argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Windrush — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Sarah Ann Jones (Labour, Centre-left): Given the focus of Conservative Members on illegal immigration, does the Home Secretary wish to comment on the fact that under his Prime Minister’s "hostile environment", which has seen so much injustice done to the Windrush generation, we have seen the Government’s total failure to achieve what they set out to achieve, with neither voluntary nor enforced removals having actually increased in recent years?
Windrush — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Stella Judith Creasy (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the right hon. Gentleman to his new position, but let me give him some advice: whether the term is "hostile" or "compliant", it is deeds not words that matter in this place. Three families who came to my surgery at the weekend have Windrush generation family members who have been deported from this country, so he has to be aware that there is a serious issue with deportation. He has told us how many people have called the hotline, but these families could not get through, so will he tell us how many members of staff there are? What will he do specifically to get legal advice to people who have already been deported, so that we can truly have justice for the Windrush generation?
Windrush — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Elizabeth Anne McInnes (Labour, Centre-left): Can the Home Secretary confirm that the Windrush generation and others have more than two weeks to apply for British citizenship and that fees will continue to be waived until the Windrush generation issues have been fully resolved?
Windrush — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Andrew Francis Slaughter (Labour, Centre-left): In my surgery this morning, I saw a young asylum seeker who came to the UK nine years ago aged 15 and is still awaiting indefinite leave to remain. He has attempted suicide twice. I also saw a grandmother who came here from Barbados in 1970 aged 10, and who is still waiting and hoping for British citizenship. Does the Secretary of State accept that the Government’s failures on immigration policy go way beyond the Windrush scandal, and is he determined to tackle all aspects of discrimination and excessive delay by his Department?
Windrush — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Ruth Stephanie Nicole George (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the Home Secretary to his place and the commitments he has made this afternoon on fairness and justice. Will he offer that commitment to constituents who have already been deported, particularly my constituent who was deported two weeks ago in spite of his partner being 34 weeks pregnant at the time? He was in the process of an appeal and there were no papers to deport him.
Windrush — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): Further to the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes), it says on the Government’s own website that the Windrush citizens have two weeks to "regularise their immigration status". Will the Secretary of State look urgently at removing that statement from the website—it says that they have only two weeks—and give them a lot more time to deal with this situation?
Windrush — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): My constituent, Gretel Gocan, had lived in the UK for 30 years when she was wrongly denied re-entry after visiting Jamaica for a family funeral several years ago. Arrangements are now being made for Gretel to return home to the UK. Her health is fragile and her family would like her to be able to travel this week, but they are struggling to raise the £972 cost of the flight. Will the Home Secretary confirm that the travel costs of repatriating Windrush citizens who have wrongfully been denied entry to the UK will be met by the Government so that Gretel’s family can bring her home this week?
Windrush — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Immigration
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister received a letter from the former Home Secretary on 30 January 2017 apprising her of her continued work on the immigration policy. The Prime Minister is therefore complicit in all that has taken place. Is not the right hon. Member for Hastings and Rye (Amber Rudd) merely a scapegoat for the Prime Minister?
