argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-03-25
Topic: Defense
Questions: How does my right hon. Friend score his Department on its agreement with the Treasury to release land now considered surplus to the MOD’s requirements to the housing market?; As a proud member of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, I have been privileged to visit a number of servicemen and women around the world. Does the Secretary of State agree it is a fantastic career for women, as well as men? Can he update me on what more he is doing to encourage more women to join our armed services?; Our defence manufacturers are based in every corner of this country, many of them making a vital contribution to local and regional economies, but small and medium-sized enterprises have told me they feel disadvantaged because they cannot get down to London for many of the procurement briefings that take place. Will the Minister crack open the gates of Whitehall and get civil servants out around the country to see the brilliant work of manufacturers across our country?; In England, one in six people report or experience a common mental health problem in any given week. In both the Ministry of Defence and in service veteran communities there is an additional stigma that prevents individuals from seeking help. What steps is the Department taking to reduce the stigma and to support military charities such as the RAF Association that are actively supporting these individuals?; In reply to a recent written question, I was told that the United Kingdom Government can deploy armed military forces on UK soil only at the request of, for example, the appropriate police force. Have responses to such requests been considered as part of the post-Brexit contingency plans?
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): If RAF Scampton is to close, which everyone in Lincolnshire naturally opposes, in deciding where the Red Arrows should go, will the Secretary of State bear in mind that we have three excellent airfields—Waddington, Coningsby and Cranwell—and, above all, wonderful airspace, and that we should not move the Red Arrows to an inferior county like Yorkshire?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-03-25
Topic: Defense
Questions: How does my right hon. Friend score his Department on its agreement with the Treasury to release land now considered surplus to the MOD’s requirements to the housing market?; As a proud member of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, I have been privileged to visit a number of servicemen and women around the world. Does the Secretary of State agree it is a fantastic career for women, as well as men? Can he update me on what more he is doing to encourage more women to join our armed services?; Our defence manufacturers are based in every corner of this country, many of them making a vital contribution to local and regional economies, but small and medium-sized enterprises have told me they feel disadvantaged because they cannot get down to London for many of the procurement briefings that take place. Will the Minister crack open the gates of Whitehall and get civil servants out around the country to see the brilliant work of manufacturers across our country?; In England, one in six people report or experience a common mental health problem in any given week. In both the Ministry of Defence and in service veteran communities there is an additional stigma that prevents individuals from seeking help. What steps is the Department taking to reduce the stigma and to support military charities such as the RAF Association that are actively supporting these individuals?; In reply to a recent written question, I was told that the United Kingdom Government can deploy armed military forces on UK soil only at the request of, for example, the appropriate police force. Have responses to such requests been considered as part of the post-Brexit contingency plans?
Mark Julian Francis Pawsey (Conservative, Centre-right): In our spend on defence, it is important that our armed forces get the best, and in respect of naval propulsion systems that means the low-vibration motors produced by GE Energy in Rugby. Does the Minister agree that it is important to maintain that capability in the UK?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-03-25
Topic: Defense
Questions: How does my right hon. Friend score his Department on its agreement with the Treasury to release land now considered surplus to the MOD’s requirements to the housing market?; As a proud member of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, I have been privileged to visit a number of servicemen and women around the world. Does the Secretary of State agree it is a fantastic career for women, as well as men? Can he update me on what more he is doing to encourage more women to join our armed services?; Our defence manufacturers are based in every corner of this country, many of them making a vital contribution to local and regional economies, but small and medium-sized enterprises have told me they feel disadvantaged because they cannot get down to London for many of the procurement briefings that take place. Will the Minister crack open the gates of Whitehall and get civil servants out around the country to see the brilliant work of manufacturers across our country?; In England, one in six people report or experience a common mental health problem in any given week. In both the Ministry of Defence and in service veteran communities there is an additional stigma that prevents individuals from seeking help. What steps is the Department taking to reduce the stigma and to support military charities such as the RAF Association that are actively supporting these individuals?; In reply to a recent written question, I was told that the United Kingdom Government can deploy armed military forces on UK soil only at the request of, for example, the appropriate police force. Have responses to such requests been considered as part of the post-Brexit contingency plans?
