argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Israel and Gaza: Ceasefire — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs if he will make a statement on the UK Government’s efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza.
James Stewart Murray (Labour, Centre-left): I would like to press the Minister to set out specifically what further actions the Government will take to ensure that there is a co-ordinated international response to secure an immediate ceasefire, and then specifically what the UK will do to address the sources of long-term injustice and insecurity, including forced evictions and the expansion of illegal settlements.
Post Office Update — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Government Operations
Darren Paul Jones (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for an advance copy of the statement. My Select Committee and I called for this inquiry to be on a statutory footing from the beginning and so we welcome the statement today. However, if I have understood it correctly, the terms of reference are still being decided by Ministers and not by the independent chair, Sir Wyn Williams —why?
Post Office Update — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Government Operations
Kevan David Jones (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for his statement. I also give him credit: in the 10-plus years that I, the hon. Member for North West Leicestershire (Andrew Bridgen) and Lord Arbuthnot have been campaigning on this issue, this is the first time that a Minister has admitted that when things go wrong he will change them It is right that we get full disclosure of the facts and justice for those who have been wronged. May I ask the Minister about disclosure? Will that include the ministerial submissions from the Post Office throughout this scandal and the role of the Government shareholder on the board of the Post Office? That is key to the reasons why things were not questioned. Also remember that in 2019 the Post Office spent £100 million of taxpayers’ money defending a civil case that was, frankly, completely indefensible I stress one last thing to the Minister. I know that Ministers like to hide behind the Post Office, saying that this is its fault. It is not: it is a wholly owned company of the Government. The Government have to take responsibility for some of this; they cannot just blame the Post Office.
Post Office Update — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Law and Crime
Ian Robert Byrne (Labour, Centre-left): The Post Office scandal is one of the gravest miscarriages of justice in this century. It destroyed many lives and families, and justice must be given to these families in full. While I welcome the premise of a statutory inquiry, will the Government address the limited remit of the inquiry, which does not cover compensation or the accountability of managers in this scandal?
Post Office Update — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Law and Crime
Maria Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): Serious concerns have been expressed about the conduct of many of the private prosecutions that led up to the 900 or so wrongful convictions of innocent sub-postmasters, including some of my constituents, so why have the Government declined to accept the Justice Committee’s recommendation to introduce a binding and enforceable code of standards for private prosecutors and an inspection regime that would have identified these abuses at a much earlier stage? Will the Minister now accept that recommendation?
Post Office Update — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Government Operations
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the Minister’s change of heart. It will provide much-needed reassurance, as he mentioned, to sub-postmasters, including my constituent, John Bowman, whom I mentioned to the Minister previously. What will happen now for the sub-postmasters who have lost everything so that they have the financial confidence to get evidence to Sir Wyn’s inquiry? If they cannot afford to give that evidence, if they require legal support, what work is the Minister doing with the Treasury to ensure that those postmasters who have lost everything, including, in some cases, their homes, have the funding available to take part in this now statutory inquiry?
Post Office Update — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Government Operations
Mary Elizabeth Twist (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the move to a statutory inquiry, but also note the extension of the timescale for the inquiry; it has been extended, I think, by some nine months or so. John and Pat Moir had a post office in Winlaton Mill in my constituency and were caught up in the Horizon scandal. They are now constituents of my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell), who had hoped to ask a question herself. Mr and Mrs Moir have spent more than a decade fighting this case and fighting to clear their name. Clearly they welcome this inquiry, but what assurances can they have that it will work to the timescales, so that they and others can see the outcome before more time passes?
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Law and Crime
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. You will recall that in 2013, the former Prime Minister set up an independent panel to investigate the failed investigations by the Metropolitan police of the horrific murder of Daniel Morgan. That independent panel was meant to be completely independent of Government. It produced its report last week. The terms of reference make it very clear that the only role that the Home Secretary has is in arranging publication of the report to Parliament. The panel thought that that would happen the next sitting day, which should have been this past Monday. For some unknown reason, the Home Office has decided to delay it. There is no guarantee when the report will be published at all Is there any means of our making sure that the Government publish the report and that, when it is published—I have not seen it, but it might raise very serious issues for policing and of corruption in this country—the Home Secretary comes to the House in person and makes an oral statement on the back of it?
