argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, but first, statutory sick pay will be available, and secondly, if I may say so, I think he underestimates people’s sense of responsibility and willingness to do the right thing by others.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Andrew Theakstone Percy (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome what the Prime Minister has set out, and especially his commitment to Scunny hospital. I also welcome his continuation of the Office for National Statistics survey study, not least because my mam and dad have been taking part in it, and it has given them something to do throughout the course of covid other than text me constantly. On NHS testing, as the Prime Minister knows, I work in the NHS and I like getting my test before I book on duty; it makes me feel safe when I go into care homes or elsewhere to attend patients. When he sets out how testing will continue in March, will he clearly set out the situation for testing NHS workers?
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): First, may I thank my hon. Friend very much for his service in the NHS throughout the pandemic? I have seen him in action. On his point about the NHS, that will be for the NHS itself to determine.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is right to focus on personal responsibility, but the other part of the strategy is the vaccinations. This is a vaccine-led strategy, and that is what enables us now to rely on people’s personal responsibility as well.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Atta-Ur-Rehman Chishti (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement, and the way he set out the argument on living with covid in terms of respecting and restoring people’s freedoms while protecting public health. The key advance we have for the future is the mapping exercise, and vaccination centres are already in place, including in Medway. Will the Prime Minister thank the excellent volunteers and NHS staff in Medway, and look at the bid for a new Medway hospital in my constituency?
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I had better be careful what I say about more hospitals; we want to build as many hospitals as we possibly can, but we will have to look at my hon. Friend’s plan. I do want to thank the Medway volunteers; I want to thank everybody still involved in the vaccination campaign. There are still millions of people who have not yet had their booster, and I urge them to get it.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I might add that one of the most important factors in the success of the vaccine roll-out was the private sector. It was private sector investment that led to the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine. We will work with the private sector to continue to develop the country’s native, indigenous ability to manufacture mRNA and other types of vaccines.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Siobhan Kathleen Baillie (Conservative, Centre-right): Keeping healthy people at home in isolation has had a devastating impact on lives, businesses and important life events such as weddings. I therefore welcome these changes, and the move to trust the British people and allow people to plan with confidence. Yet we all have constituents who are immunocompromised and vulnerable, such as the woman who wrote to me this morning. We care about these people; despite what Opposition Members say, they do not have a monopoly on compassion. Will my right hon. Friend reassure us again that those people will get the support that they need, that the timing is right, and that there is no point in waiting to make these changes?
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): What we are doing is moving away from systematic mass testing of large numbers of people, which is no longer the right way to deal with omicron, to a surveillance-led approach. Of course, we will continue to look after the most vulnerable and those who need it.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is absolutely right to mention the problem of long covid. We have invested £224 million in expanding NHS treatment of long covid and we are putting another £50 million into researching that syndrome.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Henry Edward Millar Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I very much welcome the Prime Minister’s statement today: a return to liberty, so we can further grow our economy and tackle other health conditions. Can he say a little more about what targeted support will be provided to those who are immunosuppressed and immune-compromised, such as those with blood cancer?
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): First of all, we are not dropping the testing until the beginning of April, as the hon. Gentleman knows. It is thanks only to the massive financial firepower of the UK that we have been able to run the biggest testing operation in Europe plus the fastest vaccination roll-out.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, actually, I am. I am genuinely surprised by the approach that the Opposition have taken today; I think that it is wrong. My hon. Friend is making an important point about the comparison with flu, because it is very important that people with any respiratory disease think about those who are clinically vulnerable and behave in a responsible and considerate way.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is raising a very important but very difficult issue. In answer to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West), I mentioned the importance of the private sector. We need to ensure that the pharmaceutical companies have the wherewithal to make these colossal investments that offer hope for humanity.
