Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer clashed over conviction rates for rape and sexual assault
The Labour leader asked the PM why conviction rate for rape are falling
Boris Johnson says "too often" cases are not fit for prosecution and blamed a lack of joined-up thinking in the system
UK travel bosses are calling on the government to reopen international travel and expand the number of countries on green list
Ministers are expected to update the so-called traffic light list for travel on Thursday
The health secretary has said ministers are working on plans to remove quarantine rules for fully vaccinated people arriving from amber countries
Five years on from the Brexit referendum, the prime minister has said the historic vote to leave the EU can act as a spur to jobs and renewal across the UK
The former Conservative industry secretary, Lord Heseltine, has described the government's approach to engaging with businesses as 'chaotic'
Emails obtained by the BBC suggest the PM's former aide Dominic Cummings tried to bypass Whitehall practise, to fast track a £530,000 grant to an external data team
BBC Politics
We'll close our coverage now of this week's PMQs.
The team on board today were Paul Seddon, Richard Morris and Sinead Wilson.
As we mentioned earlier, the vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi will be hosting a press briefing in Downing Street at 17:00 BST. Our colleagues on the BBC Coronavirus live page will bring you full coverage there.
Thanks for following along with us here today.
Reality Check
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson said the government had invested “another £85m” in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to help improve the record on rape prosecutions. That’s true, but it comes off the back of budget cuts of 25% to the Ministry of Justice, including the CPS, since 2010-11.
CPS staff numbers fell by 2,374 between 2010-11 and 2019-20.
In the year to the end of March 2020, 58,856 cases of rape were recorded by police forces in England and Wales.
In the same year (although this will not necessarily be the same cases due to the time it takes for them to move through the criminal justice system) there were just 2,102 prosecutions, compared with 4,536 in 2014-15 – more than halving.
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Here's a quick round up of what was said at today's question time:
Reality Check
Boris Johnson has been talking about the EU Settlement Scheme that allows EU nationals living in the UK to maintain their rights after Brexit.
“It has produced 5.6 million applications already and I seem to remember that we were told there were only 3.2 million or 3 million to begin with,” he said.
He switched between referring to 5.6 million applications and 5.6 million people. It’s not the same thing as there are some duplicates.
But there have been five million successful applications, which is considerably more than the estimate for the number of EU nationals living in the UK.
The Office for National Statistics is working on new methods to come up with better migration statistics, external.
You can read more about it here.
Image source, HoCConservative Theresa Villiers also raises the issue of planning and asks if the PM will reassure residents that they will have a say over what is built in their neighbourhood.
The PM says "yes indeed".
He says he won't have the new Planning Bill "misrepresented by anybody" because ministers want to give people the chance of home ownership.
He says he wants to "relieve pressure on the over-heating south east" and "build back better across the whole of the UK".
Image source, HoCAlso by video link, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy says that scientists have warned that variants of coronavirus could reduce the effectiveness of vaccines. She says that intellectual property laws are slowing down the roll-out of the vaccine globally.
Boris Johnson says the G7 have agreed to another billion vaccines on top of the billion already promised.
He says vaccines are effective against all variants that "we can currently see".
Image source, HoCConservative Esther McVey asks the prime minister if the HS2 project will soon no longer become "value for money" or whether he will see it through despite the high cost.
She says it is a "white elephant" and the money would be better spent on delivering high-speed broadband.
Boris Johnson says broadband coverage is important, but says he does not agree with her on HS2.
Image source, HoCLabour MP Janet Daby says yesterday was Windrush Day, "yet this year it's a reminder of the appalling failure" of the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
She says at least 21 people have died while awaiting payments, and only 687 people have received any compensation at all.
Boris Johnson says he accepts "the injustice that was done to the Windrush Generation" and he wants to make sure that payments from the scheme are "accelerated".
He says in the future he wants Windrush to be associated a positive message, of those who came to the UK to work and help the country.
Image source, HoCConservative Andrew Mitchell asks about the announcement from the foreign office that Britain is to cut its support for tackling neglected tropical diseases by 95%.
He says this means tablets and vaccines will be destroyed as a result so has the PM had a chance to review the decision he asks and will he have a vote in the Commons on cuts to aid spending?
Boris Johnson says there will be a debate on overseas aid but he does not accept this view of the country's contribution to the fight of disease around the world.
The UK is contributing £10bn this year the PM says, in spite of the "colossal spending" the government has been forced to make to look after families and support jobs in this country during the pandemic.
