argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Social Welfare
John Derek Twigg (Labour, Centre-left): I can see the Parliamentary Private Secretaries working hard to get the figures to the Secretary of State To put the announcement in context, Halton has had a cut of more than 50%—£52 million—since 2010, while 68% of properties there are in bands A or B. The precept will not raise anywhere near enough to fund the shortfall in social care. Will the Secretary of State reconsider this and meet me urgently to talk about the problems in Halton?
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Macroeconomics
Ann Coffey (Labour, Centre-left): I, too, am concerned about the future stability of funding for local services. While council tax provides a solid base of revenue, moving to more reliance on business rates means more unpredictability in the level of revenue available to local councils. What consideration has the Secretary of State given to future mitigation of the impact on local services of a fall in revenue from business rates—for example from a downturn in the economy, which is beyond the control of any local council?
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Government Operations
Jonathan Neil Reynolds (Labour, Centre-left): At my surgery on Friday, I met a woman who cared, on her own, for her severely disabled daughter 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She is not able even to get a decent night’s sleep. She used to receive six nights of respite care a month, but now she has been told that she will get nothing. That is the reality of the Conservative party’s treatment of local government since 2010. In Tameside, there are no more back-office functions to merge and no more staff to be made redundant. There is nothing left to cut, except the services for the people who need them most, and for them the outlook is bleak. No amount of devolution to Greater Manchester, as good as that is, can compensate for a lack of basic provision.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Government Operations
John Eugene Joseph Dromey (Labour, Centre-left): At £0.75 billion, no council has ever suffered the same level of cuts in local government history as Birmingham. No city has ever been treated so unfairly. Does the Secretary of State begin to understand the dismay that there will be over today’s announcements, which will put at risk school crossing patrols, deepen the growing crisis of health and social care in the city and threaten dozens of community groups supporting the most vulnerable in Birmingham? There will be utter dismay in Britain’s second city.
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen James McCabe (Labour, Centre-left): Did the Secretary of State consider including the Chancellor’s social care tax in the calculation of overall council tax income for the core funding settlement, which would make the changes fairer and mitigate the late introduction of the better care fund for low council-tax base authorities such as Birmingham?
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Government Operations
Fiona Margaret Mactaggart (Labour, Centre-left): Slough is the smallest unitary authority in the country. In response to questions, the Secretary of State announced that fellow Berkshire unitary authorities, West Berkshire and Wokingham, will receive £1.4 million transitional funding. Slough faces particular pressures, as it is on the border of London and has a changing, high-needs population. What are we going to get?
Local Government Finance — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Social Welfare
Peter John Kyle (Labour, Centre-left): The recent report by ResPublica said that 37,000 elderly people who were dependent on statutory funding for residential care were at risk of losing their places and becoming homeless because of the rise in the minimum wage and cuts to local council funding. Areas such as mine which, for the benefit of the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State is Hove in Sussex, will do reasonably out of the precept because of the high tax base, but other areas with a low tax base, such as the north-east, will suffer very badly, and they have the highest rates of dependency on statutory funding for adult social care. Will the Secretary of State look again at the funding formula and make sure that areas that most need funding get it?
Social Security — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Labor
Angela Rayner (Labour, Centre-left): This is the first time I have debated with the Minister at the Dispatch Box, so I welcome him to his place and thank him for his—very brief—explanation of the draft proposals I want to use this opportunity to debate, clarify and scrutinise aspects of these important measures. As the Minister has outlined previously, the coalition Government legislated in the Pensions Act 2014 to introduce a new single-tier state pension for persons reaching state pension age on or after 6 April 2016 A central principle of this legislation has been to maintain the earnings link, which was restored in the Pensions Act 2007, passed by a Labour Government. The coalition Government committed to increasing the basic state pension through the triple guarantee of earnings, prices or 2.5%, whichever is highest, from April 2011. The triple lock is a policy approach that Labour Members support—a position that was confirmed in our manifesto at last year’s general election Today, we are considering statutory instruments to implement and update key features of that settlement. For existing pensioners on the current state pension age scheme, the proposed 2.9% increase, which matches earnings as the highest rise of the three measures for this year, is a step in the right direction. A full basic state pension will therefore rise to £119.30 a week—an increase of £3.35.
