argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Mary Josephine Robinson (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Secretary of State’s confirmation of the continuation of the 100% business rates retention pilots in areas such as Greater Manchester. Does he agree that the success of business rates retention is key to continued growth in Greater Manchester and the success of the northern powerhouse?
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I very much agree with my hon. Friend. We have already seen that the early pilots encouraged local authorities to think much more carefully about how they can attract local business, and we will see much more of that in the new pilots we announced today.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): We are not looking to extend that period. However, we will listen carefully to what Christchurch Borough Council has to say following the referendum. As I have said right from the start, at this point it is a "minded to" decision. There is no final decision, and it is important that we listen carefully to everyone, including of course Christchurch Borough Council.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Henry Edward Millar Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): Seven of the business rates retention areas mentioned by the Secretary of State are counties, so I was disappointed that West Sussex was not named as one of those areas, despite the strong bid by the district and county councils. With education pressure in the county, can I have early consideration of West Sussex being allowed business rates retention in the near future?
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): There were, I believe, 27 bids for the new pilots. As I mentioned, we intended to have five pilots, which we managed to increase to 10. I know the decision will still disappoint some colleagues, which is why I also announced today that we will be taking many pilots forward into the following year and announcing further pilots early in the new year.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I have just noticed that two Government Whips are wearing identical ties, which takes the concept of party discipline to a new level. I am not sure whether to be encouraged or appalled. I leave it to colleagues to make their own judgment, political and aesthetic.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): The proposals in today’s statement will lead to almost £13 million of additional funding for Northamptonshire County Council, which I know will be welcome. My hon. Friend makes a wider point about longer-term sustainability, and he will know I am ready to consider any proposals on restructuring from Northamptonshire County Council or other local councils in the area. I will take such proposals seriously if they come forward.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I would be happy to visit North Lincolnshire. The council is doing an excellent job. I am sure that it will be pleased at today’s announcement that it will be part of the Lincolnshire business rates retention pilot.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I can absolutely give my hon. Friend the assurance that we are looking seriously at fair funding issues, which is why today’s launch of the consultation is an important step. Over the next 12 weeks, we will look at the cost drivers, which will have a direct input into the outcome of that review, making sure that all local authorities are funded on the basis of their actual needs.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Housing
Mark Julian Francis Pawsey (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the fact that progressive councils such as Rugby Borough Council will continue to receive incentives to provide much-needed new housing through the retention of the new homes bonus. Will the Secretary of State also confirm that they will be rewarded for doing the right thing by continuing to make available adequate land for commercial development?
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, my hon. Friend raises an important point. We had a number of representations from local authorities for us to provide some continuity and certainty on the new homes bonus, which is exactly what I have proposed today. I hope that continues to lead councils such as Rugby, and others, to plan for the homes and commercial property that local communities need, so that they can have stronger local business and enterprise.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Immigration
Thomas Christopher John Pursglove (Conservative, Centre-right): I certainly welcome a fundamental review of local government finance and, in particular, the fairer funding commitment, but is there any help coming down the track for local authorities that are particularly affected by the issue of unaccompanied asylum seeking children, which places a cost pressure on those local authorities, such as Northamptonshire County Council?
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Immigration
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I am pleased that my hon. Friend has raised this issue. I recognise the good work that so many councils do to look after unaccompanied asylum seeking children, who are some of the most vulnerable people in our society. One thing I am doing today is making an additional £19 million available for next year to help the local authorities most affected to help some of the most vulnerable people.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Matthew Robert Warman (Conservative, Centre-right): Deprivation is by no means limited to urban areas, and I know that that is why the Secretary of State has listened to the powerful fair funding case made by Lincolnshire County Council. I welcome the fact that the business rates pilot is coming to the county, but will my right hon. Friend tell us how else such big, sparsely populated counties will be helped by the settlement? What more money is coming to Lincolnshire?
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): The business rates pilot will certainly help Lincolnshire and give it more incentives to attract more local business. Today’s announcement of an additional £15 million for the rural services delivery grant will help Lincolnshire and many other local authorities. If we exclude any extra income from the business rates pilot, today’s announcement will mean £11.5 million of additional spending power for Lincolnshire, which I know will be welcomed.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I can mention a few changes that will help local councils to deliver services: the increase in the police precept, on which there will be a further statement after this one; the adult social care funding that was provided in the Budget; and today’s announcement of additional flexibility in council tax.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Public Lands
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I can confirm to my hon. Friend that the Lincolnshire pilot includes North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire. I can also confirm that when we are looking into the fair funding review, starting with the consultation announced today, we will certainly consider the special needs of coastal communities.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): I remind the hon. Lady that when the revaluation happened, it came with £3.6 billion of transitional funding, which will help throughout the country. She is right to ask about some of the longer-term issues relating to the structure of business rates. It is for the Treasury to respond on that and certainly on the timing of any future review. The pilots announced today are part of a plan to make sure that, whatever their future structure, if business rates can be retained more locally, that will give local councils the right incentives.
