argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Calais Jungle — House of Lords, 2016-10-10
Topic: Immigration
David Alton (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, has the noble Baroness had the chance to view the sobering insight of a recently broadcast ITV documentary called "The Forgotten Children"? In contrast with the 80 children whom the noble Baroness said the United Kingdom has taken, that programme highlighted the 88,000 children who are without parents in Europe, 10,000 of whom it said had gone missing, their whereabouts no longer known. The same documentary highlighted the plight of a brother and sister aged 13 and 12, who had escaped from Aleppo and who are now living in a tent in a derelict petrol station. How do we square that with the idea that we are providing protection for vulnerable children? How on earth can we sleep easily in our own beds at night when we know that these things are happening? Why are we not doing more to ensure a realistic and European-wide response to the magnitude of this crisis?
Message from the Queen — House of Lords, 2016-06-13
Topic: Other
William Peel (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I have the honour to notify your Lordships that Her Majesty the Queen, having been informed that your Lordships have elected the Lord Fowler to be Lord Speaker, has pleasure in confirming your Lordships’ choice of him as your Speaker Furthermore, I have the honour to present to your Lordships a message from Her Majesty the Queen, signed by her own hand. The message is as follows: "I have received with great satisfaction the dutiful and loyal expression of your thanks for the Speech with which I opened the present Session of Parliament".
Government: Ministerial Changes — House of Lords, 2016-07-18
Topic: Other
James Hope (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, on behalf of my colleagues on the Cross Benches, I, too, associate myself with the warm and well-deserved tributes that have been paid to the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, and wish her well as she returns, as I am sure she will, to the Back Benches. Like others in the House, I confess to having been taken aback by the speed of events last week. The first indication I had that she was no longer to be Leader and Lord Privy Seal was when I arrived at her office at midday on Thursday for one of my regular fortnightly meetings with her to be told for the first time ever by one of her secretaries that she was too busy to see me. Unexpectedly, the meeting had had to be cancelled. As I returned down the corridor to walk back to my office, the expression on the faces of various people whom I passed who already knew more than I did suggested that there was much more to it than that. The sadness at what was happening was very evident I know from my many meetings with her during the past year in my capacity as Convener, which I very much valued, how much she cared for this House. Her sudden departure has meant that some of the things that she wished to do will have been left undone, but she has done much, as the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, said, to promote and carry through fundamental reform of the committee structure by which the business affairs of the House are to be governed, and that can indeed be regarded as her legacy. She brought home her concern for the traditions and customs of the House to me on a personal level, too. On several occasions, when it seemed to her that I had said or done something that was not quite right, she was quite candid—to adopt the adjective used by the noble Baroness, Lady Smith. She would tick me off. I can assure your Lordships that this was always done with a smile on her face, in the most tactful manner. As a newcomer to the arcane arts which I have now to perform on behalf of my colleagues on these Benches, I valued those gentle reminders, and I was grateful for her guidance and encouragement. They were a reminder to me, too, of how much she cared for the traditions and best interests of this House. We wish her well and look forward to the contribution that she can certainly make to our work in the future I take this opportunity to welcome most warmly to her very important role the noble Baroness, Lady Evans of Bowes Park. She brings to its responsibilities a very evident spirit of energy and enthusiasm—and, dare I say it, unusually for a Member of this House, she has youth on her side, too. These are challenging times, when those qualities will be much needed. On behalf of the Cross-Bench group, I look forward very much to working with her in my capacity as Convenor, and I wish her all success as she enters into the duties of her office.
Terrorist Attack in Nice — House of Lords, 2016-07-18
Topic: Civil Rights
David Alton (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, in her earlier remarks, the Minister quite rightly referenced the role that the internet can play. Of course, post referendum, we are well aware that some of the poisonous outpourings on it have gone way beyond our national boundaries, and indeed that there is a flow from beyond our national boundaries into this country, too. Given the xenophobia, racism and poisonous hatred that are often whipped up across the internet, can the noble Baroness promise us—beyond these first few hours in her new post—that she will look again at what the internet allows people to be exposed to and will see whether there are ways that we can strike a better balance between the proper emphasis we place on free speech and the poisonous outpourings that so many of us have witnessed in recent weeks?
