argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-03
Topic: Macroeconomics
Darren Paul Jones (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the measures in the Bill, which will support struggling businesses during this difficult economic period, but, as other Members have said, this short-term relief needs to be followed quickly by a comprehensive recovery plan for the British economy For British businesses, this is a moment of genuine crisis. More than one in five companies across the economy, and an overwhelming majority of those in the worst affected sectors, have already been forced temporarily to cease trading. Survey after survey and the cases we have all encountered in our constituencies shed light on the depth of the anxiety that businesses and their employees are carrying about the coming months. I think there is an understanding across the House, therefore, that failure to act would have meant hundreds of thousands of fundamentally healthy businesses going under altogether, and that that would have been unacceptable In that context, the Bill’s time-limited provisions are a matter of necessity. The measures on wrongful trading, statutory demands, winding-up petitions and greater flexibility on governance constitute meaningful, if in some respects temporary, respite for struggling businesses. However, the urgency of responding to this crisis must not blind us to the deeper challenges that we face The measures we are debating will postpone the threat of insolvency, but giving workers and businesses real security about the future will require a more ambitious and better-targeted package of support. A significant majority of businesses that have continued to trade are currently reliant on some form of Government help. The success of that model has been its ability to deliver a one-size-fits-all remedy at pace, but the slowdown so far has been marked not just by its severity but by its unevenness The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee heard last month from the retail sector, for which the challenge is especially stark, with as many as a fifth of independent non-food retailers expecting to close for good and often in no position to take on additional debt. Tomorrow we will hear from the manufacturing and energy sectors, including aerospace, automotive and steel, whose needs are self-evidently of a different order, with a small number of major companies providing a significant percentage of British exports, but often reliant on a vast supply chain of small and medium enterprises, themselves in distress and in need of bespoke support. So as the economy reopens, the key measure of success for preventing insolvencies will be the Government’s ability to get help where it is required, on a sectoral basis, with a whole-supply-chain view.
Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-03
Topic: Government Operations
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Yesterday, I intervened on the Leader of the House to ask about the possibility of introducing proxy voting to enable people to vote remotely during the current way in which Parliament has been organised, and the Leader of the House said that that matter had been referred to the Procedure Committee, chaired by the right hon. Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (Karen Bradley), who is in her place. Today at Prime Minister’s Question Time, the Prime Minister said that the Government were proposing to introduce proxy voting. Have you had any notification from the Government that they intend to table a motion tomorrow introducing proxy voting for Members other than those who are on maternity leave, and to provide time for that matter to be debated and voted on?
Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-03
Topic: Labor
Lucy Maria Powell (Labour, Centre-left): I beg to move, amendment 1, page 3, line 24, after "debts,", insert— "(da) a statement on behalf of any trade union made on behalf of employees affected by the proposed rescue of the company as a going concern," This amendment would include trade union views among the relevant documents which must accompany an application by the directors of the company to the court for a moratorium.
Covid-19 Vaccine — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Stephen John Doughty (Labour, Centre-left): Mr Speaker, "The breadth of the work that DFID is involved in is exemplary…It is firmly in our national interest…As we have seen in recent years with the Ebola crisis".—[Official Report, 13 June 2016; Vol. 611, c. 262.] Those are not my words, but those of the Minister. Destabilising Britain’s efforts to tackle disease globally in the middle of a pandemic is not diplomatic; it is dangerous, and the hostile takeover by the Foreign Secretary has been slammed by 200 leading health and humanitarian agencies, Prime Ministers and MPs from both sides of the House, and those who have assessed the impact of mergers in Australia and Canada. Why does she think she got it wrong, they all got it wrong, and instead, it is Dominic Cummings who is right?
Sino-British Joint Declaration — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Lisa Eva Nandy (Labour, Centre-left): China passed the national security law today. It is a direct challenge to the joint declaration and undermines not only the promises made to us, but those that we made to the people of Hong Kong. The Foreign Secretary told me in the House a few weeks ago that at its application, Britain would act. That law comes into force tomorrow. He must not waiver. Will he fulfil his promise to BNO passport holders? Will he stop dragging his feet on the Magnitsky legislation that he was once so keen to champion and give us a firm date? Will he confirm that this has now changed the Government’s thinking on Huawei? He said just a few weeks ago that we would "live up to our responsibilities…to the people of Hong Kong".—[Official Report, 13 January 2020; Vol. 669, c. 769.] It would be extraordinary were the UK to turn back now. We must live up to those responsibilities.