Living with Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2022-02-21
Topic: Health
Christopher Mark Clarkson (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his forbearance, because across from the Government Dispatch Box he was faced first by the vacillations of General Indecision and then by the rank opportunism of Captain Hindsight. Does he agree that if he had listened to Lieutenant Lockdown, instead of being the first major economy to unlock and having a world-leading vaccine programme, we would now be facing a Major Catastrophe?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-04-20
Topic: Health
Questions: Prime Minister’s questions is a wonderful opportunity for a constituency MP like me to ask the Prime Minister for a new hospital for Doncaster, and to ask for Doncaster to be the home of the Great British Rail headquarters. Sadly, there is a more pressing issue, and that is that men are dying so much younger than they should be. Will the Prime Minister meet me to discuss the merits of having a Minister for men, and the benefits of a men’s health strategy? That way, the next time I am fortunate enough to get a PMQ, I can lobby the Prime Minister for a new hospital for Doncaster, and for Doncaster to be the home of the Great British Rail headquarters.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his work in this area, and we are determined to tackle all the health conditions that he describes and cares about, particularly mental health and suicide prevention. I note his plea for a new hospital, and I know it is shared by many of my hon. and right hon. Friends. This Government are funding that and making it possible, thanks to the decisions we have taken allowing our economy to grow, which would not have been possible if we had listened to the Opposition.
Russian Aggression: Support for NATO Allies — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
James Stephen Heappey (Conservative, Centre-right): NATO is acutely aware that the threat has evolved beyond the three conventional domains and into space and cyber-space as well, which is why that is a key part of NATO’s transformation plans. The UK is to the fore in that, because we have invested ahead of many of our allies in both defensive and offensive cyber-capabilities. So the UK voice is very much to the fore in discussing with NATO how we develop a cyber-capability for the alliance.
Russian Aggression: Support for NATO Allies — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
James Stephen Heappey (Conservative, Centre-right): Make no mistake: the NATO membership of our great friends and allies in the Baltic represents one of the great strengthening moments of the alliance generally. Nobody is prouder to fly the NATO flag than Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, and we stand four-square behind them and behind what it would mean if President Putin were to try to compromise the territorial integrity of those countries in any way. As for the hon. Gentleman’s wider question about resourcing defence across the alliance adequately, I strongly agree; we are one of only a few countries that has been routinely spending the 2% of GDP target. It is fantastic that this moment of challenge within the euro-Atlantic has meant that other countries have now increased their spending to meet that target, too. If there are arguments for more money for defence, no Defence Minister is ever going to object, but we should reflect that the UK has been spending 2% for a while and was given a very significant uplift from the Treasury only 12 months ago.
Russian Aggression: Support for NATO Allies — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (Conservative, Centre-right): I commend the United Kingdom for all it is doing to help our NATO allies, but I make this point to the Minister, from one soldier to another. He said earlier that, if circumstances change, the policy changes. I do not excuse myself for again asking the Government to rethink the cut to the Army. He was referring to out of area-type operations, and we are now looking potentially, God forbid, at a conventional war, where mass will be important. We no longer have that mass and it must be retained.
Russian Aggression: Support for NATO Allies — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
James Stephen Heappey (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend and I will debate keenly the future of the land battle, but I am not sure that what we have seen on our TV screens over the past few weeks has been a justification for large amounts of massed armour. I think it is entirely a vindication of a change in the way in which the land battle is prosecuted. If forces are massed, they are vulnerable to missile technologies, which are absolutely in the ascendancy. I think that Future Soldier and the integrated review, which gave birth to that, are exactly the right way to develop the Army to meet the requirements of the land battle as it is now and not perhaps how we thought it was 20 years ago.
Russian Aggression: Support for NATO Allies — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative, Centre-right): Supporting NATO allies is about not just the eastern front and the situation in and around Russia, but the threat from Russian naval activity. Does my hon. Friend agree that the focus must equally be on the activities of Russian submarines in the north Atlantic, around our allied coast, and that the Navy must be given equal consideration in regard to our strategic strength moving forward?