BBC — House of Lords, 2016-09-15
Topic: Mixed Topics
Ruth Deech (Crossbench, Unknown): Does the Minister appreciate the anxiety of some Members that we are dependent on the Government to find a few minutes or an hour or two to allow this House to discuss the royal charter, given that it is no longer an appropriate method of governing something as important as the BBC? It is patently not a guarantee of the independence of the BBC. On the contrary, it is simply a deal between the Culture Secretary and the director-general. It is high time for a statute. There is no need to fear that this House or the other House would interfere more in the BBC or be more oppressive in terms of its independence than is the case under the royal charter. Further, does the Minister agree that Ofcom is not the right body to deal with important political and impartiality complaints as it is full of former BBC employees and is very heavily dependent on government appointments? Will he assure the House that there will be a new method for appointing Ofcom members that will assure their independence and expertise? At the moment, Ofcom is not the right body; my own preference would be for an ombudsman.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Richard Best (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I support this amendment, to which I spoke at greater length in Committee. I shall summarise my earlier points. This proposal for a parish council or neighbourhood to be able to appeal against a planning approval that cuts across an emerging neighbourhood plan was raised in the other place by Nick Herbert MP, with support from Sir Oliver Heald MP and Andrew Bingham MP, all Conservative Members, whose views were shared by Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods MP for the Opposition. Mr Nick Herbert said, "speculative developers try to get in applications ahead of the completion of neighbourhood plans or even after they have been completed … either they are upheld by the local authority, which is fearful of losing an appeal, or the developer makes an appeal that is upheld by the planning inspector. The development is then allowed to go ahead" This totally undermines all the hard work of the volunteers who have spent endless hours gaining support for the neighbourhood plan before, to quote Sir Oliver Heald, it is, "trashed by an application by a speculative developer ".—[Official Report, Commons, 5/1/16; col. 222.] This is a deficiency in the otherwise sensible arrangements for neighbourhood forums and plans which were devised and introduced by Greg Clark, now the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government I have declared my interest in the excellent neighbourhood plan for the Cerne Valley in Dorset, where I own some land within the area covered by the plan. I followed the progress of the local volunteers who brought together this neighbourhood plan from the summer of 2011 until its approval in a public referendum on the plan in January 2015. The nerve-racking hazard facing all the local people involved was that their hard work was at risk from a developer putting in an application which in no way accorded with the emerging neighbourhood plan. Had this happened, neither the parish council or the neighbourhood forum would have had any way of appealing and the council itself would not have been able to use the neighbourhood plan to determine the planning application until the referendum on it was done and dusted. For all the 1,800 neighbourhood forums currently preparing neighbourhood plans, and all those to come— the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, tells us that 9,000 could come down this route, and I hope there will be many more—this amendment would overcome the problem. If the Minister wanted to modify this amendment so that the neighbourhood right of appeal applied only once the emerging neighbourhood plan had reached a later point in its progress—as was suggested earlier by some noble Lords—I feel sure that this would be acceptable to the proposers. I hope that the Minister will indicate a move in this direction. I support this amendment.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
John Lytton (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I, too, support this amendment. In doing so, I declare two interests, one of which I have already declared—namely, that I am a practising chartered surveyor. As a matter of course in my work, I advise owners of land with potential development sites, some of them on the edges of rural villages. I also declare my now past status as a former president of the National Association of Local Councils, which strongly supports this amendment It seems an entirely incontestable proposition that a neighbourhood plan duly made—and therefore a robust representation of locally expressed views in accordance with the local plan—and which is a true reflection of national policy and the government agenda through that local plan process, should be defendable in the event of the circumstances arising set out in this amendment: namely, the very limited circumstances in which the principal authority does not itself wish to pursue this, in which case the neighbourhood can deal with the matter itself. If the contrary view is to prevail, what is the point of having a process of neighbourhood plan and devolving responsibilities if the neighbourhood cannot take advantage of such a facility—the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Shipley?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Michael Berkeley (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, if I might share just one thought with the Minister, does this amendment not chime nicely with the Government’s oft-stated desire to empower local communities at grass-roots level, as we have heard, and to give them a voice in these contentious planning decisions? The Government seem to have talked quite a lot about this in recent months and in building up to the election.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Francis Hare (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I had not planned to comment on these issues, because my experience is limited. I remind noble Lords of my registered interests as a landowner. I recall speaking some years ago with a young project manager on a development about extensive work she had done in consulting local people in taking forward this development. It seemed to her that she had done everything that the local planners had asked of her but she found that her work was not acceptable. She said that this was often her experience—one jumps through all the hoops and suddenly one finds that the hoops have changed. This is only one person that I remember speaking to about this issue, but it certainly left me concerned that there is not enough certainty in the system and that developers can put a lot of work into a project and find that suddenly the hoops have changed and different requirements are being asked of them. I just wanted to put that into this debate.