West Bank: Planned Annexation — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Antonia Louise Antoniazzi (Labour, Centre-left): Current sanctions are clearly not working as a deterrent for Israel’s plan to annex the west bank illegally. Strong words at this point are a betrayal of the Palestinian people—they need actions. Can the Minister outline what action the Government will take against annexation?
West Bank: Planned Annexation — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Julie Elliott (Labour, Centre-left): In 1980, the UN Security Council condemned Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and, in ’81, its illegal annexation of the Golan Heights. What lesson does the Minister think the Israeli Government took from the failure to see those Security Council resolutions adhered to? Are the UK Government abandoning the Palestinian people, as suggested in a recent open letter by UK charities?
West Bank: Planned Annexation — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Lisa Eva Nandy (Labour, Centre-left): World leaders are warning of consequences should annexation go ahead, but the silence from this Government has been deafening, so much so that the Israeli newspaper Haaretz says that France is now the world’s "last, best hope" to stop annexation. This really is shameful. I raised my concerns with the US ambassador—has the Minister? Will he commit to a ban on settlement imports and recognise Palestine, as this House voted to do? Forgive me, I may have missed it. If he will not do those things, can he tell us what exactly he is proposing to do?
Yemen — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Margaret Greenwood (Labour, Centre-left): Yemen is facing a humanitarian disaster. According to UNICEF, there are 1.7 million internally displaced children and 2 million children who are acutely malnourished, so what conversations has the Minister had with other Government Departments to ensure that the UK can play its part in addressing this catastrophe?
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Sarah Deborah Champion (Labour, Centre-left): The Foreign Secretary is correct that we are starting to manage covid-19 in the north, but in the global south it is causing chaos, decimation and loss of life, as can be seen from the Afghanistan figures today. Will he explain why, when DFID staff are trying their hardest to shore up the global south against covid-19, he has chosen this moment in time to bring forward a confusing, complicated and expensive merger? Is he still looking for the merger to be completed by 1 September? Will the 30% cuts in the ODA budget that the Treasury is asking for be in this financial year or in future spend?
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Lisa Eva Nandy (Labour, Centre-left): I am concerned by reports that as part of the DFID merger, the Government have agreed to pause all new aid spending, including the conflict, stability and security fund. At a moment of such global insecurity, that would be an extraordinary decision. In a week when the Government have fired their national security adviser, are stalling on re-establishing the Intelligence and Security Committee, and are delaying the Russia report, can the Secretary of State at least give me a cast-iron guarantee that conflict, stability and security funding will continue to be applied to new projects and that this Government are taking national security seriously?
South China Sea — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Stephen Nathan Kinnock (Labour, Centre-left): From the Himalayas to the South China sea, Beijing’s aggressive expansionism could have serious consequences for our national security, and yet our Government are absent from the global stage. The Chinese Communist party respects strength and unity and is contemptuous of weakness and division, but successive Conservative Governments since 2010 have been naive and complacent, and Beijing has exploited these weaknesses. Will the Government be making a robust statement of support for Taiwan given that Taiwanese airspace is repeatedly being buzzed by Chinese fighter jets? What steps are the Government taking to forge alliances with key partners in the EU, NATO and the Asia-Pacific democracies to build an international consensus that will enable us to push back against Beijing’s increasingly belligerent behaviour?
Official Development Assistance Budget — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Charalambos Charalambous (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State will soon be responsible for a sizeable amount of official development aid, so can the Minister confirm that the Secretary of State for the future FCDO will be bound by the same rules for aid spending as the current International Development Secretary, including the four key Acts of Parliament that currently govern international development?
