argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Health
Jamieson Ronald Reed (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to the Minister for his response and for the constructive way that we have dealt with the Bill, which in many ways demonstrates some of the best traditions of the House. I am a little disappointed, given the fallow—dare I say useless—fifth year of this five-year Parliament, that time has not been found to address these issues. The protection and use of individual data, not just in health services but across the public sector, is one of the biggest and most important emerging issues facing our politics and society, and the Minister is right to say that such matters need to be treated carefully, judiciously, and with diligence and attention to detail Given the cross-party support and the Minister’s assurances, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the clause Clause, by leave, withdrawn. New Clause 2 Care and Quality Commission reviews and performance assesments ‘(1) Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (health and adult social care services: reviews and performance assessments) is amended as follows. (2) For subsection (3) substitute— "The assessment of the performance of a registered service provider is to be by reference to whatever indicators of quality the Commission devises, but must include indicators of the safety of health and social care services."’—(Sir William Cash.) Brought up, and read the First time.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: Health
Stephen William Hammond (Independent, Unknown): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his decisions of last year to guarantee the surplus supplies of vaccine, and I thank all the NHS staff and volunteers in Wimbledon who are delivering it. Clearly, getting the vaccine rolled out as fast as possible is key. Therefore, can he confirm that he will make sure that best practice advice is being given to every vaccine centre to ensure that there are no supplies unused at the end of the day and that there is a reserve list for appointments?
Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-01-09
Topic: Defense
Kerry Gillian McCarthy (Labour, Centre-left): The UK already exceeds the 2% target for defence expenditure. At the moment, we are one of the very few countries that meets its target. Obviously, it was on the agenda at the NATO summit in Cardiff, at which the allies agreed to aim to move towards the existing NATO guidelines of spending 2% of GDP within a decade. They also agreed that those countries that were already spending the minimum of 2% would aim to continue to do so. That is the international framework. The matter is now back on the political agenda after the global economic crisis slightly knocked it off course, with many countries being forced to make defence cuts Labour believes that the right time and place to take decisions on the future role, shape and capabilities of the UK’s armed forces will be in the next strategic defence and security review, which will take place in the next Parliament. We were concerned that the last SDSR was very much a Treasury-led exercise. It left the country with an aircraft carrier without any aircraft or maritime patrol capabilities. It is imperative that the next SDSR is strategically led and fiscally responsible. It cannot be just a Treasury-led exercise. Its fundamental starting point should be what we want our armed forces to do I wish to allow the Minister at least a couple of minutes to speak, so I will conclude on that point.
War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme Payments — House of Commons, 2022-03-28
Topic: Defense
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru, Centre-left to left): The Minister is talking about constant improvements. I rise on behalf of my constituent, who in 2018 received a pension benefit forecast with an annual Army pension and a terminal benefit. In July last year he was told, in a letter from the Ministry of Defence, that he was no longer eligible for an Army pension. I wrote to the Minister in July last year on his behalf, but I have had neither acknowledgment nor reply. I have tried on many occasions to raise this matter, and I am now doing so in the Chamber. Will the Minister commit to meeting me to discuss my constituent’s case?
Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill — House of Lords, 2015-03-13
Topic: Health
Sheila Clare Hollins (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, Amendment 7 in my name focuses on the proposed duty in Clause 3 to share information between health professionals and social care professionals. I apologise that I was out of the country during Second Reading and was unable to speak. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Ribeiro, for championing the Bill through the House. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for supporting this amendment, together with the noble Lord, Lord Low, who unfortunately cannot attend today From my own research and the work of the confidential inquiry into the premature deaths of people with a learning disability, I know that there are some appalling patient safety outcomes for people with learning disabilities, where improved information sharing has a real prospect of helping. Data scaled up from the confidential inquiry show that 1,200 people with a learning disability die avoidably in NHS care every year. In many cases this is due to poor or inadequate care or diagnostic overshadowing, where, put simply, professionals fail to see past the learning disability to what is really affecting the patient, may not recognise that the person has a learning disability, or may have had no training on what a learning disability is.
Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill — House of Lords, 2015-03-13
Topic: Health
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for being so clear in addressing the issues that I have raised and for the supportive further clarification sought by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, of Kings Heath. It will ensure that the term "best interests" is attributed only its ordinary meaning and not misinterpreted for the purposes of this Bill as meaning "best interests tests" as outlined in the Mental Capacity Act. I am also grateful that the guidance and the Explanatory Notes will be amended as both noble Lords have outlined. I appreciate the welcome of the noble Lord, Lord Ribeiro, for how the debate has gone and what has happened. I therefore beg leave to withdraw my amendment.
Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill — House of Lords, 2015-03-13
Topic: Health
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I will also address Amendment 10 in my name. Amendment 9 seeks to ask how a regulator can, through its fitness to practise panels, judge well-being. I can see how health and safety can be judged objectively but well-being is a subjective judgment and it is very difficult to dispute a person’s view of a professional’s action having adversely impacted on their well-being. I have a concern that, as a sole criterion, it could be used in a vexatious way where there are other issues that somebody wishes to address against a professional, perhaps at a personal level, rather than it being focused on their professional conduct Amendment 10 seeks clarification of the prioritisation of the issues to be considered by fitness to practise panels. Such panels should not assess public confidence on the basis of purely personal condemnation of a person or the media’s response to what has happened—the so-called trial by media.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation and Linked Households) (England) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Manzila Pola Uddin (Non-Affiliated, Unknown): My Lords, I agree with noble Lords that this is indeed a sombre time, with the highest rate of infection and loss of life and intense pressure on our NHS staff and services. I add my voice to the call for mandatory masking, which must be made freely available. I thank Edmund Yeo for his constant supply of masks, which I have been able to distribute among vulnerable women I ask the House’s indulgence to focus today specifically on people of Bangladeshi heritage, who are most excessively affected throughout this pandemic—notwithstanding my respect and concern for all those who have lost their lives or are seriously unwell and facing multiple difficulties as a result of these regulations. Consultant doctor Abdul Mabud Chowdhury was the first GP to lose his life to Covid. His family have continued a commendable campaign for safe practices in the NHS for all staff. Every day, I am notified of friends and neighbours of Bangladeshi heritage struggling with socioeconomic conditions alongside reports of Covid symptoms, self-isolation, hospital admission and, tragically, deaths I have spoken repeatedly to the Minister and asked him in this Chamber to explain what he and his department are doing to prevent and mitigate these untold sufferings. Noble Lords will agree that we have made colossal advances in data collection and analysis, or the vaccine simply would not have been developed so rapidly. Given that we have known for many months about the disproportionate impact on people of Bangladeshi heritage, has data has been collected on the numbers of reported Covid infections, particularly with the new variations? How many children are affected and what are their ages? How many are men and how many women, and what are their ages? What underlying conditions do they have? How many are self-isolating and how many infections and deaths are there within specific groups? I am deeply concerned not to see any adequate targeted communications under these extenuating circumstances. Will the Minister undertake to share with me and other noble Lords the Government’s strategy and implementation plan to address these issues as a matter of the gravest urgency?
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation and Linked Households) (England) Regulations 2020 — House of Lords, 2021-01-07
Topic: Health
Claire Fox (Non-Affiliated, Unknown): My Lords, when vaccines are developed, they go through clinical trials to check on efficacy and any damaging side-effects. What would happen if the same process were applied to lockdowns and other draconian measures? We would have to ask: do they work? Do the serious side-effects outweigh the alleged benefits of keeping Covid at bay? The Government will not be able to answer this, because they have not even asked the questions. Indeed, when one asks such questions, one is often met with a sneer—"Oh, you are one of those lockdown sceptics"—but despite the tragic numbers dying and our being told that the Government have no choice, I do not think that any of us should be cowed into fatalistically accepting the efficacy or morality of this perpetual lockdown strategy. There are always other options Scepticism is branded dangerous and irresponsible. Some are even lobbying big tech to censor sceptical questioning, demonised as "misinformation". If this Government declare that it is illegal to leave one’s home without a reasonable excuse and accumulate a colossal amount of state power, with unintended but devastating collateral damage inflicted on society, it would be irresponsible not to ask sceptical questions. Remember that scepticism, historically, is what has driven scientific progress, medical breakthroughs and radical change. We are urged to listen to medical experts, so let me quote CMO Chris Whitty, speaking at a parliamentary committee last month: "At a certain point, society, through political leaders, elected Ministers and Parliament, will say that this level of risk is a level of risk that we think it is appropriate to tolerate" This is a key debate, moving forward, and I urge the Government to avoid fear-mongering or boosterism, but to have the courage to admit what they know and what they do not know, and make sure they have the means to be held to account. Will the Minister tell us precisely what measure is being used to decide when freedoms will be restored? How can the public know what success looks like if the goalposts change? Is it cases, hospital admissions, deaths, how we deal with so many catching Covid in hospitals, or the numbers of vaccines? What is it that gives us that hope, really There seem to be some irrational aspects to this, with 80 year-olds I know demoralised and confused that they have not received even a letter, never mind a jab, and others demoralised that they have not had the second jab. Finally, if the Government can tear up the rulebook on civil liberties, surely they can tear up the rulebook on risk-adverse regulations when it comes to vaccines. It is the only hope. Be brave.
Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-06-23
Topic: Health
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): I should like to make one simple point, which is that I agree absolutely with the noble Lord that what we need are clinical trials on medicinal cannabis. The problem is that researchers do not want to go into this area because the substance is illegal. Getting cannabis in is a tremendous problem because it takes a long time to get the licences. I do not know, but there are problems which the noble Lord may know more about than I. However, if adults and children in particular who are in severe pain and distress could be prescribed medicinal cannabis on a named-patient basis, that would be a good option. But certainly we need to get on with a lot of work on clinical trials.
International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Bill — House of Lords, 2015-02-27
Topic: Defense
Lindsay Granshaw (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I remind the noble Lord that we have a general election between now and then, and although we are not standing for election many of our colleagues are. The new Government will no doubt take a decision as to what they say their spending should be. However, I set that in the context of a continuity here, as regards defence spending, which you do not see in the DfID budget.
International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Bill — House of Lords, 2015-02-27
Topic: Defense
Jeremy Purvis (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, if the House will forgive me, I will focus on the specific amendment as it affects the Bill. However, in so doing, I should say that I have respect for, and have been highly impressed by, the quality of this important debate, to which the Minister referred, and its imperative going forward I believe that a similar debate is taking place in another place today on the resumed Second Reading of the Defence Expenditure (NATO Target) Bill introduced by Mr Christopher Chope. It will be interesting to see whether Mark Francois, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, responds to that debate. He will no doubt reinforce his opposition to the Bill in the Commons today, and my noble friends may correspond with him to discover his reasons for that.
International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Bill — House of Lords, 2015-02-27
Topic: Defense
Lindsay Granshaw (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I trust that I made it clear in answer to my noble friend Lord Tugendhat. He made the very reasonable point: why hypothecate this one but not the other one? I responded that the defence budget has been much more predictable. I understand the pressures on it and, therefore, there is a strong argument for making sure that the aid budget, which has zig-zagged all over the place, as we have heard, is fixed in the way in which we are seeking.
Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2015-06-23
Topic: Health
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): I thank the Minister. I also thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this debate. I spoke extremely briefly but it has proved a very illuminating debate. We have drawn out a number of issues, and I am grateful to the Minister for his reply and for agreeing to write to us about these matters. I hope that in that letter he may be able to answer the question of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, about herbal remedies that are genetically modified, because I would not presume to take the place of a Minister in these matters Could the Minister also clarify whether, in tweaking the Irish definition of psychoactive substance, the Government have gone back to the Irish and to their experts to seek their opinion on whether this adjustment to the definition will overcome the apparently insuperable problems that the Irish have encountered? It is incredibly important that we accept and acknowledge that the ban in Ireland has failed and that we make sure, before this Bill is through, that it is adjusted as necessary to become a useful tool in the armoury of government drug policy. With that I am content to withdraw the amendment.
Defence Spending — House of Commons, 2015-03-12
Topic: Defense
Menzies Campbell (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The hon. Gentleman is right about that. I know a bit about this because I was invited by the then Defence Secretary to be part of the group of politicians, of all parties, who participated in debates with officials as to what should be in the Green Paper. A defence review is not a hugely impossible concept to understand. What one needs to do is set out one’s foreign policy objectives; decide what military resources are necessary to fulfil those objectives; and then allocate the financial resources necessary to provide the military capability. We have not had a defence review that fulfils those three principles in all the time I have been in the House of Commons The hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney made a sound point when he said that 2% cannot be described as a panacea for all the ills of defence. If 2% is to be spent, it must be spent wisely. We do not have to go far in Europe to see that several of our allies spend money, perhaps getting up towards 2%—there are not enough of those countries—which could much more readily be spent otherwise. For example, it could be spent on a greater amount of interoperability, force specialisation and such things. There is no point Mr Juncker talking about a European defence policy when European states have not yet properly fulfilled their responsibilities to NATO, of which almost all of them are members.