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend has raised this issue a number of times. I, along with the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew), who has responsibility for defence procurement, have also met him on this. We are working closely with GE to do everything we can to support the business going forward and this includes the enormous work that has been put into securing export orders as well.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Culture
Questions: British businesses in all sectors currently benefit greatly from the ability of UK-based law firms to advise and act for them on contractual, regulatory and intellectual property matters when they conduct business within the European Union. What steps is my right hon. Friend taking with other Ministers to ensure that commercial advantage is not lost as we leave the EU?; Many of my constituents still access some form of off-grid energy. While the Department looks to introduce a cleaner form of energy, will it also look at the cost impact of energy? Many of these people are also in fuel poverty and would like not only a clean form of energy, but a cheap one.; This Government are not even hiding their disdain for Scottish business, with one of them telling the BBC recently:“Once you’ve hit the”—Brexit—“iceberg, you’re all on it together”. When will the Minister accept that if he will not provide that level of security and that lifeboat, the Scottish people will, by voting for independence?; England is currently the only home nation that provides no central Government investment to improve domestic energy-efficiency. To address this deficit, will the Secretary of State take up the Committee on Fuel Poverty’s proposal for the introduction of a new clean growth fuel poverty challenge fund?; I know that the Secretary of State will agree with more than 80 cross-party MPs who came together yesterday to say that to realise the northern powerhouse vision, we need the economic commitment to northern powerhouse rail and HS2. Will he communicate that to aspirant Members from his party who want to see a race to the bottom in the next Tory leadership race? The north will not tolerate that.
Gregory David Clark (Conservative, Centre-right): That was my experience, too, Mr Speaker. Goodness knows what my hon. Friend will be like now that he is on the Back Benches. May I pay tribute to the fantastic work he did in securing so many of the sector deals? He got to know very well the needs of particular industries and sectors. Let me pay tribute to the creative industries sector deal, for example, which this very weekend launched a new immersive technology version of "Peaky Blinders". I do not know whether he is a fan of that series. If he is—
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman, who has provided leadership on this agenda from his position as shadow Secretary of State. I am glad, listening to his response, that we agree very broadly on the direction we need to take. The agreement across the House is valuable in demonstrating to social media companies the clear consensus on the need for them to act, and to every parent in the land the importance of vaccination. That cross-party support is very, very valuable I join the hon. Gentleman in paying tribute to Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, whom the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price), the Minister for suicide prevention, met this morning. He has been brave and eloquent in bringing these issues to light. I pay tribute to him and thank him for how he has spoken about what needs to be done. I know he is as determined as we are to ensure that action translates into saving more lives We agreed, after the meeting yesterday, to reconvene in two months’ time, by which time I expect further action from the social media companies. As I said in my statement, we have already seen some progress. I am glad that some of the global algorithms and global terms and conditions have been changed as a result of action taken by the UK Government. It is very important that we keep the pace up. In two months’ time, we expect to see further action from the social media companies and progress by the Samaritans on being able to define more clearly the boundary between harmful and non-harmful content. In each area of removing harms online, the challenge is to create the right boundary in the appropriate place. It is the challenge when tackling terrorist and child abuse material online, so that social media companies do not have to define what is and is not socially acceptable, but we as society do. I am delighted that the Samaritans will formally play that role on material relating to suicide prevention and self-harm, and that Beat will do so on material relating to eating disorders The hon. Gentleman asked about the Online Harms White Paper. We are currently in the middle of a 12-week consultation. I hope he and everybody listening to this who has an interest will respond to it. We are clear that we will have a regulator, but we also genuinely want to consult widely. This is not really an issue of party politics, but of getting it right so that society decides on how we should govern the internet, rather than the big internet companies making those decisions for themselves. I have to say that the tone from the social media companies has changed in recent months and years, but they still need to do an awful lot. I look forward to working with him and others across the House to ensure we can deliver on this agenda.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. In fact, the cumulative effect of posts on mental health, in particular eating disorders, came up in the discussion yesterday. We have to look at what the social media companies call the density of content—I think my hon. Friend put it rather better as the cumulative impact of lots of different posts. Social media companies’ algorithms are powerful enough to understand that and pick up on it. We need rules in place so that action can be taken when it is spotted by those algorithms.