Social Security — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Social Welfare
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome my hon. Friend to her Front-Bench position. The triple lock is all fine and well if one is in receipt of the state pension, but she will know that there is a group of women who have been deprived of their state pension, the WASPI—Women Against State Pension Inequality—women who were born in the 1950s. Does she agree that a triple lock on nothing is still nothing and that we need from this Government fair transitional arrangements for those women?
Social Security — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Social Welfare
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is making an important point about the need to communicate any changes to social security and particularly to the state pension rules. She will know that one of the complaints of the WASPI women is that they have not been adequately notified or given proper transitional arrangements. Does she think that the Government ought to be doing a lot more to communicate the changes to the new state pension arrangements because some people will not benefit from this scheme?
Social Security — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Labor
Angela Rayner (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is absolutely right: the Government do need to get their act together on communicating these changes. The general population out there expect nothing less than honesty and the frank information that the Government should be providing for them, so that they can make informed decisions about their future Will the Minister give a more specific estimate of who will be covered by transitional protection and how many people will lose out from these changes in future years? Once again, the Government’s track record on communicating pension changes falls well short of the standard that the public would hope and expect. When I met members of the National Pensioners Convention last week, they pointed out that many pensioners are now waking up to the fact that only a minority of those who reach the state pension age under the new system will receive the full flat rate of £155.65 proposed today, as confirmed by recent analysis published by the Minister’s Department. It estimates that only 37% of people reaching state pension age in 2016-17 will receive the full amount of the new state pension directly from the state. Millions of people will receive a significantly lower state pension in future, and some of them will be more than £500 a year worse off. The gloss from spinning the top-line full flat rate without the detail is rapidly starting to fade. Indeed, the Minister for Pensions herself has now admitted that the new state pension has been "oversold" It is clear that the Government should be doing far more to inform those affected, especially those who are nearing retirement and therefore have the least notice or time to consider the impact. In its interim report on the new state pension published in January, the Work and Pensions Committee reported: "We heard evidence of a widespread lack of awareness among individuals about what they will receive and when. We were concerned to be told that the statements intended to rectify this were confusing and lacked necessary information." Age UK, among others, has called on the Government to do far more to contact people who are likely to be affected. It says: "There are DWP materials highlighting credits and ways to increase the State Pension, but people need to know they may be affected. We believe the DWP should contact people with gaps in their record individually to highlight the changes and explain options." What are the Government doing to properly communicate the impact of the changes?
Social Security — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Labor
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is being generous in giving way. We also need to have confidence that the information being communicated by the DWP is correct. She will remember from last week’s Westminster Hall debate that, as recently as last week—I have not checked whether this has been changed yet—the DWP was still communicating that the state pension age for women is 60.
Social Security — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Labor
Angela Rayner (Labour, Centre-left): I thank my hon. Friend for making that point, which is central to what the WASPI campaigners have been arguing for some time and with which I have sympathy. The Government are failing to give adequate information and it is not readily available when people require it The DWP has produced analysis showing that the majority of people will be better off over the next 15 years, but what about after that? A close look at the figures reveals that, for those aged under 43 now—like me and many others in the House—the probability is that they will receive thousands of pounds less in state pension by the time they retire We do not hear much about the impact of the new state pension on the retirement income of future generations, and it is becoming increasingly clear why the Government are keen to keep quiet about it. Analysis that the shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Owen Smith), has commissioned from the Library shows that those in their 40s now are likely to be £13,000 worse off over their retirement. Men in their 30s now are likely to be nearly £17,000 worse off, while women will lose more than £18,000. For the generation in their 20s now, the loss is likely to be more than £19,000 for men and £20,500 for women. Future generations will clearly be worse off By 2060, when today’s 20-year-olds are nearing retirement, the Government will be spending £28 billion a year less on state pension provision. That is a huge cut, and one that has not been given proper acknowledgement by the Government or, consequently, been properly scrutinised and debated in the House or more widely.
