, as my right honourable friend said in another place. The devolved regions hold some of these statistics. We have provided only statistics for data that are reserved; the devolved Assembly and the Scottish Parliament have many of the local data. I very much hope that they will either join in this or take it forward in their own way. As I said, there is a meeting tomorrow to take this matter forward On the question of who was involved, the race disparity audit that was published at the same time said: "Ongoing and wide-ranging consultation with potential users of data has helped identify questions of public interest and concern, and to understand how to present the data objectively and meaningfully in a way that makes sense to users and commands their confidence. This has included roundtable discussions with NGOs, public service providers and academics, and engagement with the public" So there was a fairly extensive consultation exercise before we published this In response to further questions that were asked, we expect there to be further announcements in due course from other government departments taking the agenda forward. In response to the noble Baroness from the Liberal Democrat Benches, there will be an interministerial group where all the departments involved will be represented to take it forward. The noble Baroness will be familiar with the Parker report, which looked at representation on executive boards, and we need to take that agenda forward. However, this is not just a matter for the Government; it also poses some difficult questions for those in the private sector "Explain or change" applies to the Government as much as to everyone else. We will have to explain why these figures are as they are. If there is not a good explanation then we will have to make changes, and we will come forward with those in due course.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord is right to say that we in this country have made enormous progress. I was looking at the Equality and Human Rights Commission report Is Britain Fairer?, which says: "The reader will find that Britain has become fairer in many areas. We should be proud of and celebrate these advances. If we do not recognise the positives, we run the risk of feeding an untrue and excessively negative narrative that suggests everywhere you look we are becoming more divided and less fair as a nation" I think there has been enormous change and improvement in social attitudes, underpinned by relevant race equality legislation. The noble Lord is right that there was a spike—I hope it was just a spike—after the referendum result, and that poses a challenge to all those government departments with responsibility for promoting good relationships. There is particular responsibility for the police on the law and order front. In publishing this document, we recognise that we have progress to make in a wide number of areas.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the work which the right reverend Prelate has been doing in east London, in his diocese. If there is a template there, a model of working which can have wider application, of course the Government would be interested. One thing that I discovered from going on to the website this morning, which I had not appreciated before, is that black people are disproportionately more likely to engage in voluntary work than any other group. If one digs into the audit, there is a lot of good news there about ethnic minorities, which I hope we can now put in a wider domain. If we can build on the good work that the Church has done in east London and apply it to some other areas where there are big ethnic minority populations, the Government would be delighted.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): I applaud the work that the noble Baroness has done over many years in the field of promoting better community relationships. One thing this audit does is to demolish the myth of white superiority. According to the indicators, white children leaving school do much worse than particular ethnic minority groups. As I said in the Statement, white children are more prone to smoke than children from other ethnic minorities. It helps to identify those areas in which ethnic minorities are outperforming the white British. If I refer to black people, that is the language used in the report, on the website and in the Statement. But I hope that when the noble Baroness has an opportunity to look at the website, she will find that some of her fears about promoting white superiority are allayed.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with much of what the noble Baroness has just said. If one looks at excluded children, which I did this morning, one sees that those most likely to be excluded are Traveller children and those in the Roma community. Publishing the figures highlights the fact that those children are more likely to be excluded. The noble Baroness is right that there are substantial discrepancies and differences between particular ethnic groups when it comes to exclusion. Now those who run our schools will have to explain or change—that is the whole purpose of the exercise On a coherent race equality strategy, again, I hear what the noble Baroness says. As I mentioned a moment ago, there will be an interministerial group to take this forward. I anticipate that there will be interest in both this House and another place now that we have published the report and the Government have explained how they are making progress in eliminating some of the discrimination that has appeared.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Other
Mark Schreiber (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, in debating these matters, will my noble friend bear in mind the advice of the late Lord Bauer—the distinguished economist Professor Peter Bauer, at whose feet I was lucky enough to sit many years ago as an undergraduate—that sometimes the word "difference" is more enlightening than "inequality"?
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Other
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes—and, again, if my noble friend has time to look at this, he will see that often there are very good reasons why there are differences. But he has given me some good advice and I will stop there.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
Sandip Verma (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I commend my right honourable friend the Prime Minister as she has been passionate about getting this issue on the agenda for as long as I have known her, which is a very long time. Could we start first with Whitehall? Many people of all ethnicities come into Whitehall but, when it comes to promotion, we seem to lose people of colour along the way and very few positions across Whitehall are held by people from ethnic minorities. I am not sure that mentoring is the answer, because I do not think you need it if you have an equal level of education.