A Plan for the NHS and Social Care — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Social Welfare
Paul Christopher Blomfield (Labour, Centre-left): Mr Deputy Speaker, "we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all, and with a clear plan we have prepared" I am not the first to quote the Prime Minister’s words as he took office and I am sure I will not be the last, and of course I recognise that the Prime Minister has a loose relationship with the truth and a willingness to make commitments with no intention of honouring them, but the Health Secretary has said that the Government will bring forward proposals this year, with the Prime Minister now claiming that he wants cross-party working to develop a plan. I hope he means it, and that there will also be real engagement with those in receipt of care, those who work in care and the hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers The pandemic has shone a spotlight on the crisis in social care, but the failure of the system has been clear for a long time. In developing a new approach, we must have real ambition, as our predecessors did in establishing the NHS, with an entirely new model, not just tinkering with payment mechanisms, and viewed in the same way as the NHS, with a comprehensive system of high-standard residential and domiciliary care that ensures no one is denied support because they cannot afford it We should take the same approach to those who work in the system, raising the status of carers to that of other healthcare professionals, and training them, supporting them and, crucially, paying them in a way that reflects the critical nature of their work. Of course, it will be expensive, but we need an honest national debate about the costs of reforming the care system and how we pay the price, not branding proposals as a "death tax" or a "dementia tax", or talking about unaffordability We should also recognise that, however good the system, there will always be an important role for unpaid carers, and they must be recognised in the plan too, not cast adrift. According to the Carers Trust, the number providing over 50 hours’ care a week has more than trebled in the past decade, but only one in 10 says they have enough support. They need that support, they need respite and they deserve an adequate carer’s allowance We must also do more specifically for the invisible army of young carers—extraordinary children and young adults with huge resilience and strength, facing all the demands imposed on adult carers with the added challenges of schooling and making the most of their young lives. Ministers should act now to require schools and GPs to identify young carers and point them to the support they need, which we must ensure is available in every part of the country A Green Paper was newly published in 2017 and in almost every year since. The limited mention of social care in the Queen’s Speech suggests the Government are delaying again. It is not good enough. Millions of people are looking for better. We need a real commitment to act.
A Plan for the NHS and Social Care — House of Commons, 2021-05-19
Topic: Social Welfare
Fleur Anderson (Labour, Centre-left): Once again, despite big promises, we have a Queen’s Speech that just tinkers around the edges. It falls short of what we need for the country and what is needed for my constituents in Putney You may be surprised to know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the volunteers at Putney Scrub Hub are still working flat out to provided much-needed scrubs for hospitals across London and beyond. Covid exposed the urgent need for a national uniform to save millions of pounds and provide our healthcare workers with the uniform they need at the right place and the right time. Instead, there is a fragmented system—a fragmented bureaucracy —that could not scale up at the speed needed. We do not pay our healthcare and care workers enough—clapping is not enough—and the very least that we can give them is the right uniform. Ministers did not step up at any stage to recognise the problem, take it on and solve it. That has still not happened. I welcome the consultation on a national uniform, such as they have in Wales. I hope that the measure will go through in the next year One of the biggest issues for my constituents in Putney is social care. On his first day in Downing Street, the Prime Minister promised to fix social care "once and for all". Twenty-two months later, we have seen nothing. It has not been kicked into the long grass—it never left the long grass. This morning, the Prime Minister again said that there was a plan, but where is it? This afternoon, the Secretary of State made a passing comment in his speech at the beginning of the debate, saying that it would be brought forward this year—but, again, no plan Since the Prime Minister’s first day in office, dementia victims and their families have paid a staggering £14 billion for social care. The Prime Minister and the Government have let down every single one of those families, including many families in Putney. Even before the pandemic, there were 1,628 older people in Putney with unmet social care needs. That translates to 1.5 million people across the country. Adult social-care council budgets have been cut, and it is no surprise that 69% of the public believe that fixing adult social care should be a top priority as we recover from the pandemic We need a national social care system that is joined up with the NHS, and we need the much-promised dementia moonshot. Without life-changing treatments, the number of people with dementia is set to grow to 1 million in the next five years. No more empty promises; no more leaving families struggling and despairing. We need a clear, budgeted plan for social care reform, complete with milestones, with reform this year, 2021—not next year, not on the never-never. The reforms must improve access to care and quality of care, and provide better working conditions for care workers, with services joined up between the NHS, social care providers and community providers. I urge the Government to listen to the public and come good on their promises to fix adult social care at last so that we can all recover from the pandemic.