Official Development Assistance Budget — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Ruth Margaret Cadbury (Labour, Centre-left): Those with long memories will remember the Pergau dam scandal of the 1990s, where the High Court found that the Government had unlawfully provided aid in exchange for a lucrative arms contract. That was one reason why the Labour Government made the Department for International Development a separate and independent Department from the Foreign Office. What steps will the Government be taking to ensure that we do not see a repeat of the Pergau dam scandal in the future?
Official Development Assistance Budget — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Taiwo Owatemi (Labour, Centre-left): The UK is rightly proud of its commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on international aid. The decision by the Government to merge these Departments has been met with criticism by some world-leading international development charities. Former Prime Ministers have also criticised the decision, with David Cameron describing it as a "mistake". Our international aid commitment can and does save lives, so will the Minister confirm that the budget for international aid will be ring-fenced within a future Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Mohammed Afzal Khan (Labour, Centre-left): While the Government set out plans for easing the UK’s lockdown, I remind the House that Kashmiris have been under lockdown for more than 330 days. Unlike ours, their lockdown is not being lifted at any time, with the humanitarian situation worsening each day. Will the UK Government condemn the human rights abuses in Kashmir and call on the Indian authorities to immediately lift the lockdown?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Emma Louise Lewell-Buck (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister spoke earlier of the UK’s commitment to the people of Yemen and the Secretary of State said that the Government are part of the solution. How do they reconcile those statements with the UK’s continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which is contributing to the relentless and indiscriminate murder of children and civilians?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Julie Elliott (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Foreign Secretary agree that it is time for the UK Government and others to ban trade with settlements, given that Israeli settlements are illegal? It is now the time for a ban, not a sanction, of goods.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Grahame Mark Morris (Labour, Centre-left): During the covid crisis, the UK has received valuable assistance from Cuba, including assistance with the repatriation of British citizens trapped on the Braemar cruise ship, and more recently from the Cuban medical brigade sent to the British overseas territory of Anguilla. In recognition of that UK-Cuba co-operation, will the Foreign Secretary speak to his US counterpart and condemn attempts by US Senate Republican majority members to target countries that seek life-saving medical assistance from Cuba?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Ruth Lorraine Jones (Labour, Centre-left): Like many colleagues in the House, a number of my constituents in Newport West were stranded in other parts of the world as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. Can the Foreign Secretary explain what work the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is doing to ensure that we get all our British citizens back where they should be, at home?
Civil Service Appointments — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): Sir Mark Sedwill steps down at the end of September and will be replaced as National Security Adviser by David Frost, who will also remain the EU chief negotiator, which he says will be his "top single priority" until the negotiations have concluded. If the negotiations carry on into October and beyond, who will have the nation’s security as their top single priority, or is this just a case of misapplied persistent experimentation?
Civil Service Appointments — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Kevan David Jones (Labour, Centre-left): Can I add my thanks to Mark Sedwill for his work both in security and as Cabinet Secretary? Mr Frost is a political appointment. He has been given a seat in the other place, but he is not a Minister; he is a special envoy. Picking up on the question that the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee has just raised, will the ISC and other Committees that scrutinise his work be able to summon him before them to scrutinise what he is doing? That is important if we are going to have clear parliamentary oversight of his role. I think that needs clarifying, because the Minister in his reply to the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee did not answer that question.
Civil Service Appointments — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: International Affairs
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): If I am honest, I do not really care who the Prime Minister appoints as his National Security Adviser. It is entirely up to him; he can appoint all the duff ambassadors who have ever walked through the Foreign Office, if that is what he wants to do. However, my fear is that in creating this mixed role, where somebody is a quasi-Minister who has been given a job for life in the House of Lords, who is a member of the legislature but it is meant to be a special adviser, and who is a special adviser who can none the less give direction to civil servants, he has created Frankenstein’s monster.
Lammy Review — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Law and Crime
Janet Jessica Daby (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for granting this urgent question to my right hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy). I was disappointed to find out that the Prime Minister’s response to my question last week turned out not to be quite as it seemed, and now he is not here to clarify his own statement. So can the Minister explain why only 1% of full-time police officers in 2019 were black and why this has not been improved since the implementation of the Lammy review?