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): On reflection, I can join the hon. Gentleman in being slightly perturbed that I am quoting The Sun in this context. I assure him that although I quoted The Sun, a range of authorities from the Daily Mail —getting better?—up to the BBC’s website suggested that the Prime Minister did actually say that people would save £100. If the hon. Gentleman thinks that quoting The Sun was not entirely appropriate under all the other circumstances, I can do nothing other than agree with him Amendment 7 would ensure that vulnerable customers, including those already protected by a tariff cap, do not lose that protection as a result of the overall cap being introduced.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): My understanding is that the question of a timeframe for implementation of the cap would be strengthened considerably regarding a potential legal challenge by providing for a maximum period for the introduction of the cap, rather than a specified date. I think that we accept the principle that there should be some indication in the Bill of when the cap is to arise; certainly, in previous discussions of the Bill, there has been a real concern about the body responsible for implementing a cap after the legislation has been passed through the House taking any or no specified period to prepare the cap for its actual execution. The preparation of the cap will also be part of the process by which it is strengthened against legal challenge. That therefore needs to be done carefully and properly so that it is implemented it in a way that is proofed against such legal challenges. Ofgem indicated in its evidence to the Committee the period that it thought reasonable for it to be required to take forward the implementation of the cap. Placing that period in the Bill therefore seems, at least to the Opposition, to be adding to the proof against legal action rather than detracting from it.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): The Bill says that what needs to be done to modify licences to bring the cap about, among other things, has to be done by Ofgem as part of its implementation process. The question of legal challenge to Ofgem concerns, at its heart, what Ofgem does over whatever period may be specified to ensure that the implementation of the cap does not deviate from what is set out in legislation. That is the clear basis on which the cap should be undertaken, and that is the responsibility of Ofgem The second issue is the time within which Ofgem considers that it can introduce that cap in the way that the right hon. Gentleman has described, given its workload and capacity to do so. Indeed, Ofgem is on the public record, through the evidence that it gave to the Committee—he will know that that has some weight through being a public statement in Hansard—as saying that it felt that it could do it within five months. The amendment merely tries to tidy up the process by putting that timeframe into the Bill, while not in any way detracting from the strength or otherwise of what Ofgem is required to do in acting to implement the cap in a way that is both effective and legally watertight I am not sure that I can go too much further with the right hon. Gentleman’s point. I am happy to take it up with him separately if he wishes. However, I have explained where we are in seeking a combination of watertightness in the Bill and clarity that the wishes of this House can be undertaken in through the price cap coming in during the period when it is supposed to come in Amendment 7 relates to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow West (Gareth Thomas) about vulnerable customers and people who are not in a position to take advantage of all the devices that other, less vulnerable customers would be able to take advantage of—that is, customers protected by the existing tariff cap in particular. In our view, it is important that those who are protected by the tariff cap do not lose that protection as a result of the overall cap being introduced. It would be helpful if the Minister, even if she is not minded to accept the amendment, put it beyond doubt that that is the Government’s intention and that they will not seek to lose the current safeguard tariff as the overall tariff cap comes in.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): Indeed, but both have equal merit, and I would not want to distinguish between them in what they would add to the Bill. They both have the central concern that vulnerable customers should not be treated adversely as a result of the overall tariff cap coming in. That is the point that I wish to pay attention to. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) will also want to do so when she speaks to amendment 9.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Frank Field (Labour, Centre-left): Without wanting to enter into a beauty contest regarding whose amendment is best, will not my amendment 1 be quite consistent with what the Government wish to achieve, which is to require Ofsted—I mean Ofcom—[Hon. Members: "Ofgem."] Yes, Ofgem—or Ofcap, perhaps. The Government wish to require Ofgem to write to companies to ensure that those who are poorest and least likely to change have been offered the best deal by their provider. I promise that by the time I speak to my amendment, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will know which regulatory body it is.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): We have to bear in mind that people will be introduced to a new tariff. Indeed, we hope that by the time the market returns, the issue of people remaining on SVTs for years and not switching will be a thing of the past and there will not be SVTs in the system, but also that there will be other tariff arrangements that effectively prevent SVTs from playing the role they have played before.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): It can be interpreted in that way. We are fully in accord with the Government’s idea of an absolute cap, as opposed to the relative cap proposed in the amendments. We suggest that what has been characterised as a relative price cap plays an entirely different function, which is to narrow the gap between tariffs after an absolute price cap has been in place so that companies cannot game the market by switching tariffs in the way I have described. That is nothing to do, at that point, with a price cap; it is about tariff stability over a period and, indeed, an assurance for customers that they are not going to be ripped off as a result of entering on a particular tariff and subsequently being placed on a very high tariff once that initial tariff has come to an end.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Frank Field (Labour, Centre-left): I will not press my amendment to a Division either, but I am very happy to speak to it for 30 seconds. It is designed to request an undertaking from the Minister that she will ask Ofgem to look at the poorest consumers on which it has data and offer them an automatic switch to the lowest rate that suits their expenditure pattern. On that happy note, because I am sure the Minister will give way later, I shall sit down.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome back to the House this unfinished business. It has been a long-running saga and I have appeared in pretty much every episode for the past six years. I am hoping tonight will be my final appearance on this particular matter, with no repeats to follow I welcome the proposed absolute price cap. We have arrived at a place where there is much cross-party agreement, but it comes at a price. That price has been borne by consumers. The Competition and Markets Authority confirmed in 2016 that between, 2012 and 2015, the average detriment to the consumer—overcharging, in plain English—was £1.4 billion a year. The CMA found that the scale of overcharging, far from diminishing, was rising, reaching £2 billion a year by 2015.
Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Other
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): On the basis of the explanations that have been put forward, we will be happy not to press our amendments, but we will wish to press new clause 1, which has not been properly understood or responded to this evening Question put, That the clause be read a Second time.
Magor with Undy Walkway Station — House of Commons, 2018-04-30
Topic: Housing
Madeleine Moon (Labour, Centre-left): Is it true that the community to which my hon. Friend refers to is growing because, thanks to her work on the Severn bridge tolls, more people are now moving from Bristol to enjoy the delights of living in Wales, and that they are moving into Newport—expanding the community there—and commuting to work in Bristol because housing is cheaper and education is better in Wales?
Basic Skills — House of Commons, 2018-05-14
Topic: Immigration
Katherine Anne Green (Labour, Centre-left): Government funding for ESOL—English for speakers of other languages—has fallen by 53% in real terms since 2010, and participation rates have fallen by 36%. Home Office-funded regional ESOL co-ordinators say that there is severe pressure on provision at pre-entry level. What additional funding are the Government going to put into ESOL?
Safeguarding for 16 and 17-year-olds — House of Commons, 2018-05-14
Topic: Housing
Emma Louise Lewell-Buck (Labour, Centre-left): Sixteen and 17-year-olds are overrepresented in the secure residential estate. Instead of addressing capacity issues, last year, in the face of opposition, the Government changed legislation so that the most vulnerable children from England and Wales can now be placed in Scotland, miles away from their families, friends, schools and the health professionals who support them. Written questions that I have asked show that the Minister has made no attempt to look at the impact of this dire legislative change. Why is that?
Tributes: Baroness Jowell — House of Commons, 2018-05-14
Topic: Other
Harriet Ruth Harman (Labour, Centre-left): Tessa Jowell was the embodiment of that old women’s movement saying: "The personal is political." For Tessa, the personal and the political were completely intertwined. Her devotion to her children and her stepchildren was what underpinned her drive for Sure Start children’s centres, with parenting support at their heart. Her enjoyment of her family and their prowess in sport was what lay behind her wanting to get the Olympics for the UK. She wanted them and the Paralympics to be shared and to inspire every child and young person across the country Tessa had a unique personal style. She befriended people who were struggling, had difficulties or were powerless, whom she felt she could support, but she also befriended the powerful in order to get them to back her progressive causes. She was no softie, though. Everybody has quite rightly said how charming and nice she was, but there was steel behind those clear blue eyes. As her constituency neighbour for 23 years, we went to countless meetings together and worked together on countless campaigns. She was always courteous and polite to the police, the schools, the hospitals and the council, but if ever she felt that they were obfuscating or letting people down, she would be tougher than anybody. She was true Labour, as an activist, as a councillor, as a Member of this House and as a Member of the Lords, but she was never afraid to work cross-party for the causes that she supported or to forge friendships across parties. We are so sad for her family, especially David, Jess and Matthew, but I know they will be strong because she will have prepared them for the loss they faced, just as she supported, on behalf of the Government, those who faced loss after the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks. We send them all our sympathy All around the country there will be people who are listening to these tributes and who have heard of Tessa’s death who worked with her, who knew her and who will be feeling sad but also immensely proud that they can say, "I knew Tessa Jowell."
