argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Commonwealth Games 2022: Benefits to West Midlands — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Environment
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): May I, on the occasion of my first outing as shadow Sports Minister, congratulate the outgoing shadow Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan), on her work on fairness in sport? May I also mention—this is between you and me, Mr Speaker—today’s important announcement about rugby league, with a royal flourish? I hope that rugby league will receive the coverage that it deserves May I ask the Minister what steps the Department is taking to ensure that the 2022 Commonwealth games are carbon neutral, and—importantly—what actions can be taken now to improve the air quality at the venue so that in two years’ time, the health of athletes, residents and visitors can be paramount?
Domestic Violence: Prosecution of Cases — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: What recent discussions he has had with the Director of Public Prosecutions on the effectiveness of the CPS in prosecuting cases involving domestic violence.
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): I have previously mentioned the shocking statistic that Hull has enough domestic abuse perpetrators to fill our football stadium, which holds 25,000 people. Some 746,000 domestic abuse crimes have been recorded nationally, which is up 24% in a year. However, referrals from the police to the CPS have gone down by 11%. Will the Minister explain what he intends to do about that?
Leaving the EU: Human Rights — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (Labour, Centre-left): I always welcome compliments, but I did not detect an answer to the question from the Attorney General. He often says that he is a lawyer first and a politician second. He knows that Governments are sometimes vindicated in the courts and that they also face decisions from the courts that are uncomfortable. The answer is never to attack the independence of our judiciary or our courts system. There is a real worry that the Prime Minister is seeking some sort of vengeance because he did not like the Supreme Court’s decision that his prorogation of Parliament was unlawful. Does the Attorney General agree that if we are to weaken judicial review, it will be not the Prime Minister who loses out, but all our constituents whose rights to hold public authorities to account are watered down?
Hate Crimes: Prosecution Rate — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Peter John Kyle (Labour, Centre-left): Overall prosecutions have fallen from a quarter to only one in 10. Why is the CPS prosecuting so few people for hate crime? Why is the number of prosecutions falling, not rising? Is that not deterring people from reporting hate crime in the first place?
Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme: Extension — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): I often ask this question because it is a little campaign of mine. When people get unduly severe sentences, I write to the Solicitor General. It is usually women sentenced for a non-violent crime who get a long, disproportionate sentence. Does he welcome that kind of communication from Members? What does he do about that communication when he gets it?
Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme: Extension — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): Assaults on emergency workers continue to increase, particularly against ambulance workers and people working in the NHS and in the police. Surely that is a disgrace. I have yet to see a single sentence handed down in such cases that is not unduly lenient. One reason for that is that the Sentencing Council has still not introduced any guidelines in relation to assaults on emergency workers since the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill became an Act more than a year ago. Will the Solicitor General ring up the chaps or the women who run the Sentencing Council and ensure that we get proper sentences for people who attack our emergency workers?
Northern Ireland Executive Formation — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Macroeconomics
Conor Patrick McGinn (Labour, Centre-left): May I acknowledge that on the Opposition Benches today we miss the voices of David Hanson and Vernon Coaker, who were passionately committed to Northern Ireland, and of course we miss Nigel Dodds and Emma Little Pengelly, who were held in high regard right across the House I congratulate the Secretary of State and the Tánaiste on their efforts in securing the agreement, along with the ministerial and civil service team who helped to deliver it, but may I press him on the finances? The new Finance Minister said yesterday that the settlement that the Secretary of State imposed on the Executive was an act of "bad faith" and that he cannot and will not accept that. How does the Secretary of State intend to mend the gap between the expectations of devolved Ministers and the pay and financial settlement that he has imposed on the new Executive?
Northern Ireland Executive Formation — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Education
Michael Lee Amesbury (Labour, Centre-left): I, too, welcome the re-establishment of the Executive and the decision to ring-fence £45 million for the medical school in Derry. However, given the failure of Ulster University to deliver successive promises over the decades, surely an independent university would be a better vehicle.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Government Operations
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have been contacted by a number of constituents who have raised the issue of the places that the Government have announced will benefit from additional funding as part of their towns fund announcement. Oddly, the list seems to include places that are not towns, but cities, such as Lincoln and Wolverhampton. I think it is in the Government’s interests to allay any fears there might be about pork-barrel politics that a statement is made to the House about the criteria used for allocating funds through the towns fund because cities such as my own city of Hull have not been allowed to apply for the funding, yet other cities seem to have got in there anyway.