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Robert Kerslake (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I support the amendment. Indeed, I added my name to the previous version of this amendment but was not quick enough on the draw to add it to this latest version. Among the very many amendments that we have seen, this is a genuinely original and, I think, positive proposal. It is in every sense localist Before I move on, I should declare my interests as chair of Peabody, president of the Local Government Association and chair of the London Housing Commission I have felt for some time that we make progress on these issues through local initiative and through learning from different models in different parts of the country. Indeed, I think that that is exactly how we developed the model for city deals through the Localism Act. Proposals came forward for permissive powers to enable local authorities to make proposals for the Secretary of State’s approval. That set of amendments, sponsored by the Core Cities Group, paved the way for what I think has been an entirely positive process of city deals and devolution of powers according to local need This proposal opens up the opportunity to try new models at local level and to give local places, whether it is an individual local authority or a set of combined authorities, the chance to take the initiative. There are safeguards which have been strengthened: first, it would be through affirmative regulations, as we have already heard; secondly, there would need to be consultation; and thirdly, of course, the Secretary of State would need to give approval to any proposal. The test here is whether in a situation where there is high need for housing, and where the proposal envisages more housing being possible through the alternative, we should give the freedom to try it out. In my view, very clearly we should There is an added reason why I am very strongly in support of this amendment, and that is to do with the issues in London. Noble Lords will be aware that I chaired a commission on the housing crisis—I think it is a crisis—in London, which looked at issues of how supply in London might be doubled over five years and then held there. Nothing less than that will address the issues in London. The overwhelming conclusion of our panel was that it was simply not possible to deliver this scale of change without a new, significant package of devolution to the London mayor and the London boroughs. One part of that devolved model is greater powers on planning. This amendment would open up the opportunity for a new devolution package in London and the opportunity, I think, to tackle a growing and desperate crisis. I hope that this proposal is sympathetically considered by the Government.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Robert Kerslake (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I speak very briefly in support of the spirit behind the amendment and what is sought to be achieved. I will not repeat the arguments that have already been made, but I will refer to the experience I had during the London Housing Commission, where I consulted extensively with developers across every type and scale. The consistent and unanimous view of all those developers was that they were willing to pay more to get a better service What they described to me was a service that was truly struggling to do the job, where major and important applications were held up through the absence of good-quality staff and where they often experienced dealing with temporary staff who were learning on the job and did not have the authority to make decisions. This is, in any description you care to think of, a false economy. The improvement by way of inflation will be helpful but it does not go to the heart of the core problem, which is that, in the situation of severe funding challenges in local government, authorities are unable to resource, in the way that is required, the level of planning services that we need to deliver the increase in housing supply I am absolutely of the view that there should be a link to performance here, but I also believe very passionately that we should give local authorities the local initiative and flexibility to set their own fees. Over time the consequence of this will be that they will be able to plan for increased resources and, crucially, recruit new, skilled staff and rebuild a profession which, in the public sector, has been severely reduced in its capacity.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Robert Kerslake (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I have added my name to the other amendment in this group for the simple reason that the intended effect of the policy has not been how it has worked out in practice. If we cast our minds back to when this policy was developed, the economy was still struggling to recover from the impact of the financial crisis and the intention, therefore, was to unlock animal spirits and let the market take its course. There is no doubt that permitted rights has unlocked a series of new developments of housing. However, the intention was for it to address industrial sites or office sites where the prospect of new economic development was unlikely ever to happen but, for whatever reason, the local authority was not recognising that reality and moving on. In that sense, it had its effect. Where it has not done what we anticipated was that there was a policy of exemptions which would prevent particular areas being unduly affected. The City and Westminster formed part of those exemptions, but the area was not drawn widely enough Let us move forward to the present. The values that can be achieved through the development of residential housing, particularly in London—and I believe that this is predominantly a London issue—far exceed the values that can be achieved through economic use such as offices, retail space and so on. Instead of taking sites that will never be used for economic development, we are taking perfectly viable business sites and then forcing them into residential use, often at high values, which is not helping with the immediate housing need, as the noble Lord, Lord Tope, has just described. There are plenty of different ways that this issue can be addressed, but I urge the Minister to look constructively at how this issue can be tackled. It is likely to carry on growing in areas where these values are so different. Its consequence will be to damage the character of those areas and permanently lose economic activity.