Local Government Finance Settlement — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Housing
Sajid Javid (Conservative, Centre-right): Liverpool, like many local authorities, is dealing with many pressures. That is why there is a lot there to help it. It already has one of the highest core spending powers per dwelling in the country and, from this set of proposals today, it will see an £8.7 million increase. On top of that, it is also part of the business rates retention pilot.
Policing — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Further to the observation with which the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman) prefaced her question, I think the correct position is that the table to which reference has been made, and which some Members have been ostentatiously brandishing, is electronically accessible but I am advised that it was not delivered either to the Library or to the Vote Office. I think it would help in these matters, particularly where complex formulae are involved, if the material could be available at the time of the commencement of the statement. I do not wish to dwell on the matter further. The Minister has said what he has said, and I thank him for saying it I call Mr Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Abimbola Afolami (Conservative, Centre-right): I rise to respond to some of the points that have been made by Opposition Members. I shall start with what the hon. Member for North West Durham (Laura Pidcock) said about the Government, or the Conservative party, talking about how work is the best route out of poverty. Do correct me if I have misquoted you, but you went on to say that the work in our economy at the moment exacerbates poverty. You felt that it is currently not the best route out of poverty. Is that correct?
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Civil Rights
Abimbola Afolami (Conservative, Centre-right): I do indeed understand that. There is currently so much data, much of which has already been talked about by Opposition Members, on regional disparities, and on disparities of race and age, and between urban and rural areas. There is so much data, so Government policy must aim to bear it all in mind, which is what Ministers do.
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Abimbola Afolami (Conservative, Centre-right): If the hon. Lady will permit me, I will make a bit of progress and then I will respond to her remarks in the fullness of my speech It is important to make my next point in relation to new clause 6 clear. We have heard Opposition Members say that women, or certain members of ethnic minorities, are more likely to be lower paid than other members of society. By taking the lowest paid people out of tax and increasing the national living wage, we are benefiting those groups of people who might suffer from low earnings. In addition—
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Abimbola Afolami (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is mistaken. It is not celebrating low pay to say that people who are currently earning lower amounts should take home more of their money. That is not a celebration; it is about making their lives, every day and every week, that bit easier. It is worth saying that taking the lowest paid people out of tax and raising the national living wage is having significant benefits for many of the people—
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Civil Rights
Melvyn John Stride (Conservative, Centre-right): This Government are committed to equality. That is not to say that no further steps need to be taken—a situation that pertains perhaps to every Government who have ever been in office—but we have a strong record on equality. More women are in work than at any time in our history, at 70.8%. Last year, over 60% of growth in employment was through women joining the workforce. We have the lowest gender pay gap for full-time employment on record and we have taken action to ensure that companies with 250 employees or more will, from next year, be required to publish details of their gender pay gaps For those who are disabled, we are spending more than £50 billion a year on benefits for disabled people and those with health conditions. In the Budget, the Chancellor announced an extra £42 billion for the disabled facilities grant to encourage and assist those with disabilities into the world of work. For ethnic minorities, when our Prime Minister assumed office last year, one of her first actions was to announce an audit into the differing impacts on ethnic minorities in terms of their use of public services. The report was published in October and will inform our policy going forward In the Budget, we increased the national living wage by 4.4% from April, which will disproportionately assist ethnic minority people. We are committed right across Whitehall to ensuring an increase in the uptake of apprenticeships and employment within our police forces and our armed services for ethnic minorities.
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Housing
Melvyn John Stride (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady is right: there are many ways it can be done, and the Government are indeed doing it in many ways. She need not only look to me for the observations I have made; the IFS has recognised my very point about household income. We will, however, continue to look at how we provide information and assess policies, and we will work with the ONS, as the Chancellor set out in the recent Budget In conclusion, the Government have a vision for a society that is equal, not in terms of levelling people down, but in terms of giving people the opportunity to go up. In yesterday’s debate on the Bill, the Labour party chose to vote against a measure to encourage young people to get a foot on the housing ladder. That is not acceptable, and that is an example of what we will do to promote equality of wealth and opportunity at every turn. I urge the Committee to reject new clauses 6 and 7.
Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rachel Helen Maclean (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend touches on the critical point that, even as we leave the European Union, we must seek to cement our deep and special partnership on all these matters—and with our friends in the United States, too—because it is clear that these are the relationships that are keeping all our constituents safe, day in, day out We cannot imagine what it must be like to work in the intelligence services. I cannot even begin to imagine for one second what it must be like to face such threats and such terror, how frightening it must be and how brave those men and women must be to face it every single day. I add my thanks to those of Members on both sides of the House who have put on record their thanks to those brave men and women who go out of their way every day to keep us safe, and I know my constituents in Redditch thank them, too While I am welcoming announcements, it is great to see that additional funding has been announced for the police service today. Significant funding has been pledged to my West Mercia region, which will undoubtedly help our police forces to work in partnership.