Social Security — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Labor
Angela Rayner (Labour, Centre-left): I gave the Minister a specific example of someone who had not contracted out because of a second pension. Will he address that point and the fact that some people have not been given adequate notice of the changes? I appreciate the point he makes about contracted-out contributions, but some people have not been given such information. I am asking for people to be given that information so that they can make alternative provision.
Great Western Railway Routes — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Transportation
Fiona Margaret Mactaggart (Labour, Centre-left): Does the hon. Gentleman share my profound disappointment over the delays in the western rail access to Heathrow, which the Hendy review announced would be put back a further two years? This access will bring the biggest inward investment to the UK, as well as helping travellers from all over the west of England—
Great Western Railway Routes — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Transportation
Fiona Margaret Mactaggart (Labour, Centre-left): Indeed, and Wales. It will help those travellers to get to Heathrow—our premier hub airport. Will the hon. Gentleman press the Minister to ensure that, as a result of this debate, someone in her Department puts their foot on the accelerator of western rail access to Heathrow?
Great Western Railway Routes — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Transportation
Ifor Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour, Centre-left): I want to support the point the hon. Gentleman is making. The incident he is talking about was the most extreme example of damage to a piece of major rail infrastructure. It is no fault of Great Western Railway, but I travelled up from south Wales by bus for part of my journey today because of flooding on part of the line. Okay, that is an extreme event, but we are having more and more. There is also regular flooding around the Severn tunnel. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we need to be absolutely sure that we have a resilient railway structure, as well as having electrification?
Great Western Railway Routes — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Transportation
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): I apologise to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to the hon. Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) for arriving a few seconds after he rose to his feet. The previous business finished rather earlier than a lot of us expected or had been forewarned about, but I congratulate him on being the driving force behind this timely debate. At the end of the week, when I get into carriage A at Paddington with my bike in the bike space just in front of it—carriage A is the quiet carriage—I sit down, and I usually have the best two hours of my week. Every time I am on that journey, I give thanks to Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the brilliance of the line that he created back in the Victorian age, from which we are still benefiting. It still think it incredible, given that very little has happened since, that on a good day someone can get from London to Exeter—quite a long way, as I am sure hon. Members who know their geography realise—in under two hours, and that is very much thanks to Brunel I completely agree with the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr Gray), because for all its frailties, Great Western is my favourite railway line. I travel across the UK quite a lot, and it is certainly better than the new franchise owners on the east coast main line, and the pokey little carriages on Virgin and the west coast main line. Great Western is comfortable and bright. The loos do not work, and when they do they flush straight on to the tracks. That is completely intolerable and unacceptable in the modern age and must change as a matter of urgency. The ventilation is idiosyncratic, and one can often find a carriage that is far too hot or far too cold, but the staff are always delightful and friendly, and the service is excellent I have one plea to all railway companies, which is that they should do much more to publicise a passenger’s right to a full refund if they are delayed by more than an hour. I really think that they are getting away with too much, and far too many people do not realise that they are entitled to a refund. I was an hour and a half late coming back at the weekend because of some of the problems that the hon. Member for Torbay referred to, and, in terms of good customer service, such compensation should be announced on the trains as a matter of course.
Great Western Railway Routes — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Transportation
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): I know the line through Dawlish very well. I spent childhood holidays in Salcombe. In fact, my parents used to get a train all the way to Kingsbridge in the good old days before Beeching took his axe to our rural rail network. It is beautiful, but vulnerable. I will come on to say something about it in a second Having said all those positive things, we still have rolling stock that was introduced, I think, in the early 1970s. As I have said, travel speeds have not actually increased very much for decades, if not for a century. I mentioned the loos and the heating, and the hon. Member for Torbay mentioned electrification. It is puzzling that Spain and Italy have full comprehensive networks of high-speed electric trains, but in this country we still do not have a network of high-speed trains. We are getting one slowly, but in the south-west we are set to be probably the only major region with big cities left in western Europe that does not have either high-speed trains or electrification. There is absolutely no reason why we should not already have electrification down to Exeter. There have been technical challenges, but having been on electric trains in the Alps that go up steep gradients I have never quite understood what the barrier is to electrification where there are gradients. As the hon. Member for Torbay says, we will very soon have the technology to overcome that.