Covid Contracts: Judicial Review — House of Lords, 2021-03-01
Topic: Health
Brian Mackenzie (Non-Affiliated, Unknown): My Lords, at the beginning of this pandemic, I—like many Members of this House, I suspect—was approached by various suppliers and manufacturers asking how they could assist in supplying, or even making, PPE, ventilators and the like. Indeed, an appeal was made by the Health Secretary to this end. Of course, the difficulty was knowing who to contact. To assist in a similar future crisis, would the Government consider providing a direct hotline to deal efficiently with a large number of calls from people responding with help—rather like what Crimestoppers provides for police appeals?
Covid-19 — House of Lords, 2021-02-11
Topic: Health
Brian Mackenzie (Non-Affiliated, Unknown): My Lords, I welcome the tightening of controls to prevent the introduction and spread of new variants of the virus. Will the Minister say whether the policy deals with international travellers who have a stopover for a connecting flight in, say, eight hours or even overnight? Will the road map that the Prime Minister will roll out on 22 February include a flight plan showing how and when the quarantine controls might be lifted, as they are extremely damaging to the travel and holiday sector and to the mental health of the nation, to which the Minister has already referred? Finally, has the Minister yet booked his summer holiday?
Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 — House of Lords, 2015-02-24
Topic: Health
Robert Maurice Lipson Winston (Labour, Centre-left): I wonder whether I can help my noble friend Lord Patel. Does he agree with me that there were very few available data for the first in vitro fertilisation babies, and that that was a step in the dark, as were pre-implantation diagnosis and sperm microinjection? Before he concludes his speech, would my noble friend be kind enough to answer an important question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Deben, about the possibility that we might be making infertile children? Was that not the accusation made when infertility was treated by in vitro fertilisation, and was there not a widespread fear at that time, too, that we would be making infertile children?
Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 — House of Lords, 2015-02-24
Topic: Health
Robert Maurice Lipson Winston (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I declare an interest in that it was my scientific group which started pre-implantation diagnosis—the first attempts to diagnose genetic diseases in embryos in families who have these fatal, sad genetic flaws in them. I congratulate the Minister on his absolutely balanced and fair speech. From time to time, we have not agreed, but I think that his care, compassion and courtesy are deeply appreciated by the whole House. I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Deben, on his very clever speech. I do not agree with what he said and I hope that, at other times, we can see why we disagree. I accept that he is talking with deep conviction, but I think that we have already sorted out most of his objections, both the legal and the difficulties of side-effects.
Covid-19 — House of Lords, 2021-07-15
Topic: Health
Claire Fox (Non-Affiliated, Unknown): My Lords, I have listened carefully, and the mask obsession here seems to mask a certain reluctance to ever allow normal to return, even if it means a terrible toll on jobs, livelihoods or non-Covid health—so I am glad to hear the Minister being more balanced. However, I will bend the stick and ask him whether he will concede that many millions are demoralised that the Government’s irreversible freedom day comes with so many caveats that it feels like parole with an electronic tag and house arrest hanging over us like a sword of Damocles? Can we not get a bit more balance? On data, according to PHE on hospitalisations, of those who spent more than one night in a hospital with the delta variant at the end of June, 39% were patients who had gone to hospital with different conditions—so could the hospitalisations data perhaps be clarified, because I think that that would reduce fear and give a bit of perspective?
Covid-19 Update — House of Lords, 2021-07-08
Topic: Health
Margaret Ritchie (Non-Affiliated, Unknown): My Lords, the Statement says that there are currently no plans to vaccinate the under-18s. Can the Minister indicate what the possible timeframe could be for reversing that decision and vaccinating that cohort, taking on board that around 0.5% of pregnancies are to girls aged under 18? Will he further elaborate on the fact that the Prime Minister indicated that there will be deaths—quite a large number—when we open up? What level of deaths do the Government consider acceptable?