Race Disparity Audit — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend is absolutely right. The statistics showing the percentage of those from ethnic minorities employed in the public sector are in the report. She is right to say that there is good representation at the lower levels but much less as one goes up the chain. Again, that is a question for the Government to explain or change. If one looks at the Armed Forces, the Army has a relatively good record with some 10% of personnel coming from ethnic minorities, but the RAF has a less good record. Therefore, there are challenges for the Civil Service and those in the public sector to look at the figures and establish why those from ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in the less well-paid posts.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
Thomas Jeremy King (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I welcome the robust position in the Minister’s Statement. I particularly welcome the fact that this position has been endorsed by all sides of the House. I have a personal interest in this because I went to Seattle and met the board of Boeing when they worked very closely with Shorts, so they have no excuse for saying they do not know much about the situation in Northern Ireland. There is a long history of collaboration. In my time as Secretary of State, I also arranged the sale of Shorts to Bombardier, and I am very proud indeed of the success it has been over the years, the employment it has given and the importance it has for the Northern Ireland economy I take very well the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Fox, that this could drag on for a long time and be extremely damaging. We are told that President Trump is very keen on US jobs. I was interested to hear in the Statement that there are 23,000 US jobs involved in the Bombardier aeroplane, if the Statement is correct, so there is that defence, as presumably those people could lose their jobs I think that at last Boeing is beginning to realise the damage this is doing to its reputation. Anybody who looks at today’s Evening Standard will find a four-page wrap-round paid for by Boeing about its importance to the UK and what it is doing. I think the PR advisers in Boeing have just woken up to the damage that this is doing to Boeing. The earlier that Boeing can use its influence on the various authorities—it has some influence there—the better. Boeing did not quote for this plane. No US jobs are put at risk by Delta buying these planes. There is no evidence that they could come from an alternative American supplier, as far as I am aware. Against that background, I strongly hope that we can put this behind us. Boeing is a wonderful company. It does a lot of good work, and it has made a very silly move on this occasion, and the sooner it withdraws it, the better.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): I tend to agree with my noble friend. It is interesting to hear about his direct involvement in Shorts going back a number of years. He is right that it is perhaps rather ironic that there are so many jobs—23,000 is the correct figure—in the US. I would argue that Boeing taking this view is an own goal However, Boeing remains very important to us in the UK. Its contribution to the UK is considerable. There are 2,200 people directly employed by Boeing, and that figure is expected to rise to 4,000 by 2025. The annual supply chain spend is £2.1 billion and the annual UK R&D spend is £11 million per annum. The House may know that Boeing has a new civil aerospace manufacturing facility in Sheffield. It is Boeing’s first civil factory in Europe. There is also a hangar in Gatwick and a repair facility in Lossiemouth. It is important for us to continue to develop the long-term partnership with Boeing, and as I said earlier, its action, which is inexplicable, must be overturned. I hope, as my noble friend said, that Boeing will see sense and withdraw its petition.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): On the noble Lord’s third point, I do not agree with what he said to the extent that, as I said earlier, I see this as being a challenging issue between the US, Canadian and UK Governments that is specific to the Boeing/Bombardier matter. It is right to ring-fence that and to look at it and work on it as assiduously as we are. We will continue to do that. I would not want to comment on the influence of Boeing on Capitol Hill. I suspect that it is quite strong over there; equally, we know that and we will continue to work very hard on contacting US congressmen to work through and convince them to convince Boeing to withdraw its petition.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord for his unconditional support for our approach. He is absolutely right that the Bombardier factory and all the attached supply-chain jobs are very important to Northern Ireland. I hope I have been able to make that clear to the House; others have said the same. For example, the £530 million put into the C Series facility in Belfast represented Northern Ireland’s largest ever inward investment, and this must be protected. The C Series is a fantastic plane from what I have understood in the last few hours, and a great product. We must protect the jobs and ensure that the factory and Bombardier continue there. As an aside, I would say that Bombardier is of course very active in Derby. It is obviously a different sector, but it is making carriages for the East Anglian franchise, and I think that it has won a contract with South West Trains. It will be constructing trains for Crossrail, I hope, and there is HS2. That side is also important, although I realise we are talking about Northern Ireland in this Statement.
Bombardier — House of Lords, 2017-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jane Scott (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I draw your Lordships’ attention to my entry in the register of interests as leader of Wiltshire Council. Could the Minister confirm the Government’s continued support for the important project between Boeing and QinetiQ at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire?
Armed Forces (Flexible Working) Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Frederick Richard Penn Curzon (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I much appreciate the remarks from the Front Benches opposite and reciprocate the warm feelings that have just been expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly I hope that both noble and gallant Lords who spoke will accept that I have listened with care to the arguments they put forward. The Government have taken due note of their concerns about the use of "part-time" in this legislation. We have had debates in Committee and on Report, and the matter was settled by a vote on Report. There is a convention in your Lordships’ House that at Bill Do Now Pass we should not continue the debates of previous stages. Nevertheless, in so far as I have been asked questions by noble and gallant Lords and the noble Lord, Lord West, I undertake to write after the conclusion of this stage of the Bill. Let me make it clear that the service chiefs fully support this legislation. As I said in my opening remarks, the Bill is designed by the services for the services. All three remain involved in the plans to make this a success and I hope that all noble Lords will agree that that is now the imperative.