Investigatory Powers Bill — House of Lords, 2016-07-13
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicholas Addison Phillips (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, the example given by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, demonstrates why Amendment 48 is too narrow. If a villain were to seek advice on his will it would not be a criminal purpose but it might none the less be justifiable to listen to the conversation in the hope of finding out where he was.
Investigatory Powers Bill — House of Lords, 2016-07-13
Topic: Other
David Pannick (Crossbench, Unknown): I take the noble and learned Lord’s point that "theoretical" is perhaps the wrong word to use and that "speculative" may be more appropriate. I wonder whether he could answer the question I posed earlier. Given that these powers have been available since 2000, can he tell the Committee whether the authorities have ever used them or whether we are talking in abstract terms about something that may have been required in the past? If it has not been used in the past 16 years, it is speculative.
NHS and Social Care: Impact of Brexit — House of Lords, 2016-07-21
Topic: Immigration
Mary Watkins (Crossbench, Unknown): I thank the Minister for his response and his recognition that some of these issues need to be returned to in future as a strategy develops in relation to the Brexit discussions. This country has always worked with staff from across the world, as I was reminded this morning when I went to the Nightingale Museum and saw the wonderful new Mary Seacole memorial. She was a Jamaican nurse who worked with Florence Nightingale. We must not take as long as we have taken to recognise her to reassure EU staff working with us, otherwise they will leave very quickly and, more importantly, new people will not come from the EU to work with us because of the uncertainty I recognise the need to negotiate about UK nationals who live in other EU countries. However, a swift assurance to all EU health and care workers in the UK would serve to reassure not only them but the vast majority of EU nationals who actually live in the four countries of Great Britain. I therefore urge that we do not take too long to reassure everyone about the need to continue to have this mixed workforce, to get a proper continuing strategy for health and education in future, and to ensure that we not only train new nurses and doctors but give them continued professional development so that they want to stay in this country and become a core part of our retained senior workforce.
Warm Home Discount (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2016 — House of Lords, 2016-07-21
Topic: Mixed Topics
Michael Berkeley (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, any of us who have witnessed genuine fuel poverty—disabled pensioners, for example, saving pennies to try to keep warm—will not fail to have been deeply moved. Therefore, in the light of what we have heard, will the Minister tell us whether it might be possible to make sure that this coming winter we are able to assist those people by bringing forward the Government’s plans?
European Union Migration: National Insurance — House of Lords, 2016-05-12
Topic: Mixed Topics
Raymond Jolliffe (Crossbench, Unknown): Can the Minister disentangle for us the impact on the figures of the huge number of annual visitors, whom we wish to encourage, and of overseas students coming to this country? We seem to be in a fog of numbers.
Child Refugees: Age Checks — House of Lords, 2016-10-21
Topic: Immigration
David Alton (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, as one of the signatories to the Dubs amendment, I signed it because it captured the spirit of Sir Nicholas Winton who, through the kindertransport, rescued 669 children from the Nazis. He had to prioritise the most vulnerable and the Government, while ruling out what is unethical, are right to do so too. Beyond Dublin, will the Government—as the Minister was asked by the noble Lord, Lord Paddick—specifically prioritise the youngest and, indeed, orphaned children such as the brother and sister whose case I highlighted in your Lordships’ House a few days ago, who were sleeping on the forecourt of a derelict petrol station? They are aged 13 and 12 and were orphaned in Aleppo Will the Minister also say what progress has been made on galvanising and co-ordinating the international community in assisting the 88,000 displaced young people now in Europe without parents and in establishing the fate of the 10,000 children who Europol has said have gone missing, and who must inevitably be at great risk of trafficking and exploitation?
European Union Referendum (Voter Registration) Regulations 2016 — House of Lords, 2016-06-09
Topic: Civil Rights
Mary Watkins (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I rise to support the Motion put forward by the Minister and to commend the Government and the other House on ensuring that full public engagement can take place at this time. I believe that this surge was a result of the just-in-time generation being able to do things at the last minute. We probably have a lot to learn from that. It will be interesting to look at this issue—if one is able to define the 300,000-odd people who elected to register in the last 24 hours. Without this statutory instrument we would be denying the basic human right in a democracy, such as the UK, to vote on such an important issue.