argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-09-11
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a not a verdict with which I agree. Some of the criticisms of the Bill have been exaggerated up to and beyond the point of hyperbole, and I will seek to explain why In concluding my comments about why the Bill is needed, I want to stress that the time available to us under the terms of article 50 is limited. We must assume that in March 2019 this country will leave the European Union. That will be the deadline, and therefore by that date we need not only to have primary legislation enacted, but to have established the new regulatory bodies. We will need to have given effect to the secondary legislation that is proposed under the defined powers laid out in the Bill Several right hon. and hon. Members have said, "Yes, certain rights may be being preserved, but what about the general underlying principles of EU law?" As I said earlier, when we leave, the treaties will cease to apply to this country, but under the Bill, the general principles of European law, as recognised by the Court of Justice before exit day, or as embodied in extant European legislation, will be retained in United Kingdom law for the purposes of interpreting retained EU law. Existing sources of rights and domestic rights of action will continue to operate in United Kingdom law undisturbed by the Bill. That includes rights such as the right to equal treatment and non-discrimination. Similarly, notwithstanding our exit from the EU, individuals will continue to be able to challenge secondary legislation and administrative action under our domestic law by way of well-established grounds of judicial review To take two important issues that have been raised, all the rights and remedies available under the working time directive or the Equality Act 2010 will remain in force, but they will be enforced through the United Kingdom courts—ultimately, our Supreme Court—rather than through the European courts.
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-09-11
Topic: Other
Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is discussing matters that will have to be considered in detail in Committee. A sensible programme motion has been tabled, but can the Government assure the House that, if more time is needed because, in truth, we have difficulty getting through the programme within the period specified, they will properly consider making more time available to the House?
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-09-11
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): We think that the 64 hours that have been guaranteed are reasonable, and they compare with the 39 hours and 17 minutes that the Blair Government granted on the Bill to ratify the Lisbon treaty. We have shown today that, where there is good reason to extend debate further, we are willing to consider it very seriously and carefully indeed. I hope my right hon. and learned Friend will take that assurance in the spirit in which it is intended I hope that the House will recognise that it is in the national interest that we put this Bill on the statute book and that we deliver the democratic verdict of the British people in a way that allows businesses and individuals to plan for their future, confident in what the law will be on and after exit day. I hope that the House will therefore give a clear vote for the Bill on Second Reading Question put, That the amendment be made.
Changes to the Number 23 bus route, Erewash — House of Commons, 2017-09-11
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Colleagues will want courteously to attend to the words of Maggie Throup in respect of her petition and will not be diverted into superfluous and distracting conversations which jar somewhat and might be thought by the hon. Lady to be a tad discourteous, so I am sure that Members will toddle out of the Chamber quickly and quietly. Mr Yasin, there is no need, my dear chap, to look bemused—it will all become clear ere long. It is very good of you, Lady Hermon, to wave goodbye to us all as you depart the Chamber—very thoughtful.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Other
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend touches on the Second Reading debate, which is something that I hope to address in my remarks later today. Does he share my concern that the matters that were raised on Second Reading were not addressed when this Bill was in Committee?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Other
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is on to a good point. On Second Reading, quite a lot of references were made to the fact that we would discuss matters in Committee. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) said that if he was put on the Committee, he would like to raise this and that as an amendment, but he was never put on the Committee. If the records are correct, the Committee stage lasted for all of 21 minutes. I do not think that there could have been proper scrutiny of the Bill. None the less, there were some interesting remarks made in Committee, some of which I shall refer to shortly.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Other
Wendy Morton (Conservative, Centre-right): I just wish to make it clear that we had a debate in Committee. No Member was precluded from tabling an amendment, and we had a good turnout on the day. I will be responding to the hon. Gentleman’s points in more detail when I have the chance to speak.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. The reference by the hon. Gentleman to the "Rotten Boroughs" column is, of itself, orderly, but it might help and inform the debate if that reference could be related more specifically to the terms of the important amendment to which he is speaking.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Housing
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a good point, and it is in essence what I have been saying about the position in Bournemouth. If Bournemouth is to take over or merge with Christchurch in a unitary authority, the people in Christchurch need to know the nature of Bournemouth Borough Council’s debts and liabilities and how it conducts its proceedings, particularly in planning. One of the key losses in such a merger would be the loss of Christchurch Borough Council’s control over its own greenbelt and planning policy. That is one of the biggest concerns that my local residents have. They fear that they will lose control over the quality of their local environment, which they currently control through local planning policy The amendment seeks to ensure that anybody can get access to such information, rather than just limiting it to journalists. Obviously, the information to which I referred earlier will become available only when the audit for this financial year is conducted, and that may be rather later in the day than most people would wish.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): As my hon. Friend knows, many local papers are stretched financially and therefore deterred from publishing things—perhaps including things about the leader of Bournemouth council—because they fear being sued and do not have the resources to defend themselves. Does he agree that that is why it is so important that not just journalists but the public have access to such material, so that they can make up their own minds and are not dependent on newspapers being able to afford to risk publishing things that may cause them to end up in court?