Law Enforcement Co-operation and Border Control: Schengen Information System — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicholas Richard Hurd (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for that constructive intervention and for his support for the principles that the Prime Minister laid out strongly. He will understand that the exact details of the future internal security relationship with the EU will need to be agreed in the negotiations. The Government’s paper on the future partnership that we seek with the EU on security, law enforcement and criminal justice makes it clear that we value our current capability to share law enforcement and security alerts with EU countries. That capability is provided by SIS II, but how we might retain similar capability after Brexit is a matter for negotiation The exit negotiations are an opportunity to build on what we have already achieved through decades of collaboration and working together. The decision to opt out would suggest that we wished to move in the opposite direction and disengage from security co-operation with Europe. That is not, and cannot be, our position, so it would have been wrong to opt out Before I wind up, I want to touch on how the negotiations on these legislative proposals have progressed. The Council of Ministers has recently agreed a general approach on all three draft regulations. That is an agreed Council position to form a basis for negotiations on the final text with the European Parliament. The police co-operation text was satisfactory in most respects. In particular, it gives member states sufficient discretion over whether to create alerts in counter-terrorist cases. But the Government voted against it because it did not address the restrictions on when alerts can be used for purposes other than those for which they were created In some limited circumstances, such an alert would be advisable; for example, where the alert shows that a person is particularly dangerous and needs to be kept out of the country. Unfortunately, the text on the general approach continues to make doing this too difficult, so we did not think it was ready for negotiation with the European Parliament. However, there was a qualified majority in favour of the text, and these negotiations are now under way. We expect the incoming Bulgarian presidency of the Council to try to conclude them in the first half of 2018. We will of course keep the European Scrutiny Committee updated The Government’s decisions show that we are committed both to protecting our borders and to effective co-operation with our European partners on policing and security issues, and I hope that the House will endorse them tonight.
Law Enforcement Co-operation and Border Control: Schengen Information System — House of Commons, 2017-12-19
Topic: Civil Rights
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): I understand precisely where the hon. Lady is coming from, but in fairness to the Minister, this may be a question about the direct nature or otherwise of the jurisdiction. Does she agree that the evidence to the Justice Committee was most compelling about the practical need to get the data regulations aligned so that data can lawfully be passed from EU member states to us as a third country in the same way that they are passed to the four non-EU countries she has mentioned?
Somalia — House of Commons, 2017-10-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: Like the Minister and the hon. Member for North West Norfolk (Sir Henry Bellingham), I offer my condolences to the people of Mogadishu following Saturday’s terrible incident. Al-Shabaab, which has claimed responsibility for the attack, has recruited fighters from this country in the shape of Thomas Evans and Samantha Lewthwaite, who were killed in 2015. What guarantee can the Minister give that people trained by terrorist groups such as al-Shabaab are not allowed back into the country, and that the authorities will come down on them if they do come back?
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): I want to reinforce how horrifying the attack was and emphasise the threat that al-Shabaab poses to Somalia and the broader regions, and to the United Kingdom. I also reiterate our absolute abhorrence of and determination to clamp down on any British citizen who involves themselves with a group of such extreme horror.
Russia — House of Commons, 2017-10-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): We are continually monitoring Russian activity in that sphere. I can tell the hon. Lady that the Russians have been up to all sorts of mischief in many countries, but so far we cannot yet pinpoint any direct Russian cyber-attacks on this country. [Official Report, 14 November 2017, Vol. 631, c. 2MC.]
Russia — House of Commons, 2017-10-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend give the House an assessment of the impact of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 on Russian relations? Following on from the question asked by the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson), perhaps he will assure me and others in this House that this Act will be used to prevent corrupt, human rights-denying and human rights-abusing Russian oligarchs from using London to launder their ill-gotten gains?
Counter-terrorism — House of Commons, 2017-10-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Broadly speaking, there are two, mutually contaminating ecosystems of terror that we face, one is at home and one is abroad. What the UK is doing overseas is to drive out the terrorists from the spaces they currently occupy, be that in Iraq, Syria, Libya or Nigeria. We are having a great deal of success in that. The ungoverned space occupied by terrorists has been greatly reduced in the past year. In addition, we are working to increase aviation security around the world and, above all, at the UN, with the resolution agreed last month, to bring Daesh fighters to justice.
Counter-terrorism — House of Commons, 2017-10-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I believe the hon. Gentleman is referring to the JICTU—Joint International Counter Terrorism Unit—arrangement we have across government. I think he would accept that in view of what I have said about the mutually contaminating ecosystems of terror that we face, where people are being radicalised online here at home and people are in the ungoverned spaces, be it in Iraq, Syria or wherever, a one-Government approach has to be taken to all this by Her Majesty’s Government. It is right therefore that we co-ordinate with the Home Office to tackle this, but we are also tackling it overseas. One aspect of international diplomacy which the Prime Minister has been leading is countering online radicalisation and taking more than 270,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material off the internet.
Hurricane Support — House of Commons, 2017-10-17
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Or even Questions 10 and 14. I realise that these are not the sort of matters with which the right hon. Gentleman ordinarily has to preoccupy himself. They may seem a mere trifle, but they are quite important in parliamentary terms.
Hurricane Support — House of Commons, 2017-10-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I really must advise my hon. Friend that the extent of the damage is so considerable that he must see it for himself. It is quite extraordinary. Hon. Members should understand that the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla have seen nothing like this for generations, and it will take time, but we are committed and we will be there for the long term.