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): The regulation of online harms will indeed be statutory. As I said, we are in the middle of a consultation on how, rather than whether, to put that in place. I am sure the hon. Lady will want to feed back, although I know her SNP colleagues in the Scottish Government in Edinburgh have been kept abreast of developments The hon. Lady raises complacency and financial resources. I will address both points. She is absolutely right that part of the problem is a complacency about some killer diseases, partly because we have hardly known them in this country for generations. As I said in my statement, measles is a horrible disease and a killer; it is deeply unpleasant. So, too, is rubella. Rubella might be hardly noticed by a pregnant woman. There might be a rash for three or four days which comes and goes, but the impact on the baby is permanent and very, very serious. On measles, rubella and other diseases, we have to be absolutely clear with the public about the consequences not only for their children but, even worse, for vulnerable children and adults who, maybe because they are immunosuppressed or very young, cannot have the vaccination. Their lives are directly threatened by a parent who chooses not to vaccinate. We need to be very clear and stark about that The hon. Lady mentions that the social media companies have contributed to Samaritans. That was Samaritan’s ask for this stage of putting together the organisation and experts it needs to provide clarity on the boundary of what is and is not acceptable in this space. I would, of course, be perfectly prepared to go and ask for more if more is needed. What is more, we are bringing forward a digital services tax. Historically, the global tax system has not worked well in taxing such companies fairly, because of the nature of how they make their money. We have worked for years to try to get a global consensus on how to tax them. We are now clear that we will bring forward the tax next year in the UK, regardless of whether we can get global consensus.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): The short answer is yes. My responsibilities as Health Secretary are to do with the impact on health, especially mental health, and eating disorders and self-harm are part of that. A separate but connected matter are anti-vaccination messages, which are a type of misinformation, or in some cases disinformation—actively false pushed information The social media companies say that they are removing this material from being promoted. For instance, graphic self-harm imagery will be taken down from Instagram. Our challenge is to make sure that that is done properly, because ultimately only if social media companies change their algorithms can we make this happen. That is why the new regulator is so important.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Culture
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I pay tribute to the work that the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has done in this area, both when I was Culture Secretary and since. Its work and the approach it has taken are groundbreaking, and that has played a part in the change in attitudes that we have seen from the social companies, which at least now accept that it is their responsibility, as well as the principle that they have a duty of care to people on their sites As my hon. Friend says, there is clearly an awful lot to do to get to where we need to be. If we step back from this whole question, the technology that has brought about social media companies is still relatively new; it is only 15 or 20 years old. Around the world, the way in which society has responded to it has not yet matured. The good social media companies now get the fact that they have such an impact on society that a regulatory framework is necessary, and in fact have welcomed the White Paper that we introduced as an approach that could be replicated around the world. My hon. Friend is quite right that, once one country or jurisdiction gets this right, it will be taken as a model elsewhere, so that, ultimately, the power of this amazing new way in which we communicate—by God, Mr Speaker, in this House we all use it—can be for the good, and we can mitigate all the downsides that come with it.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is absolutely right that there will be an increased spend on mental health services across England—a £2.3 billion increase. It is the fastest-growing area of spend in the long-term plan. We are investing £33.9 billion in the NHS in cash terms, and the fastest proportionate rise in spend is in mental health services. That is an important part of this, although there is an awful lot that the social media companies can do to reduce the demands on those services by reducing the negative impact on mental health. The whole House can agree that the hon. Lady being alive and here, having survived measles, is another reason why it is important to get this right. It would have been the House’s loss had the measles won.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): The drop in vaccination rates is not only an annual problem but a cumulative problem, as more and more young people in society are not immunised against these childhood diseases. Can I urge my right hon. Friend not only to undertake a social media campaign to encourage parents and children to take up the vaccinations, but to target the messages so that people know where they can go to get them, how they can do it and the importance medically of doing so?