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): The whole Bill arises from the problem of defining terms. Has my hon. Friend given any thought to exactly what constitutes a "politician"? For example, does it include someone who is a candidate in an election, or only an elected politician?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): That is the first time that anyone has suggested I am living in the past. To take my hon. Friend’s point, if we are to give privileged access to journalists—our hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills is seeking to give journalists privileged access compared with other members of the public—those journalists need to be qualified in the sense that they understand the law, not just people who are prejudiced or not objective and who do not have the standards that we normally expect of journalists. My feeling is that if we are to give them special privileges, they should be duly accredited As I have said, I have expressed that point in alternative ways: we could also refer to them as professional journalists. As you may know, Mr Speaker, there is a society called the Society of Professional Journalists, which requires a professional journalist to adhere "to a strict code of ethics so as to maintain and preserve public trust, confidence and reliability"— I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) thinks it important that journalists should adhere to a strict code of ethics— "To ensure this the process of ‘gate keeping’ is upheld within mainstream media. This relies on all experienced and trained journalists and editors to filter any nonfactual information from news reports before publication or broadcasting." I do not want to go into the whole issue of fake news, but it is probably now more important than ever for us to ensure that there is some basis for the reports put forward by journalists, and how can that be policed unless by a body such as the National Union of Journalists or the Society of Professional Journalists?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Ordinarily, I feel that I can follow and, to an extent, anticipate the hon. Gentleman, such is the frequency with which I have heard his speeches over three decades, but on this occasion my senses have deserted me. I had thought that he was going to tell us how many members the society has.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Civil Rights
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is beginning to lose me. It seems to me that he made a good case earlier for his amendment 2, which would provide access for as many people as possible—I am absolutely with him on that—but he now appears to be arguing for restricting the number of people who have access to such things, which flies in the face of his earlier amendment. Will he clarify whether he really supports his earlier amendment, rather than what may be seen as these probing amendments?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Civil Rights
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, it is indeed defeatist, and it is uncharacteristic of me to be defeatist about such things. In a sense, this is a case of belt and braces: if we are going to give privileged access to a group of people—my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills wants it to be journalists—they should be accredited, professional or qualified journalists, rather than people who simply call themselves journalists.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Civil Rights
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): I hope that my hon. Friend will not be defeated on amendment 2—I encourage him to strive for it and I think that he will garner a lot of support—but surely if his first amendment fails, the second-best option is for as many people as possible, within the terms of "journalist", to have access to this information. Surely that is a better fall-back position than trying to restrict it even more?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Domestic Commerce
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): Has my hon. Friend noted the title of clause 1: "Inspection of accounting records by journalists and citizen journalists"? I hope, when I come on to my amendment, he will see that I have gone in exactly the opposite direction: rather than try to narrow the definition of journalist, I am trying to widen it.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): I would indeed—absolutely. Editors are included in the wider definition of "journalist". The hon. Lady makes a good point The NUJ code of conduct sets out 12 principles by which its journalists are expected to abide. I will not tell the House about them all, but, for example, one is to avoid plagiarism. Another is to resist threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and not to produce any material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race and so on. The most important of all is for journalists to do their utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies and to distinguish between fact and opinion—although that is not something we always find with journalists.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Civil Rights
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend speaks with authority and knowledge, so this intervention is a genuine request for information. We have the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I would like to hear from him—I suspect the House would like to hear it, too—how the ability of a member of the public to get information about local authorities relates to his or her freedom to get information about central Government.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Civil Rights
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not hold myself up as an expert on the Freedom of Information Act, but local authorities are subject to it, just like any other public body. Freedom of information depends on being able to know what question to ask. Quite often, it is only when one looks at the accounts, or documents relating to the accounts, that we know what question to ask. Freedom of information powers can be more potent because they can be exercised at any time and the local authority is under an obligation to respond within, I think, 20 days or a reasonable period. They can be more potent, but the base information that enables people to understand what questions they really want to ask can probably be ascertained only by inspecting the documents.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Civil Rights
Margaret Ann Throup (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not an expert, but I would think that a freedom of information request is more costly to a council than what is proposed in the Bill. Perhaps a balance on cost-effectiveness needs to be taken into consideration, too.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is making a fascinating contribution. Although "citizen journalist" is referred to in the rubric of clause 1, there is no definition of it; there is only a definition of "journalist". Does he agree that that rather suggests that there was originally other material in clause 1 that was cut out as a result of negotiations between our hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills and the Department, and that the Department failed to observe that there was no longer any definition of "citizen journalist" and amend the Bill accordingly?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend says that there is no ambiguity, but clause 1’s title refers to "citizen journalists", yet the clause contents refer only to "journalists", not to "citizen journalists". That creates confusion, does it not? Why are we not just talking about journalists and then defining "journalists" in subsection (3)?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Civil Rights
