argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
October EU Council — House of Commons, 2018-10-22
Topic: Civil Rights
Paula Michelle Sherriff (Labour, Centre-left): I often disagree with the Prime Minister on matters of policy, but I stand in full solidarity with her against the dreadful language that was used and the threats that were made at the weekend. We have only about five months to go until the end of March, so how does she think we should work to eradicate that sort of language and those sorts of threats, particularly towards female MPs, given that we in this House are supposed to set an example?
October EU Council — House of Commons, 2018-10-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): The NHS and the supermarkets are now stockpiling goods, and the cost of storage is increasing. Will the Government open a compensation scheme in relation to those costs, or will they be passed down to consumers?
Death of Jamal Khashoggi — House of Commons, 2018-10-22
Topic: Civil Rights
Martin David Whitfield (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the Secretary of State’s comments about the fear that is felt by journalists around the world. In the Council of Europe, the platform to promote the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists identifies 126 journalists who are detained across member states of the Council of Europe. The committee of Ministers stresses that the law should provide for aggravated penalties to be applicable to public officials who act in a way that prevents or obstructs investigations. The Secretary of State has spoken about the rules-based order. Is it not the case that we can do far more with friends and closer friends? Is it not our duty to do so, and to do so loudly, so that others hear us say that journalists and freedom of speech must be protected?
Paediatric Cancers of the Central Nervous System — House of Commons, 2018-10-22
Topic: Other
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. I pay tribute to him for the bravery that he and his wife, Rebecca, have shown over William. I am so pleased to see pictures of him now looking so well and on the road to recovery.
Paediatric Cancers of the Central Nervous System — House of Commons, 2018-10-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): I agree. Often with children’s cancer, one member of the family—usually the mother—has to give up their job to be a carer. That has a massive impact on the family. I completely agree with my hon. Friend that that has to be addressed.
Paediatric Cancers of the Central Nervous System — House of Commons, 2018-10-22
Topic: Other
Carolyn Harris (Labour, Centre-left): Will my hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to Cian’s parents? As a parent in a similar position, I know how difficult it is for them to talk about their personal loss and to campaign for their son. They should be applauded for their courage in allowing us to discuss this important issue.
Freedom of Religion or Belief — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
George Edward Howarth (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for her response. Will she give us some information about what she will do to collect better data about religious freedom and minority belief freedom in the countries where her Department supports programmes?
Freedom of Religion or Belief — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
Kate Ofunne Osamor (Labour, Centre-left): The most recent report from the European Parliament intergroup on freedom of religion or belief and religious tolerance states: "much of the world’s population is deprived of their right to freedom of religion or belief" What steps are the Department undertaking to ensure the protection of minority groups in Nigeria, as the Nigerian Government are reportedly unwilling to initiate forceful action?
Freedom of Religion or Belief — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
Kate Ofunne Osamor (Labour, Centre-left): I feel the need to prompt the Minister. Nigeria is one of DFID’s top five recipient countries and Nigeria has been identified by both the European Parliament intergroup and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom as a "country of concern" with regards to its poor record on upholding the right of freedom to express religion. So may I ask the Minister again to tell the House what actions her Department has in place to ensure that the Nigerian Government uphold the rights of religious minorities in the country?
Rohingya Women — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Civil Rights
Victoria Jane Foxcroft (Labour, Centre-left): Following what the UN referred to as a "frenzy of sexual violence" against Rohingya women and girls, surely the Secretary of State will agree that it is wholly unacceptable that protection services for gender violence have received only one third of the required funding under the UN’s joint response plan. What steps is his Department taking to fill this funding gap?
Rohingya Women — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Immigration
Alexander Gordon Martin (Labour, Centre-left): Hundreds of thousands of people have died in what has been widely regarded as ethnic cleansing. What assurances have the UK Government sought from the Myanmar Government that the Rohingya women who return will be safe, following the memorandum of understanding with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and should they not include a promise of citizenship?