Tributes: Baroness Jowell — House of Commons, 2018-05-14
Topic: Other
Margaret Eve Hodge (Labour, Centre-left): I first really got to know Tessa when we were both very pregnant—I with my last child, and she with her first, Jessie. In those days, we did try to cuddle each other, but we were both slightly vertically challenged, so with these big bellies, it was—
Tributes: Baroness Jowell — House of Commons, 2018-05-14
Topic: Other
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): I first met Tessa in a stable. It was the 1992 general election, and I was the shadow Home Office Minister—the deputy to Roy Hattersley—covering policing. Roy said, "Go down to the stables where the Metropolitan police have their horses and get a photo opportunity with this candidate." I pitched up somewhere, which must have been in the constituency, and saw this very lovely young candidate standing near three enormous horses snorting—there was not exactly fire coming out of their noses, but it was pretty close. If anyone has been close to one of those horses, they will know how big they are. The PR person said, "One of you has to get on that horse for the photograph." I said, "Well, I’m only here to support Tessa." I’ll tell you what: Tessa—and she was small—stepped up and stroked the nose of the horse, and in about two minutes, she was his best friend. She got up on the horse—I remember putting the hat on—and we had the photo opportunity. That was how I first met Tessa. When she arrived in this House, we already had something in common I have been in this place for quite a long time. I have seen some really superb parliamentarians on both sides of the House, but there are some who bring a certain sparkle to this place—they are just different. Mo Mowlam was one, and Tessa was as well. David Beckham was not the only person who got a hug from Tessa. If you pleased her or if you did something as part of her team, she gave you a hug. She liked to give a hug. She also brought fun into this place. Sometimes we are a bit dreary in these Chambers. If Tessa walked into a room, it felt like a bit of joy was coming through the door. I remember her with love and affection. I remember her enlivening this Parliament, which can sometimes be a bit dry and dusty. I especially remember that she had that quality of sparkle. Although I am a bit of a bad Christian, I still think of both of them—Mo Mowlam and Tessa—up there smiling and bringing joy wherever they are.
Tributes: Baroness Jowell — House of Commons, 2018-05-14
Topic: Other
Peter John Kyle (Labour, Centre-left): There have been many wonderful tributes to Tessa. One of the many that would have pleased her hugely was yesterday’s from the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He described in detail the rigour with which Tessa put forward her case in the now famous meeting at which she pitched the Olympics to him. Tessa described that same meeting to me a few years ago, and it was identical to Mr Blair’s description—with one addition. She said that at the end of the meeting she turned informally to him and said, "Do you want to be the Prime Minister who had the Olympics within their grasp and chose to turn away?" That, for me, was Tessa. She had learnt to weaponise the male ego, and woe betide any big beast that stood between her and one of her political objectives. That somebody could have an Olympic-sized vision and make it happen, yet do so leaving nothing but a trail of love and laughter, is a modern day political miracle. For those of us who knew her, she was that miracle. [Hon. Members: "Hear, hear."]
Tributes: Baroness Jowell — House of Commons, 2018-05-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Mary Helen Creagh (Labour, Centre-left): We have heard a lot today about what Tessa did—her outstanding legacy of bringing the Olympics and Paralympics to London, and her amazing work—but I want to talk a little bit about how she did it. I remember a fantastic speech that she gave at the Labour party conference in 2005, when I was a newly elected MP. She spoke about her plans to roll out music education to every child, and mentioned a conversation that she had had with a lady in a tower block in Lambeth. She talked about that lady’s daughter, saying, "I want this music education programme to reach everyone. The test will be: will Rosa learn to play the violin?" I am pretty certain that Rosa, in that tower block in Lambeth, did get to play her violin I remember running into Tessa in the middle of the Olympic games, when she was incredibly busy and under pressure. I asked her, "What’s going on? How are you, Tessa?", and she said, "Well, I’m living here for the next six weeks." I said, "Gosh, are you not even going home? Do you have enough stuff with you?" and she said, "Yes. Essentially, me and Sebastian Coe are the joint mayors of the Olympic village." I just knew that she was glorying in that amazing six weeks of tremendous sport A friend of mine sent me a text to say that she had been at a housing association trust, where a nervous young man had introduced Tessa as "Jessa Towell". Tessa had just roared with laughter. My friend said that everybody in the room simply fell in love with Tessa at that moment. That is what she was—irresistible, charming and funny, but with a little bit of steel inside. She loved fashion. She could rock a frock and she liked to shop. In the end, the moments I treasure are the lifts home that she gave me, having some pretty salty conversations on the way as well In an era of fast food, fast politics and fast media, Tessa was a slow politician. I mean "slow" in the very best sense of the word: every word, every deed, measured out for kindness, for thoughtfulness and for compassion. Seamus Heaney wrote in "At the Wellhead": "Being with her Was intimate and helpful, like a cure You didn’t notice happening." She leaves a legacy in our hearts. Rest in peace, Tessa.