Integrated Review 2021: Russian Invasion of Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
Questions: With reference to the integrated review 2021, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on force structure in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
James Stephen Heappey (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is an expert in the field. I acknowledge that this issue will be keenly debated and that he has a strong view on it. My own view is that this is the right time to accelerate the acquisition of the lethality that has been missing from the field Army for too long. We are outranged on our artillery, we lack the land precision fires that are now essential and, if I had to choose—and I think that the Ministry of Defence has had to choose—I would choose to have a land force that has been modernised and made relevant to the modern battle again, rather than necessarily standing behind larger numbers.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
Questions: The Secretary of State’s decision to send lethal defensive military aid to Ukraine before Russia’s invasion was inspired, and it is probably one of the best decisions he has ever taken. What is the initial assessment of the Minister for the Armed Forces of the operational effectiveness in theatre of the next generation light anti-tank weapons we have sent to Ukraine?; It is 40 years this coming week since the invasion of the Falkland Islands and the violation of British sovereignty by Argentina. It is five weeks since the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty by Russia. As China eyes up Taiwan, does the Minister agree that it is time that the Government started to plan for an increase in defence spending, maybe to 3% of GDP?; As a member of the Scottish Affairs Committee, I had the pleasure of visiting Lossiemouth earlier this year. Leuchars airfield in my constituency is still maintained as a back-up site for operations. Given the current situation, can the Minister advise on sonar and radar upgrades? It is important that back-up facilities are also fit for purpose.; Fleeing for their lives when Kabul fell, some Afghans with UK connections entered Pakistan without documentation. Will Ministers urgently devise a practical plan safely to bring to the UK those Afghans who have entry visas to come to this country, but who are still being hunted by the Pakistani police, whose Government apparently want to hand them back to the Taliban?; It is vital that we protect our veterans from vexatious legal claims, something that we have already put in place for those who have served overseas. Will the Minister agree to work with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Government to ensure that legislation is also urgently brought forward to help to protect our Northern Ireland veterans?; I am sure my hon. Friend will agree that Poland’s recent decision to award Babcock the contract for the Arrowhead frigates for the Polish navy is a brilliant example of British shipbuilding capabilities being used to support our NATO allies.; I understand that Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles are being made available to Ukraine. Could this kit be used to protect humanitarian corridors and nuclear power plants?
James Stephen Heappey (Conservative, Centre-right): It certainly could be—it is a highly effective weapons system—but we are not seeking to be in any way prescriptive with the Ukrainians about how it is employed, as they will understand their plan better than we do. We give them these weapons systems confident that they will bring them to good use, and thus far that has proved correct.
Schools White Paper — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Health
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative, Centre-right): Mental health is one of the areas we have been looking at with the Children’s Commissioner, including through her very good "The Big Ask" survey of half a million children. In May last year, we announced £17 million of investment to build mental health support in education settings. We have invested further to make sure that the mental health leads in more than 8,000 schools and colleges have the necessary support and knowledge to support young people.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
John Charles Baron (Conservative, Centre-right): Perhaps for too long, the west has harvested the peace dividend, but there is no doubt that we have entered a new era in the battle for democracy globally. May I urge my right hon. Friend to do what she can within Government not only to make the case for a sustained and substantial increase in defence spending, but to ensure that our soft power capabilities are adequately resourced, for the very simple reason that jaw-jaw should always be preferable to war-war?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a good point about the peace dividend. The reality is that, right across the west, not enough has been spent on defence. Meanwhile, the Russians have been building up their armed forces, their military capability and their disinformation efforts. One thing I have done is to re-establish an information unit in the Foreign Office to tackle Russian disinformation. We are working to get that information into Russia so that the people of Russia have a clear view about what is going on, in contrast to the propaganda from their Government. We are also working on expanding our soft power, whether it is through the BBC or other outlets, to get the truth across to the people of Russia. As to my hon. Friend’s other point, I am sure that he will be raising it with the Chancellor at Treasury questions very soon.