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is exactly right; in fact, that work is under way. I should have mentioned in response to the shadow Secretary of State that Public Health England has a targeted programme of positive information. We can use data and social media better to target messages at those who need them in exactly the way that he proposes. That work is in hand.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend puts it exactly right. That is what the duty of care is all about. The argument—we hear it less and less, to be honest—that these are international companies and so will abide by somebody else’s laws, thanks very much, is wrong and out of date, as the Online Harms White Paper makes clear. We must establish a proper enforcement mechanism to ensure that it is the rules that this House sets—occasionally amended by the other place—that define the law of the land and that we do not have a wild west. This action to protect people’s health is just one part of the response needed to make the internet safe, especially for children.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Mr Speaker, that question was so good it is only a pity it was not asked earlier in our exchanges I want to address two important points. First, the hon. Lady’s son is a case in point of how, if parents do not vaccinate, they endanger not only their own children but other people’s. It is because of a failure to vaccinate that these diseases still exist, and it is children who are too young to be vaccinated who are at risk. She has made the case more powerfully than anybody for the importance of vaccinating and keeping vaccination rates up, and I am grateful to her for sharing that personal experience. On the second point, she is quite right that we all have a responsibility to act, and act we will.
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Robert Alexander Courts (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a privilege to have the last word The whole House is concerned about the effect that the internet can have on young people’s mental health, and I welcome the action that the Secretary of State is taking. Is there truth and accuracy in the reports that Wikipedia did not attend yesterday’s summit? If so, does he share my disappointment, and does he feel that Wikipedia must take this issue seriously and engage with it?
Social Media and Health — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Unfortunately, those reports are true. I share my hon. Friend’s disappointment that Wikipedia did not attend either of the two summits, despite having been invited. At yesterday’s summit, we agreed that we would get in touch with Wikipedia in robust terms, because it is not acceptable for it to shirk its social responsibilities either If I may say so, I think that the statement and the responses to it have shown that there is unanimity in the House. Every speaker has mentioned the need to tackle anti-vaccination misinformation and the social media organisations’ responsibility and duty of care in relation to the health—mental and otherwise—of people on their platforms. The House speaks with one voice, and the social media companies, and the internet companies that have not yet engaged should listen.
Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Defense
Julian Murray Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): Like my right hon. Friend, I, on behalf of the Defence Committee, received a number of representations from people involved with Welbeck who stressed the high quality of the service it provides. I cannot help wondering if part of the problem is that not all Welbeck graduates go into the armed services. Perhaps part of the solution is that part of the budget should be funded by some other Department to recognise the fact that there is an educational benefit that goes wider than just recruitment into the armed forces.
Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College — House of Commons, 2019-04-30
Topic: Defense
Mark Lancaster (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a perfectly reasonable request, and I would of course be delighted to meet my right hon. Friend and the Minister. I want to take this opportunity to underline the Department’s determination for the site to be utilised and not to become moribund. It is a great site, and it is in the wider interest that there is a smooth transition to its future use. We are determined that that will happen The scheme has made a valuable contribution to Defence’s need for STEM- qualified officers, but we need to increase numbers well beyond the current ability to deliver, as I have tried to explain. We also need to have greater flexibility about the sorts of graduates that we are now attracting into our 21st century armed forces. We need to be more responsive and agile, both to succeed in an increasingly competitive market for STEM graduates in the UK and globally, and to meet the challenges that we are now likely to face. However, I do not underestimate the impact of this decision on my right hon. Friend’s local communities, and, if I may, I shall end as I started, by paying tribute to her for raising this matter and, crucially, to the staff at Welbeck, who have done such a sterling job for so many years Question put and agreed to.
Global Fund — House of Commons, 2019-03-20
Topic: Health
Gary Nicholas Streeter (Conservative, Centre-right): If the Minister does go to the replenishment conference in France, will he share with other donors the excellent new UK initiative of an unlimited small charities challenge fund, which is a very real way to tackle some of these preventable and challenging diseases?