Rohingya Women — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rosemary Clare Duffield (Labour, Centre-left): The fact-finding mission found that this was ethnic cleansing and sexual abuse. Rape was widely found. I thank the Minister for promising to seek assurance that that is being taken care of and that those women are being supported. Is there any more detail available on that, please?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): It might be a good idea if the Prime Minister took a few minutes out of her very busy day to listen to some teachers and hear about the stress they are going through and the number of newly qualified teachers who feel that they cannot carry on anymore and leave the profession that they love The National Audit Office has found that local government funding from central Government has been cut by 49% since 2010, and next year Government funding for councils is going to be cut by a further £1.3 billion. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that 75% of the social security cuts announced in 2015 have yet to come into effect; £2.7 billion will be cut from working-age benefits next year alone. Can the Prime Minister confirm that this swingeing austerity on the lowest-paid and the disabled people in our society will now end, as she said last week?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): The poorest third of households will lose £745 a year if these cuts go ahead. Just this week, the Equality and Human Rights Commission—and the Prime Minister should listen to it—has reported that the situation facing those with disabilities has got worse and their rights are being violated in our society. After eight years of painful austerity, poverty is up, homelessness and deaths on our streets are up, living standards down, public services slashed, and 1 million elderly are not getting the care that they need. Wages have been eroded, and all the while, billions were found for tax giveaways for big corporations and the super-rich. The Prime Minister declared that she is ending austerity, but unless the Budget halts the cuts, increases funding to public services and gives our public servants a decent pay rise, then is not the claim that austerity is over simply a great big Conservative con?
Agriculture Bill — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Public Lands
Sue Hayman (Labour, Centre-left): I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution. I have discussed that with the Lake District national park, which is in my constituency, and I am sure that there will be other discussions in this area.
Agriculture Bill — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Timothy Grogan (Labour, Centre-left): Does the hon. Gentleman, who chairs the Committee on which I serve, agree that there is a real danger that it will be the big landowners and farmers who will be best able to apply for environmental grants? We have to guard against that by reducing bureaucracy, as he has indicated.
Agriculture Bill — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Other
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): Order. I must say to hon. Members that interventions are meant to be short, not speeches. I am very concerned about the number of Members who wish to get in. I am going to drop the time limit after this to six minutes, but Members should not be surprised if shortly after I have to drop it again.
Youth Violence — House of Commons, 2018-10-10
Topic: Mixed Topics
Victoria Jane Foxcroft (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I completely agree about the importance of this debate: this should be a No. 1 priority for us. Our young people need to feel safe; they need to know that we believe in them. They are, after all, our future: our future doctors, nurses, engineers, artists, journalists, and even our future politicians. I understand that in the Gallery this evening we have a few would-be future politicians, and I thank them for coming along this evening I am chair of the cross-party Youth Violence Commission and we have been examining the root causes of youth violence. In July this year we published our initial policy recommendations, in which we called for the development of a public health model to tackle violence. I am delighted that since then Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, has announced the establishment of a London violence reduction unit, which will follow a public health approach in the capital, and last week the Home Secretary also stated that we must treat violence as an infectious disease, backing the adoption of a public health approach. But now we must turn those words into action Tonight, I am focusing on the important role that youth services play in tackling youth violence and on how these services fit into a successful public health approach. I have met countless organisations up and down the country that do excellent work with young people, but cuts to youth services have left the sector hollowed out, inconsistent and disjointed, and it is young people who are ultimately losing out. Since 2010, at least £387 million has been cut from youth services, and more than 600 youth centres closed between 2012 and 2016. The only programme we see consistently funded is the National Citizen Service. While youth services have suffered real-terms cuts of 54% since 2011, funding for the NCS has increased annually, rising from a three-year allocation of £168 million when it was first set up to £181 million last year alone. The NCS is a two-week programme once a year. Our young people need year-round support. I wonder whether the NCS would pass the stringent criteria that many other charities have to go through when seeking funding.
Leasehold Charges — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Elizabeth Anne McInnes (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Secretary of State for his response, and I would like to associate myself with his remarks about the sad death of Sir Jeremy Heywood Will the Secretary of State explain how the steps he has outlined will help my constituent, Linda Barnes, who owns a flat that is valued at £80,000 and pays an onerous ground rent of £400 a year on it? What help will he give so that such flats can become attractive to buyers again?
Leasehold Charges — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Mary Elizabeth Twist (Labour, Centre-left): Three weeks ago, members of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee held a roundtable for leaseholders at the start of our inquiry. They told us about the problem of escalating ground rents that trap them in homes that they can no longer sell. They made it clear that they wanted existing leaseholds to be ended; does the Secretary of State agree with them?