Great Western Railway Routes — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Transportation
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): I entirely agree. The Labour Government set up an independent infrastructure body—I cannot remember its name—and the hon. Gentleman’s Government have gone on to do something similar. We need to be much more radical in how we manage big infrastructure improvements. Network Rail is currently pleading, in today’s Financial Times, with the Government not to privatise it, but instead to hand over such decisions to an independent rail commission. That is a very sensible and sound idea, and I hope the Government will listen to it. The fragmentation and privatisation of Network Rail would be an absolute disaster. It is worth reading the piece in today’s Financial Times.
Great Western Railway Routes — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Transportation
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that the Government have never come up with the money. I am suggesting that they should. Network Rail is not able to come up with the money because of the massive cost overruns and delays on the whole of the rest of its infrastructure investment projects; not just the huge cost and time overrun on the Great Western line into south Wales but on its overall investment all over the country. Incidentally, the Government knew about that before the general election when they were making all those great and grandiose promises about what they were going to deliver to us in the south-west. Those are the conversations the hon. Gentleman needs to have with his Front Bench colleagues. I will leave that to him and wish him the very best of luck It is completely obvious to me why the money has not been made available. Network Rail has not got it because it has massively overspent and overrun on all its other projects. I hope that when the Minister responds we can hear a little bit more detail on exactly what we can expect in the far south-west and when. If she cannot tell us about the feasibility study money this evening, perhaps she can tell us: when we might be able to hear about it; when we might have some hope about the prospect of electrification beyond Bristol into our part of the region along the lines that have been suggested; and when we might have some idea about the timetable for an additional alternative line to Dawlish I completely agree with the point made by the hon. Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston). We do not want to lose the line at Dawlish. It is beautiful and the people of Dawlish do not want to lose it. However, the fact is that if we talk to any engineer or climate change scientist about the long-term viability of the route, they do not just talk about storms and sea level rises but the fragility of the cliff. The biggest problem with the block last year was that the cliff kept falling down. It is a multiple problem and the line is between the sea and quite a soft cliff. As hon. Members will know, there was a plan back in 1939 to build a sensible, slightly inland alternative from Powderham Castle to Newton Abbot. That did not go ahead because the second world war broke out. There are other options. I can understand that people in north Devon and north Cornwall like the idea of the Okehampton line being reopened. Let us have a look at that and have some idea about what is going to happen and when. As the Prime Minister himself said, we cannot afford to have the south-west cut off like that again. Our economy cannot afford it. I was on the right side of that block, so it did not affect me, but the Plymouth, Cornwall, South Devon and Torbay economies were seriously affected by it.
Great Western Railway Routes — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Transportation
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (Labour, Centre-left): I have said I am grateful for that station and that I am grateful for the investment programme that the Labour Government initiated. I say to the Minister simply that she has cut that investment programme over the last six years at a time when every sensible economist in the world thinks we should be investing in our infrastructure for the long term. We have record low long-term interest rates in this country and a faltering economy, so now is the time when we should be investing in infrastructure, and particularly in rail. I repeat that I am very grateful that the Minister did not cut the money for that station and that we are going to get another station—but, incidentally, the Labour Government initiated the plans for that, too I am going to end with the following suggestion to the Conservative MPs in Devon and Cornwall who were swept to victory last May on great and grandiose promises of a rail revolution and renaissance in the south-west. I got into a great deal of trouble with my Whips in the last Parliament for refusing to vote for the money for High Speed 2 up to the north. To give credit where it is due, one Conservative Member, the hon. Member for South West Devon (Mr Streeter)—sadly, he is not in his place tonight—did the same. We withheld our support for that money. The Government now have a majority of only 12—