Trade Agreements: SMEs — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Agriculture
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): Small and medium-sized farms across the country are rightly worried that this weekend’s agreement with Australia and the precedent it will set for future trade deals will not just undermine their business but destroy them. Last November, the Minister of State promised these farmers that the new trade and agriculture commission would mean that "all the National Farmers Unions…will play an active role in assessing trade agreements going forward"—[Official Report, 17 November 2020; Vol. 684, c. 190.]— and that as a consequence the farming industry’s interests would be "advanced and protected" by the TAC. Does he stand by those statements today?
Trade Agreements: SMEs — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Agriculture
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for that answer but the British farming industry knows the truth: the trade and agriculture commission it was promised to defend the interests of British farmers is not the one advertised by the Government this week, and my question to the Minister of State is simply this: why? What are the Government so scared of? If they are confident that their deal with Australia will benefit British farmers, not undermine them, why do they not have the courage of their convictions and establish the trade and agriculture commission on the basis that farmers were promised last November and let the voice of British farming deliver its verdict on the deal?
Free Trade Agreements — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Agriculture
Antonia Louise Antoniazzi (Labour, Centre-left): Penblwydd hapus, Mr Speaker. On 6 November, the Secretary of State told the National Farmers Union of Wales: "We have no intention of ever striking a deal that doesn’t benefit farmers, but we have provided checks and balances in the form of the Trade and Agriculture Commission" May I ask her if the commission will have the power to tell Parliament whether her Australia deal benefits Welsh farmers, or is she breaking the promise that she made only seven months ago?
Free Trade Agreements — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Agriculture
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): On 6 October, the Secretary of State said: "A lot of farmers would consider it unfair if practices that are banned in the UK because of animal welfare reasons are allowed elsewhere and those products are allowed to come in and undercut the standards that our farmers are asked to follow. I agree with that. I think that’s an important principle." That is what she said, so may I simply ask the Secretary of State whether she still stands by that principle in the context of her proposed deal with Australia?
Unfair Trading Practices — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): Happy birthday, Mr Speaker. The Trade Remedies Authority has made a deeply flawed recommendation to withdraw half of all the safeguards on steel. If the recommendation is implemented, it is likely to lead to a flood of steel imports, with potentially disastrous consequences for the steel industry, communities and livelihoods. The Government’s own regulations do not allow them to retain the safeguards unless the Trade Remedies Authority advises them to do so. The Secretary of State has already said that the regulations need to be reviewed, so will Ministers accept our offer to work together to find a way to retain these vital safeguards and, in so doing, live up to the commitment made by the Trade Secretary to do whatever it takes to protect our steel industry?
Trade Deals: Human Rights — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: International Affairs
Bethan Winter (Labour, Centre-left): Penblwydd hapus, Mr Speaker. Given the ongoing violations of international law by the Israeli Government, the attacks on the human rights of the Palestinian people and their suffering, and Israel’s recent bombardment of the Gaza strip in May, in which more than 240 Palestinians, over a quarter of them children, were killed, thousands more were injured and more than 90,000 people displaced, does the Minister agree that it is now essential that there is an investigation into whether UK-made arms or components have been used in the recent violence and destruction of homes, businesses and health facilities in Gaza? In the meantime, will the Government immediately cease the export of arms to Israel?
Trade Deals: Human Rights — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: International Affairs
Mary Elizabeth Twist (Labour, Centre-left): The UK’s deal with Cameroon will complete its ratification process today, with no vote by MPs and no apparent concern from Ministers about the abuse that is taking place in that country. Can I ask the Minister whether he thinks the US Government were wrong to end preferential trade with Cameroon because of the Biya regime’s abuses, and if not, why are we ratifying a deal to do the opposite?