Health and Social Care — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth (Labour, Centre-left): We have long argued for a cap on care costs, but of course the Government, as the right hon. Gentleman says, dropped their support for this policy On the issue of social care, the Prime Minister said at the Dispatch Box yesterday that he wanted cross-party talks, although in his BBC interview the day before he said that he had a plan that he would bring forward in the next 12 months. The Government want a consensus. I say to the Government that the Labour party has proposed free personal care. We have a version of free personal care in Scotland. There is a similar version of it in Northern Ireland. There is a version of it in Wales. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, which includes Thatcherites such as Michael Forsyth and Norman Lamont, alongside the former Labour Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has proposed free personal social care. There already is a political consensus. It is the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister who stand outside that consensus. If the Secretary of State wants to engage with us on that basis, then my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) is happy to do so. I will now take the intervention from the former Chief Whip.
Health and Social Care — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Macroeconomics
Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman says that he has good reason to be. I was at the Treasury as a young man in my twenties, signing off paper, when the Secretary of State was at the Bank of England, so by his logic, he would have been putting up interest rates for hardworking families. I was at the Treasury, but I was not responsible for any PFI contract. If he is going to say that I was responsible for every decision made by the Treasury when I was there in my mid-twenties, I will take responsibility for giving the NHS the biggest cash boost in its history, which meant the shortest waiting lists. That is a record I am proud of; that is a record he has not been able to match.
Deputy Speaker’s Statement — House of Commons, 2020-01-16
Topic: Government Operations
Rosalie Winterton (Labour, Centre-left): Now that the House has agreed to the allocation of Committee Chairs, it may help Members if I announce that Mr Speaker has decided that the elections will take place on Wednesday 29 January. Nominations will close at 4 pm on Monday 27 January. The election of the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee will take place at the same time and on the same timetable as for the other Committees’ Chairs. Nomination forms are available from the Table Office, the Vote Office and the Procedural Hub, but need not be used as long as the Standing Order requirements are met Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority Ordered, That Marion Fellows, Dame Cheryl Gillan, Sir Desmond Swayne, Valerie Vaz and Sir Charles Walker be appointed to the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority until the end of the present Parliament, in pursuance of paragraph 1(d) of Schedule 3 to the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, as amended.—(Mr Marcus Jones.)
Defence Relationships: South East Asia — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: International Affairs
Nia Rhiannon Griffith (Labour, Centre-left): On the one hand, the Government have rightly been challenging China’s aggressive military actions in the seas around south-east Asia, yet on the other hand, despite the Secretary of State himself having reportedly branded China a "friend of no one", the Government have granted Huawei significant access to the superhighways of our cyber and telecoms systems. Will the Secretary of State clarify exactly what his Government’s strategy in relation to China is?
Armed Forces: Social Mobility — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Education
Emma Ann Hardy (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister will be aware that the armed forces recruit heavily in areas like mine in Hull. However, a recent Sutton Trust report showed that people from private schools are seven times more likely to reach the top of the armed forces. What steps is his Department taking to ensure that there is equality of opportunity for all and that our talented people starting on the lowest rungs get the same chance to reach the top?
Global Britain — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: International Affairs
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): In the Prime Minister’s other written ministerial statement this morning on the closure of the Department for Exiting the European Union, he said: "Those of its functions which are still required have been transferred to relevant government departments." Will the Foreign Secretary tell the House to which Department and which Minister responsibility for the negotiations on our future relationship with the EU has been transferred? The Exiting the European Union Committee will be keen to hear from him or her as soon as they are identified.
Global Britain — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: International Affairs
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): As the Foreign Secretary embarks on his review of the world, will he remember individual cases affected by our foreign policy—including that of my constituent Luke Symons, who, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, is being held captive by the Houthis in Sana’a? The family have been in touch with the Foreign Office about concerns for his welfare and mental health. Can the Foreign Secretary assure me that maximum efforts are being made to secure Luke’s release?