Leasehold Charges — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): Leaseholders in several private blocks in Leeds are being asked to pay huge bills to deal with unsafe cladding. The cost is between £10,000 and £28,000 for each leaseholder at Skyline Apartments, and the total cost of replacing the cladding in the Saxton development could be as high as £8 million. Given that my constituents are being asked to pay money that they do not have to deal with a problem that they did not create, when will the Government stop urging freeholders not to charge leaseholders and actually prevent them from doing so by law?
Leasehold Charges — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
John Healey (Labour, Centre-left): I start by formally echoing the Secretary of State’s comments about Sir Jeremy Heywood. Many of us were privileged to work with Sir Jeremy, and he was an exceptional civil servant who gave outstanding service to this country. Our deep sympathies are with his wife and family at this time As we have heard, many of us have constituents who bought their home but then found that they do not own it and feel ripped off by unfair leasehold contracts. When we hear, repeatedly, that leasehold buyers did not choose their own solicitor, were wrongly told that they could buy their freehold cheaply at any time, or found out later that they had to ask and pay freeholders for permission to own a pet, change their carpets or build a conservatory, the individual cases add up to something bigger. The Government must act, just as with other mis-selling scandals, such as on pensions, mortgages or payment protection insurance. Will the Secretary of State today back an inquiry into this systematic mis-selling to leaseholders?
Leasehold Charges — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
John Healey (Labour, Centre-left): It is not the Select Committee’s action that counts, but the Government’s action, which has been too weak and too slow and, critically, largely overlooks the plight of existing leaseholders. An industry survey shows that six in 10 leaseholders did not even know what being a leaseholder meant until after they had bought, and that nine in 10 regret having bought a leasehold at all. Those are classic signs of mis-selling—it is a national scandal. I will give the Secretary of State another chance: when will he stand up for leaseholders and launch an inquiry into mis-selling?
Homeless Families: Accommodation Outside Home Borough — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Mixed Topics
Karen Patricia Buck (Labour, Centre-left): There has been a 40% rise in London households being moved out of London by their local authority, and my own experience shows that local authorities are also moving families in unprecedented numbers away from their community, their children’s schools, their workplaces and their support. The code of guidance is clearly not working, so can the Minister tell us unambiguously that local authorities should, under no circumstances, expect children to commute to school from temporary accommodation for two, three or even four hours every day?
Homeless Families: Accommodation Outside Home Borough — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): The guidance also says that an authority moving a homeless family out to another area should inform the receiving authority within 14 days. I have written to the Minister twice about this issue, and she has replied that Peterborough City Council is systematically dumping homeless families in Travelodges across South Yorkshire without telling the receiving authority. What will she do to ensure that the statutory guidance passed by this House is actually enforced and that authorities do not continue to flout it?
Homeless Families: Accommodation Outside Home Borough — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Melanie Onn (Labour, Centre-left): Homelessness has risen in each and every one of the past seven years. In the last year alone, 440 homeless people have died. The Budget pledged nearly £10 billion to a poorly targeted help-to-buy scheme, but it failed to mention homelessness once. Now the Secretary of State has scrimped together a measly £15,000 each for councils to tackle winter pressures. Will that guarantee that we will not see any rough sleepers on the streets this winter?
Local Government: Departmental Support — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): I do not know whether the Minister has ever heard the song "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell, but it is worth listening to just to be reminded of what the streets of every town in this country are like: how run down they are; how many rough sleepers there are; how much deterioration there is; how much graffiti there is; and how many broken pavements there are. That is what my constituents see in my town, and it is happening up and down this country because this Government have starved our country’s local government service.
New Homes — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Catherine Elizabeth West (Labour, Centre-left): Some 140,000 children are waiting in temporary accommodation for new homes. In the meantime, how long does the Secretary of State think it is acceptable for a child to have to travel to school—two hours? Three hours? Some children are getting home at 9 pm because their school is so far away from where they are placed.