European Union (Approvals) Bill — House of Lords, 2017-10-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Prior (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, and the noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn, for their broad support for the Bill. I suspect that the noble Baroness knows more about the history of those treaties than I do. I do not know why we require primary legislation: she may have a better guess than I do. But I am glad that she agrees with the substance of the Bill, at any rate. I note the ironies to which she referred in her speech. I more than note them, but I will resist the temptation to respond to them, if she does not mind Both the noble Baroness and the noble Lord raised issues about the Competition and Markets Authority post Brexit. The CMA is not a party to the agreement, so the agreement cannot simply be transitioned without amendment. Any future competition co-operation between the UK and Canada will have to be negotiated and agreed with the Government of Canada, and I suspect that the same has to be true about the relationship between the CMA and the EU post Brexit. That will have to be part of the negotiation. I of course entirely agree with the noble Lord that that will have to be negotiated during the transition period so that there is no cliff edge in that respect As far as data is concerned, the agreement contains general safeguards for the transfer of information and additional safeguards for the transfer of personal data. Personal data can be shared only with the express written consent of the person or company to whom it relates. I hope that that is enough on data for the noble Baroness today. If she would like me to write to her in more detail, she can let me know and I will do so, but I hope I have given her enough reassurance in that regard I think I have responded to the points raised by both the noble Lord and the noble Baroness. On that basis, I commend the Bill to your Lordships and ask that it has a Second Reading.
Future of Work — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Other
Elizabeth Sugg (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, this is a time-limited debate and the time limit for speeches today is five minutes, not six minutes as today’s list states. I remind the House that when the clock shows five minutes, the limit has been reached.
Future of Work — House of Lords, 2017-10-12
Topic: Mixed Topics
Tina Stowell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak briefly in the gap. I was very impressed by the opening speech from the noble Lord, Lord Knight, and the debate that he has called, and felt moved to speak briefly at the end to make a couple of points It always strikes me that those of us who come up with solutions to complex problems are often accused of being the people who do not have to change as a result of these solutions. I do not think we should ever stop thinking about why other people are not convinced by the solutions that we put forward and about what we need to do differently to bring more people with us, particularly in this era when we face so much change I do not subscribe to the view, although I often hear it said, that the reason that people do not like complex solutions to complex problems is because they want only simple answers and simple solutions and are not prepared to accept something that they cannot understand. People are not really looking for simple solutions—they are smart enough to know that complex problems require complexity—but they are looking for the people who come up with the solutions, such as us, to share with them some similarity in terms of our behaviour. They want to see in us shared motives and something that is common to us all. As we look at all of these different and very difficult issues, we need to understand that when people are looking at whether to accept what we are coming forward with and to believe us, they are looking at our behaviours and the way in which we are willing to change ourselves I have been very heartened by a lot of what has been said about recognising the talent and contributions of so many people across our society. One of the things that I will never tire of reminding myself, and everybody else, is that not all educated people are clever and not all clever people are educated. When we talk or think about AI and all of these different things that we face, we should remember there are a lot of talented people out there who could make a massive contribution. If we give them the opportunity, they will embrace this change. We can then achieve more and enjoy it better in a shared quest for a better future for ourselves.
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): I have not read all the reports, although I have read very many of them. These documents are constantly being updated and collated. New information is coming to light and new facts are emerging, all of which inform our negotiating position. The Government have been very clear that we are leaving the customs union and the single market. I believe that this will be firmly in the country’s best interests.
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: Other
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): We are not hiding behind any documents. We have provided an unprecedented level of information to the committee. We have been as open and transparent as possible, subject only to preserving our negotiating position. With the permission of the House, I should like to answer a question which I was not asked, but which I expected to be asked by the noble Baronesses—will the House have access to this material? The answer is yes.
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anne McIntosh (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, does the Minister accept that in the normal course of events, notwithstanding his replies to date, when legislation is published in Parliament there is an impact assessment released for the benefit of parliamentarians? Will he confirm that when, for example, the agriculture and environment Bills come before this place it is the Government’s intention to publish the usual impact assessments at that time?
Brexit: Release of Impact Assessments — House of Lords, 2017-11-28
Topic: Mixed Topics
Terence Langley Higgins (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the implication of what my noble friend has said is that the Government announced immediately that we would withdraw from the single market and the customs union before they had all the information, which has now become available. Should they not reassess the position?