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): To be fair, my amendment does not refer to "citizen journalists"—only the clause title does, although the term is used in the notes and the briefings. With hindsight, I think this should be deleted from the clause title, because it leads people down a cul-de-sac, as they will think a bit is missing from the Bill and will wonder where the definition of "citizen journalists" is. As I said, I decided that rather than trying to define that, it would be better to extend the existing definition of "a journalist". Perhaps it would have been better to define—somehow— what a "citizen journalist" is, but I was conscious that a number of colleagues objected on Second Reading to the reference to "citizen", because we are all subjects of Her Majesty. For that reason, I felt it was not sensible to incorporate the term "citizen journalists" in legislation, and I would prefer it if those words were struck from the Bill My amendment deals with whether payment being made for a newspaper or magazine, or for access to a website, should affect the situation. I have made it clear that that should have no bearing on whether someone, whether or not a citizen journalist, should have the right to access the accounts of their local council or other body covered by this legislation. The Bill makes it clear that it matters not whether the journalist is paid or unpaid, but I thought it was equally important to clarify this issue about payment to access the site.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Civil Rights
Gregory Knight (Conservative, Centre-right): The more I reflect on my hon. Friend’s amendment, the more unsatisfactory I think it is. Why is he apparently discriminating against television journalists? Many journalists, such as Michael Crick, might want to prepare a news piece for broadcast in a television programme, not for release in a magazine or newspaper, or on the internet. Why are television journalists excluded from his amendment?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend mentioned the shortage of local reporters and the pressures on local newspapers. Does he recall that only last month the BBC said that it was setting aside £8 million a year to pay for 150 reporters to work for local news organisations across the country? Is not that stark evidence of the plight of many of our local newspapers?
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrew Theakstone Percy (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not agree. Given its reference to the internet and websites, my hon. Friend’s amendment could unintentionally and unhelpfully narrow the interpretation Hon. Members may be interested to know that the concepts of journalistic material and publication already appear in legislation many times—although to my mind, "publication" in particular is a simple, plain English definition needing no further clarification. For example, "journalistic material" appears in section 264(2) of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, as well as section 13 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, and "publication" has similar antecedents It is fair to say, however, that not everybody who will seek to use the Bill will necessarily be familiar with the concepts and interpretation of those terms as they are used in it. I have heard what my hon. Friends have said and will therefore commit to ensuring that any accompanying explanatory notes are amended, if the Bill passes to the other place, to clarify those points. My hon. Friend the Member for Bury North referred to journalists as opposed to citizen journalists. The definition of a journalist includes citizen journalists, which is why a separate definition has not been required My hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills is keen to get to her feet and respond in detail to the amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch, so in the interests of brevity, I want to concentrate on two issues he raised—or, on reflection, maybe three. Amendment 2 would be likely to impose a new burden on local authorities, because we would be asking them to make their records available to everyone, which is something that they have not previously been required to do under the 2014 Act. That would therefore need to be funded by the Government, whereas we are seeking to extend the existing right to a defined group of people, and that would not be considered in the same light I heard what my hon. Friend said about amendment 10 regarding health bodies. I cannot speak on behalf of other Departments, but as Members of Parliament we are all concerned about transparency in the health system. The stated intention of the 2014 Act and the response to the consultation on it did not include health bodies. It would therefore be wrong to include those in the scope of the Bill.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Other
Wendy Morton (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very pleased to be able to speak again on my private Member’s Bill. As my hon. Friends have explained, no amendments were moved in Committee on 7 February—the passage of the Bill through Committee was quite swift—so the Bill has been reported to the House unamended The amendments tabled by my hon. Friends the Members for Bury North (Mr Nuttall) and for Christchurch (Mr Chope) are therefore late entries to the debate, but I was very keen to listen to their arguments. They have provided some additional scrutiny and additional debate in the Chamber.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): I should have covered this point in my speech, and I apologise for not having done so. I do not think we should go solely by that parameter. What if a local Facebook group contains 5,000 local interested residents? Surely that constitutes publication to interested people. It is just as valid as publishing material in a newspaper that no one reads.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Wendy Morton (Conservative, Centre-right): What I am trying to set out here is the difference between information that goes on to a private forum—such as open Facebook sites, direct emails and Twitter—and the more open social media that citizen bloggers would be proving that they are on. At its heart, this Bill is about giving citizen bloggers access to local government accounts, so that they can put information into the public domain and the electors can then conduct further scrutiny if they so wish.
Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-03-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): I am concerned that we might end up getting ourselves into a muddle. Many journalistic publications are private-subscription; the reader has to subscribe privately in order to get information from The Spectator, for example, so it is not in that sense public. I am therefore not entirely sure why we are distinguishing between a magazine publication that is a private subscription magazine, which it seems to me would still be covered by the Bill, and other private publications that my hon. Friend is seeking to exclude from the Bill. Why cannot we just include everything?