Residential Property Management — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Questions: What progress he has made on improving standards in the management of residential property in the (a) private rented and (b) social housing sectors. [R]
Emma Elizabeth Reynolds (Labour, Centre-left): According to the Government’s own figures, there are more than 10,000 rogue landlords operating in England. Will the Minister therefore explain to tenants who are suffering from damp and often unsafe conditions why none of these landlords appears on the Government’s new rogue landlord database?
Local Authority Funding: Allocation — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Nicholas Dakin (Labour, Centre-left): If funding is so equitable, why is North Lincolnshire Council giving people on the lowest incomes such a low level of support with their council tax, at only 50%? Why is the council sending nearly all its discretionary housing payments back to the Government?
New Homes for Social Rent — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Ian Austin (Labour, Centre-left): There are thousands of households languishing on Dudley’s waiting lists. I meet families every single week who are desperate for a home of their own. Funding for new affordable homes has fallen from over £4 billion in 2009-10 to less than £500 million last year, and the amount of social housing built for rent is actually falling to its lowest level since the war. In that context, what hope do my constituents have of the decent, secure and affordable home that they dream of?
New Homes for Social Rent — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Stephen Pelham Pound (Labour, Centre-left): You rather took the wind from my sails there, Mr Speaker The Minister refers to housing associations, and it will not have escaped his notice that the chief executives of housing associations earn on average comfortably more than the Prime Minister, with the upper decile trousering salaries in the eye-watering range of £250,000 to £400,000. Is the Minister entirely comfortable with that?
Midlands Engine — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Gareth Craig Snell (Labour, Centre-left): The midlands engine is working with Stoke-on-Trent City Council as part of the transforming cities fund and making bids for significant investment. It was heartening to hear the Chancellor refer to that in his speech last Monday. Could the Secretary of State put us out of our misery and announce from the Dispatch Box today that Stoke will receive that funding, which would save a further round of hoop-jumping?
Homelessness — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Rachel Jane Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): Street homelessness is a growing problem in my city of Leeds, reflecting inadequate social housing and mental health provision, and cuts to benefits. Big Change Leeds, launched last month, is bringing together everyone trying to help those who are street homeless in our city by giving their time or money. Will the Government welcome this initiative, but more importantly, will they commit their support by giving Leeds City Council the money it needs to address this growing problem in our city?
Homelessness — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
James Dolan Cunningham (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Minister say how much money to deal with homelessness she has given to the local authority in Coventry and the charities in Coventry, which tell me that their allocations have been cut? That is no way to deal with homelessness.
Leasehold Changes — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (Labour, Centre-left): The St Mary Magdalene and Holy Jesus Trust in my constituency is a charity that is refusing to allow its leaseholders to extend their leases, in a wholly uncharitable way. The Secretary of State talks about roundtables and reviews, but when will my constituents get some sort of justice and the ability to extend their leases?
First-time Buyers: Help to Buy and Stamp Duty — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Questions: What discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the effect on first-time buyers of (a) Help to Buy and (b) the reduction in stamp duty.
David George Hanson (Labour, Centre-left): What assessment has the Minister made of the number of people who have used Help to Buy who are now in negative equity because of leasehold reform? They cannot sell the properties and the price has fallen, so the taxpayer and the individual are hit.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Yvonne Helen Fovargue (Labour, Centre-left): Trading standards are the foot soldiers in keeping the public from falling victim to unsafe goods, yet cuts to local authorities mean that trading standards budgets have fallen by more than 50% between 2009 and 2019, with a 56% reduction in the number of offices. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute is warning that, as we approach Brexit, the role of those dedicated professionals will be even more crucial. How can they keep the public safe from dodgy and dangerous goods without sustainable funding?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2018-11-05
Topic: Housing
Questions: Like the Minister, I welcome the Budget’s announcements of £650 million extra for social care and £84 million for children’s social care programmes over five years. Will he confirm when local authorities, including Torbay Council, will be told what their share of this new money will be?
Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Last week, Southern Landlords Association filed for judicial review on selective licensing in Brighton. The Government’s response was to revoke the licence to regulate the private sector. This is not the first judicial review to derail selective licensing. Irrespective of the particular issue I am working on with the Minister, is it now not time to review the way selective licensing works and to stop judicial reviews, particularly vexatious ones like those from Southern Landlords Association, derailing the ability of councils to regulate the private sector and rogue landlords?