Image source, HoCThe SNP's Owen Thompson accuses the government of wanting to "neuter" the Electoral Commission, the watchdog that oversees political financing in the UK.
It comes after ministers last week announced plans to specify in law that the watchdog should not be able to bring prosecutions - a power it has previously asked for.
But Boris Johnson doesn't engage, adding: "I can say absolutely nothing".
Image source, HoCSNP MP Philippa Whitford says that during the Brexit referendum the PM promised there'd be no rights changes for EU citizens in the UK. She says those without settled status in one week won't be able to rent property or access healthcare.
She says the UK asked repeatedly for grace periods during Brexit transitions, so she asks why this can't be extended to EU citizens.
Boris Johnson says the settled status scheme has been a "great success" and has received 5.6m applications so far.
He urges any other EU citizens who want to remain in the UK to fill out the relevant forms in the next week.
Image source, HoCJoining by video link Labour's Julie Elliott calls on the PM to condemn internet giant Amazon for "throwing brand new tech into landfill" - following reports it has destroyed unsold computers.
She says this is "appalling" and is denying internet to poor children to learn remotely during the pandemic.
Boris Johnson says he was "shocked" to hear computers were being thrown away, calling it "bizarre and unacceptable".
He says he is sure the company "will wish to rectify it as fast as possible".
Image source, HoCConservative Steve Double raises the issue of planning for new homes.
He says there is a housing crisis in Cornwall with local people being priced out of the market by inflated prices due to the huge demand for second homes.
Will the PM ensure planning reforms are not about helping the wealthy but rather to enable locals to get the homes they need, he asks.
Johnson says the point has been raised repeatedly with him and he is "determined" to address the issue.
He says the focus will be on building "local homes for local people".
Image source, HoC
Image source, HoCOff the back his party's shock by-election win. Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey says that people in Chesham and Amersham told him how they were worried about holding down a job and caring for family members as a family carer.
He says there are "thousands of people" like this in every constituency in "Conservative heartlands". He asks what the PM will do "to make these people's lives a little easier" for those caring for others, unpaid.
Boris Johnson says he "salutes" family carers. He says the government has looked after these families "to the best of this country's ability" and is putting "unprecedented funds" into adult social care.
Image source, HoCSNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford is up.
He asks if the government used an emergency Covid contract, as reported in the Herald newspaper, to conduct constitutional campaigning on the union.
Mr Johnson says he is not aware of this.
But Blackford says during the height of the pandemic emergency contracts were used to conduct political research and will the PM commit to an inquiry?
Johnson says he can't think of a better use of public funds than making sure all of the UK fights the pandemic together.
Image source, HoCFor his final question, Keir Starmer says "criminals are "getting away with it" because of "record low" rape conviction rates, and "record high" backlogs in the court system.
Blaming it on a "decade of Conservative cuts," he asks the PM to take "some responsibility" and apologise to rape victims.
In reply, Boris Johnson says "of course I say sorry for the trauma they have been through" due to the "inadequacies" of the justice system, which he vows ministers will improve.
He says the government is focusing on recovering from the pandemic - goading Labour with the charge that "they jabber, we jab".
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says he spent "five years as Director of Public Prosecutions" and so he knows the "impact of cuts".
He says the government can't make cuts to the Crown Prosecution Service and close "half of courts in England and Wales" and think that a modest increase in funding will fix problems.
He says the government's so-called rape review is "unambitious" and does nothing to address the "epidemic of violence against women and girls".
Boris Johnson says the government has brought in the "landmark" violence against women and girls legislation.
He says Labour voted against increasing sentences for serious sexual offences.
Image source, HoCStarmer says the PM's response is "appalling".
We have "terrible" rates of conviction and prosecution for rape he says and victims are being failed so does the PM accept that cuts to the criminal justice system have contributed to this?
The PM says "no" that is not the case.
He says funding has increased and rather it is a lack of joined up thinking in the system that is to blame.
He says police numbers are up and more investment is going in.
Image source, HoCKeir Starmer says Labour declined to support the government's sentencing bill because it did "more to protect statues than women".
He asks what section of the bill "will do anything" to increase the number of reported rapes that result in a charge being brought. He says this is currently not the case in 98.4% of reported rapes.
The prime minister points to a section of the bill to get rid of the early release people who have already been convicted of rape at the halfway point in their sentence.
He says the government is also investing to ensure there are advisers so that rape victims and survivors "have people in whom they can confide and trust".