Lammy Review — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Government Operations
Ruth Lorraine Jones (Labour, Centre-left): I have been inundated with emails from constituents in Newport West asking me to press the Government to stop sitting on the recommendations of a number of reviews that they have commissioned in recent years. Today I add my voice to their: the time for full and comprehensive action is now. Will the Minister outline what recent discussions his Department has had about the review of my right hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy) with Ministers in the Welsh Government as part of the drive to implement the review fully?
Lammy Review — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Law and Crime
Gillian Furniss (Labour, Centre-left): According to statistics provided by South Yorkshire police, you are 2.5 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police if you are black, and 1.5 times if you are of Asian heritage. In many communities in the United Kingdom, there has been a complete breakdown of trust in the criminal justice system. Does the Minister acknowledge that, and will he work to fully implement the Lammy review without further delay?
Lammy Review — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Law and Crime
Victoria Jane Foxcroft (Labour, Centre-left): On 16 July, the Youth Violence Commission, which I chair, will publish its final report on the root causes of youth violence, The Lammy review highlights that systemic problems cannot be rectified by the criminal justice system alone, and that the work needs to start far earlier. What hope can the Minister give me that the Government will take our recommendations seriously, when we are still waiting for the recommendations of the Lammy review to be implemented?
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Education
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Late on Friday night, a story was published in The Guardian, following the leaking of a Government document and briefing from officials in the Department for Education, saying that the Government appear to have committed in principle to moving university applications to after A-level results, commonly called post-qualification admissions. Yesterday, the Department for Education produced a written statement, but no mention of those changes were made, despite the huge impact they would have on university admissions and hundreds of thousands of students. I seek your advice on how the Government can be encouraged to keep the House updated on all policy developments, and ask if they have made any plans to bring a statement on higher education forward.
Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Social Welfare
Paul Christopher Blomfield (Labour, Centre-left): My right hon. Friend will know that the Government have talked about their "proud record on supporting the most vulnerable children".—[Official Report, 22 January 2020; Vol. 670, c. 318.] Does she accept that there can be no children more vulnerable than those she is talking about, and that the Government simply must maintain this commitment?
Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-06-30
Topic: Law and Crime
Paul Christopher Blomfield (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. He is absolutely right. It is not simply the case that alternatives to detention are more humane—they are more efficient, more effective and more cost-effective for the Government I understand that the Government are shortly to announce a second pilot, and that is to be welcomed— I would be glad to hear anything that the Minister would like to say on that—but the pilot we have already seen and the experience of other countries have already demonstrated the effectiveness of community-based alternatives. We need to move faster. The proposal to end indefinite administrative detention in new clause 7 would be more humane, less expensive and more effective in securing compliance. The time really has come for Members from both sides of the House to get behind the proposals in new clause 7.
Covid-19: Meeting Increased Demand for Services — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Social Welfare
Jonathan Neil Reynolds (Labour, Centre-left): I also pay tribute to all the frontline staff at the DWP for the way they have processed so many claims for support since the beginning of the crisis. It is important to recognise, however, that the universal credit they have been processing so far in this crisis is a significantly different product from usual. In particular, all sanctions and conditionality have been temporarily suspended. That suspension is due to end tomorrow. At a time when unemployment has risen sharply, the number of vacancies has dropped, people are shielding and schools have not yet gone back, threatening people with reducing their financial support if they do not look for jobs is surely untenable, so will the Secretary of State announce an immediate extension?
Covid-19: Universal Credit Applications — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Social Welfare
Jeffrey Smith (Labour, Centre-left): Citizens Advice found recently that more than half of people claiming universal credit for the first time during the crisis had experienced hardship and that many did not want to take out a loan because they were afraid of taking on more debt. A system where more than half of people are experiencing hardship is surely a system that is not working, so will the Minister reconsider proposals to end the five-week wait and replace loans with a cash grant?
Covid-19: Universal Credit Applications — House of Commons, 2020-06-29
Topic: Labor
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): When the job retention scheme is wound down, we will see, I am sure, a second wave of universal credit applications, on top of the 70% increase we have already seen in Hull. With unemployment in Hull forecast to get to about 16%, is it not time now to prepare to remove the five-week wait for universal credit and to make the £20 increase a permanent feature?