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I point out to the hon. Gentleman that Operation Orbital, which was led by the United Kingdom and has trained up 20,000 Ukrainian troops, has been a very important part of the success of the Ukrainian forces in being able to resist. I pay huge tribute to the bravery of the Ukrainian forces. The UK has led on supplying that sort of support and training Of course we need a comprehensive offer. That is what we are doing: we are modernising our armed forces under the leadership of the Defence Secretary, but we are also supplying more direct support into the eastern flank of NATO to make sure that we are protecting European security at this vital time.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): What we are doing is maximising the support that we are giving under the UN charter, which allows us to supply Ukraine in its own self-defence. That is effective: we are seeing the effectiveness of the NLAWs, and we are now putting in the Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles. That is the way in which we will support the Ukrainians in defeating Vladimir Putin and ensuring that he loses in Ukraine. A no-fly zone would mean direct NATO involvement in Ukraine, which is a very different matter from the defence that we are supplying under the UN charter.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-02-24
Topic: Defense
Questions: I thank my hon. Friend for his commitment to making the United Kingdom the best country in the world in which to be a veteran by 2028. Will the Minister outline for me what he and his Department are doing to improve employment opportunities for veterans in my constituency of Dudley North and across the United Kingdom?
Stephen Paul Barclay (Conservative, Centre-right): This is an area of common ground across the House. I know the National Security Adviser has shared briefings with Opposition leaders, as referred to earlier in the week, and we continue to work closely across the House. The clear message being sent by all parties today is extremely welcome. On the specific question of cyber, we will set out further details of the work that the Cabinet Office is doing. We had a Cobra meeting this morning and that was one of the topics focused on.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-02-24
Topic: Health
Questions: I thank my hon. Friend for his commitment to making the United Kingdom the best country in the world in which to be a veteran by 2028. Will the Minister outline for me what he and his Department are doing to improve employment opportunities for veterans in my constituency of Dudley North and across the United Kingdom?; My constituents and I were shocked by some of the revelations that came out of the Grenfell inquiry on building products manufacturers. Can my right hon. Friend reassure me that none of those manufacturers will be used for Government contracts and that we have robust processes in place to ensure that Government contracts only go to honourable companies?; The job of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a huge one. The Cabinet Office has responsibility for some very important projects, from the covid-19 inquiry to cyber-security, emergency response and national security. Those all matter to people in Newport West—national security more so than ever today. How will the Minister reassure my constituents that their concerns will be listened to and acted on without dither or delay?; On a day like today a celebration is perhaps not at the forefront of our minds. However, Her Majesty the Queen’s 70th jubilee this year does mark the unwavering devotion that she has had towards this country and the service therein. Across the United Kingdom—and not just in this country but of course around the world as well—people will be very keen to celebrate this historic milestone. Will my right hon. Friend elaborate on what he plans to do about putting this momentous occasion forward?; I would like to begin by sending my thoughts and prayers to the people of Ukraine at this impossibly difficult time.There has been a great deal of controversy regarding the Cabinet Office’s handling of public procurement during the pandemic, and we have all read the reports of cronyism and contracts being dished out to Government friends. With this in mind, my constituents in Coventry North West want to know what steps the Cabinet Office is taking to clean up procurement processes going forward.
Stephen Paul Barclay (Conservative, Centre-right): I think this issue has been well rehearsed at pretty much all the Cabinet Office questions that I have participated in. As was touched on earlier, the purpose of the high priority lane was to efficiently prioritise credible offers of PPE, and that is what we did. The priority was to ensure that our frontline services had the PPE they needed. That is what we invested in and that is what we secured.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-02-24
Topic: Culture
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for that. We will have to see what further downstream effects there are on collaboration of all kinds. Hitherto, I have been broadly in favour of continuing artistic and scientific collaboration, but in the current circumstances it is hard to see how even those can continue as normal.