Global Britain — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): If the 15-year damage to our economy is not to be the 6.7% or 9.3% respectively for the so-called Canada deal or no deal, which the Government are now trying to rebadge as an "Australian deal", what is it? And why have the Government changed their mind?
Global Britain — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Environment
Rachel Jane Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): Hosting the global climate conference COP26 is a huge opportunity for Britain to tackle the climate emergency and play an international leadership role. So why is this mired in chaos and confusion? The Prime Minister has failed to chair a single meeting of the climate Cabinet Committee and now he has sacked the conference president. Why is that? What are the Government going to do to play that leadership role that we all need to see?
Global Britain — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Labor
John Eugene Joseph Dromey (Labour, Centre-left): In aerospace, aviation, engineering, food, farming and ceramics, the organisations that represent those who employ millions of workers have expressed serious concern over what happens if the Government get it wrong. Will the Secretary of State undertake that the Government will, in the next stages, fully engage those industrial organisations and the unions that represent the workers concerned, not least because if the Government get it wrong—there is a real risk of that—tens of thousands of workers will pay the price with their jobs?
Global Britain — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Foreign Trade
Stephen Nathan Kinnock (Labour, Centre-left): The Foreign Secretary says that he wants a Canada-style free trade agreement and claims that FTAs never include level-playing-field obligations, but article 23.4 of the EU-Canada FTA clearly states that "it is inappropriate to encourage trade or investment by weakening or reducing…labour law and standards." Will the Foreign Secretary be honest with the British people and state clearly that free trade agreements always include level-playing-field obligations?
Global Britain — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: International Affairs
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): The Foreign Secretary knows that the WTO and its dispute resolution system are operationally dysfunctional, because the US will not appoint appellant judges. Does he accept that, if we drift away from the protection of the laws, the rules and the courts of the EU, our jobs will be put at risk and our financial services, in particular, will disperse? We are already seeing the currency down 1%. Will he focus on keeping us aligned, rather than moving to a system that does not work?
Global Britain — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: International Affairs
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): Successive Prime Ministers have come back from the European Council and boasted, quite rightly in many cases, how well they have done persuading the whole of the EU to adopt sanctions in relation to Russia. How are we going to do that when we are no longer sitting in the room?
Streatham Incident — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Yvette Cooper (Labour, Centre-left): I join the Lord Chancellor in his tribute to the Security Service and the police, who work so hard on this issue. He is right to address the concerns relating to sentencing and parole, to ensure that dangerous terrorists and extremists who continue to pose a risk to the public are not released early, but he will know that the problem is not solved if it is just deferred to the end of the sentence. He will know that there have been considerable warnings about these risks, and that Ian Acheson has expressed considerable concern that the recommendations in his review have not been fully implemented. What is the Lord Chancellor’s assessment of the 69 recommendations that Ian Acheson made, and how many of them have been implemented?
Streatham Incident — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Bellavia Janet Ribeiro-Addy (Labour, Centre-left): The people of Streatham, as resilient and as united as they are, remain shaken by what happened yesterday. We are very grateful to the emergency services for their swift response and for the fact that they saved many lives. The Minister says that we are at the forefront of tackling terrorism and that we have robust measures in place, but those measures did not prevent what happened in my constituency yesterday. Although I note what he says about automatic release, the people of Streatham cannot fathom a situation in which somebody so dangerous who has to be under surveillance immediately after leaving prison is allowed to leave. Will the Minister assure me, and assure the people of Streatham, that there is no circumstance—no measure that could have been taken—that would have stopped this individual from being released from prison?
Streatham Incident — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): With No. 10 briefing on some of the terrible decisions that have been made in the past 15 years on counter-terrorism policy, does the Lord Chancellor believe that the introduction of the regime of terrorism prevention and investigation measures, which weakened the control order regime that had been in place, was one of those terrible decisions?