Trade Deals: Human Rights — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: International Affairs
Marie Elizabeth Rimmer (Labour, Centre-left): Happy birthday, Mr Speaker "Mass torture", "rape" and "forced sterilisation"—that is the testimony of dozens of survivors at the Uyghur tribunal in London, which is chaired by the former lead prosecutor at The Hague, Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC. Does the Minister really think the British Government should be turning a blind eye to the suffering of the human race for the sake of trade deals?
Trade Deals: Human Rights — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: International Affairs
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): Happy birthday, Mr Speaker. The English-speaking population in Cameroon faces mass killings, atrocities and torture. As we have heard, the US has now invoked trade sanctions, but the UK has signed a trade deal without parliamentary approval. So can I ask: has the EU’s essential rights clause now been removed from all future trade deals, so that abuses, however abhorrent and widespread, will now be supported by the British economy through secret deals, thereby taking control back from Parliament and giving it to those with blood on their hands?
UK Steel Exports — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
Jessica Elizabeth Morden (Labour, Centre-left): Another penblwydd hapus to you, Mr Speaker. The greatest step that Ministers can take to protect our exports is to protect our steel industry as a whole. As my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) asked earlier, will Ministers commit to working with Labour on a cross-party basis, as was promised in the Westminster Hall debate yesterday, to fix deficiencies in our trade remedies legislation and reverse the recommendations from the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate that UK Steel has called "a hammer blow" to our industry?
G7 Summit: Trade Priorities — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Environment
Anna Rhiannon McMorrin (Labour, Centre-left): Penblwydd hapus, Mr Speaker Ahead of the G7, the Prime Minister has said that climate is his top priority, yet the Department for International Trade is still funnelling billions—including £3.5 billion from UK Export Finance—into overseas fossil-fuel projects and dirty projects are still being considered, despite the promise to end them. The Prime Minister himself flies into Cornwall on a private jet to talk climate. How can this Government expect to be taken seriously as a climate leader on the biggest threat facing us when they clearly do not take the issue seriously themselves?
Domestic Battery Development — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Energy
Stephen James McCabe (Labour, Centre-left): Happy birthday, Mr Speaker As the Minister acknowledges, the future of our car industry in the west midlands is dependent on battery production and the Government giving the go-ahead for a gigafactory, but battery production requires ready access to materials such as cobalt, lithium and manganese. Will he tell us which countries he is talking to about trade deals that would secure these supplies?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
Taiwo Owatemi (Labour, Centre-left): Given that physical trade shows are taking place in the EU as early as July and given that so far there has not been any confirmation of what support will be provided to UK exporters, can the Minister provide clarity on when his Department will publish its trade show access programme for the financial year 2021-22? I am sure that the Minister knows that continued delays will be disastrous for UK exporters, as the UK is supposed to be showing the world that it is ready to export and keen to forge new commercial relationships with the rest of the world.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Foreign Trade
Paul Christopher Blomfield (Labour, Centre-left): The International Trade Secretary described her new deal with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein as a "major boost" for our trade, but the Norwegian Government were more realistic. They said that the deal is "not as comprehensive" as our previous arrangements, that trade would be"more bureaucratic and less dynamic"and that without a veterinary agreement, there will be"a number of trade barriers"that we did not previously face. Does the Secretary of State recognise that more honest description of the deal, and will she take steps to reduce the barriers to trade that she has created for our exporters and importers?
Napier Barracks Asylum Accommodation — House of Commons, 2021-06-10
Topic: Law and Crime
Zarah Sultana (Labour, Centre-left): The Home Secretary told the House in January that Napier barracks was "in line with Public Health England guidelines."—[Official Report, 26 January 2021; Vol. 688, c. 177.] She reiterated that earlier this week when she told the House that her Department worked fully with PHE, but it is not true, as the High Court ruled last week, with the honourable Justice Linden writing that "the arrangements at the Barracks were contrary to the advice of PHE" The ministerial code states that Ministers must give "accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity." So I ask the Minister, given this blatant discrepancy between the facts and what the Home Secretary said, why is she not here today to correct the record, or will she learn from her predecessor, who resigned as Home Secretary for inadvertently misleading MPs?