Streatham Incident — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Margaret Olivia Hillier (Labour, Centre-left): In response to my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Bell Ribeiro-Addy), the Minister said that he would look at further legislation, but she hit the nail on the head. This man was released from prison, and immediately followed by armed police. The Minister seems to have ruled out control orders, so what will be in the emergency legislation that means that that risk cannot happen again? If this man was so dangerous why was he let out?
Streatham Incident — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Stephen James McCabe (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the Lord Chancellor’s plans for temporary emergency legislation, but surely he was aware of this problem as early as last October. Why did he not incorporate measures in the draft Release of Prisoners (Alteration of Relevant Proportion of Sentence) Order 2019, which we debated only six days ago?
Streatham Incident — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Law and Crime
Kevan David Jones (Labour, Centre-left): I have no problem in supporting stopping early release, but the Secretary of State is aware that there are individuals who, no matter how much rehabilitation we do, will come out still dangerous. When, in the last Parliament, the Intelligence and Security Committee took evidence on the Westminster Bridge attack, the security services raised with the Committee concern about 38, I think, individuals who would be released in the next two years and considered as dangerous. Was this individual one of them? I suspect that he was if he was being followed by an MI5 team. What are we going to do in terms of protecting the public from these individuals, because they will come out anyway after a certain period, early release or not? If the Government did know about this individual beforehand, why did they not intercede beforehand, because I know that the Security Service has real, serious concerns about these people on quite short sentences?
Streatham Incident — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Government Operations
Patrick Bosco McFadden (Labour, Centre-left): I want to return to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Dame Diana Johnson). Does the Secretary of State not accept that it was a mistake to weaken the control order regime and replace it with a weaker system of supervision—a decision taken not through judicial necessity but through a political deal between the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats? Will he now review that decision in the light of the recent incidents?
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: International Affairs
Tracy Lynn Brabin (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am seeking your advice on an urgent and important matter. This afternoon, accredited lobby journalists based here in the House of Commons were denied access to an important briefing with David Frost, the Prime Minister’s Europe adviser on post-Brexit trade plans. David Frost is a civil servant and therefore his briefing on the most prominent issue of the day is supposed to be neutral and not political. The issue of post-Brexit trade plans is one of great public concern, and access to a high-level briefing should not be hand-picked by Government and political advisers. The exclusion of some publications led to every major national broadcaster and newspaper walking out I know that all Members of this House will agree that lobby journalists’ access to Government is vital for a functioning and healthy democracy, and this latest deterioration in relations between the Government and the lobby is deeply concerning. Members are also aware, Madam Deputy Speaker, of your commitment to improving the culture in this place, and pass-holding lobby journalists are part of our community. Therefore, what advice can you offer me as to how Members might be able to formally raise this issue with the Government and ensure that this does not become commonplace?
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: International Affairs
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. You may be aware that, earlier this afternoon, the Foreign Secretary was not able to answer a question I put to him about which Minister will be leading the negotiations with the European Union on our future relationship. In those circumstances, to whom are Members of this House meant to direct written or oral questions about the state of those negotiations when we do not currently know who is in charge?
Agriculture Bill — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Agriculture
Marsha Chantol De Cordova (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Secretary of State for giving way; she is being incredibly generous with her time. I want to take her back to the fact that the Bill lacks any legal guarantees to protect our food standards from being undermined. The Conservative party’s manifesto may have referenced that, but the Bill does not, so will she give us a cast-iron guarantee that the Bill will protect those standards?
Agriculture Bill — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Agriculture
Michael Lee Amesbury (Labour, Centre-left): I speak here as a patriot, and I have quite a farming community in Weaver Vale, and I and Opposition Members certainly want to maintain good British standards. Why does the Secretary of State not be true to the Government’s words in the manifesto and put this into legislation, as the National Farmers Union has called for?
Agriculture Bill — House of Commons, 2020-02-03
Topic: Environment
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): I am very grateful to the Secretary of State for the gracious and generous way in which she has given way. I point out to her that, as she will probably know, livestock farming contributes some 27% of methane production—methane is 85 times worse than CO2 for global warming—and, what is more, slurry contributes about 40% of the secondary PM2.5 in UK cities. Why does the Bill not contain anything about air pollution, despite her saying it is all about climate change and helping the environment?