And that wraps up this week's PMQs, and the immigration minister's statement on plans to house migrants in military bases to cut down on the use of hotels.

• It was an unusual day at the House of Commons, as the prime minister and Labour leader attended Baroness Betty Boothroyd's funeral in Cambridgeshire
• Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab stood in for Rishi Sunak and deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner stood in for Sir Keir Starmer, and they clashed over rape convictions, anti-social behaviour and policing
• Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick then announced the government's plans to repurpose barrack blocks on former military bases in Essex, Lincolnshire and East Sussex to house migrants
• The announcement was met with disdain by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, who branded the plans an "admission of failure" by the Conservative government

You can read more here.There will be no PMQs next week, as parliament enters its Easter recess tomorrow - it will be on 17 April.

Today's writers were Aoife Walsh, Laura Gozzi, Richard Morris, Sam Francis, Sarah Fowler and Malu Cursino. Our page was edited by Sam Hancock and Heather Sharp.

Let's now step away from Westminster and head to Thriplow in Cambridgeshire, where politicians and loved ones attended Baroness Betty Boothroyd's funeral.

Boothroyd was the first female Speaker of the House of Commons and she died last month aged 93.

Politicians from both sides of the house paid tribute and, as we saw during PMQs, her legacy will be fondly remembered by many.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and the current speaker of the house Sir Lindsay Hoyle were among those at the funeral.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Reality Check

Police numbers also came up at PMQs, with Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner saying to Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab: "After 13 years of his party in government there are now 6,000 fewer neighbourhood police officers on Britain's streets."

The latest figures, external show that at the end of September 2022 there were 142,145 full-time equivalent police officers in England and Wales, which is down 1,589 compared with 143,734 in March 2010.

Those statistics do not include a category for neighbourhood police officers.

It does include PCSOs (police community support officers) who share some but not all of the powers of police officers.

There were 8,263 PCSOs at the end of September 2022, which is down more than 8,000 in the last 13 years.

We have asked Labour if that was what she was talking about.

As we've been reporting, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has confirmed the government's intention to house migrants in military bases.

It comes against the wider backdrop of the government's planned legislation on migration, which was brought forward after PM Rishi Sunak announced at the start of the year that one of his key priorities was to "stop the boats".Under the bill:

• People removed from the UK will be blocked from returning or seeking British citizenship in future
• Migrants will not get bail or be able to seek judicial review for the first 28 days of detention
• There will be a cap on the number of refugees the UK will settle through "safe and legal routes" - set annually by Parliament
• A duty on the home secretary to detain and remove those arriving in the UK illegally, to Rwanda or a "safe" third country - this will take legal precedence over someone's right to claim asylum
• Under-18s, those medically unfit to fly, or those at risk of serious harm in the country they are being removed to will be able to delay removal

Our home and legal correspondent, Dominic Casciani has taken a look at some of this issue surrounding the bill - including will it become a reality?

Reality Check

The issue of convictions for rape was one topic that came up as Deputy PM Dominic Raab and deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner sparred at Prime Minister's Questions. We heard a lot of numbers - but were they correct?Responding to questions about the numbers of people convicted for rape, Dominic Raab said: "The conviction rate has gone up - it's now at 69%."

The conviction rate is the proportion of people prosecuted who end up being convicted.

It turns out that 69% was the figure for, external April to June 2022 - it fell a bit in the months after that but was still over 60%.

But Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner responded: "69% of 1.6% - is that really something to boast about?"

The 1.6% is the proportion, external of rapes recorded by police that led to someone being charged or ordered to appear in court in England and Wales in the year to September 2022.

If you're just joining our live coverage, or need a bit of a catch up, it's safe to say it's been a busy afternoon in the Commons.

We had PMQs at midday... in which deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner and justice secretary Dominic Raab stood in for their respective leaders, who were attending former speaker Baroness Boothroyd's funeral.

Rayner focused on... violence against women and girls, challenging the government on low rape convictions, and slow case progress. In a thinly veiled reference to his own bullying enquiry, she also asked Raab whether he wanted to see bullies brought to justice.

In response, Raab... said the conviction rate measured by the CPS in rape cases had gone up 69%; funding for victims had been quadrupled; and violence against women was one of the government's "top priorities". He also accused Rayner of being more interested in playing "political games" than the issues she was raising.

Image source, PA Media

After that, we had a statement by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick... who confirmed plans to house migrants arriving in the UK on small boats in accommodation such as repurposed barrack blocks on former military bases in Essex and Lincolnshire. There'll be another site in East Sussex, as well as one in Rishi Sunak's constituency.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper... branded the plans an "admission of failure" by the government to tackle the migrant crisis. She said small boat crossings had increased and 40% fewer asylum cases were being decided due to the policies. She also accused the Home Office of behaving in such a panicked way that it had, she said, bid against itself for hotel contracts - driving prices up.

Sam Hancock
Live reporter

Phew, that was a busy hour-and-a-half. Thanks for staying with us and following along.

As we've been reporting, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick is in the House of Commons taking questions on the government's latest asylum plans.

The debate in the chamber is ongoing but we'll now take a step back and recall the major points raised both in that statement and Prime Minister's Questions, which came before it.

That's coming up next.

Next up is a question from Tory MP Conor Burns, who starts by praising the government's determination to speed up processing asylum claims in the backlog.

He says it's unacceptable that people have their lives on hold and are unable to make a new future for themselves or for them to be returned to their countries of origin.

A number of hotels in his Bournemouth West constituency are full of people who want their cases resolved, Burns says, as do those involved in the hospitality and leisure sector.

He asks if the proposals announced today will help bring those hotels back to their purpose, to which Jenrick says these plans are the necessary first step to closing the hotels and moving forward.

Jenrick's still responding to concerns and questions about the government's new plans to house migrants in ex-military bases across the UK.

He says he's aware that many people have been "extremely concerned" about the impact of hotels in local areas being used.

"It's for that reason we are taking the difficult but correct decision to close them," the Conservative minister tells MPs, adding that he hopes the hotels will be closed in the next few months.

Jenrick responds, saying he has affection for Carmichael but accuses his colleague of being naïve.

He repeats that other European countries he has spoken to - be it Ireland, Belgium or Denmark - are pursuing similar options.

"We have to ensure the UK is not a magnet for those individuals who are either economic migrants or essentially asylum shoppers," the immigration minister tells the Lib Dem MP and the House.

He adds: "I will not allow the UK to be a soft touch".

Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael is up next. He says the House should "acknowledge the true genius" of this decision by the Home Office, which believes that lots of people from small boats should be put together "in one big boat".

That gets some cheers from various benches.

He asks if the minister is confident in dealing with the backlog, why is the extra capacity necessary?

Jenrick says anyone crossing the Channel will be put into these sites immediately. He says he is speaking "every day" to northern European counterparts who are "all pursuing options like this, because there is a European migration crisis".

Former home secretary Priti Patel says MPs need to tackle this debate "with a degree of maturity".

She asks why it is appropriate for asylum seeker accommodation to be placed in a rural village in Essex, including single men, where there is no infrastructure or amenities. She also asks why this village is more appropriate than the North Yorkshire village of Linton-on-Ouse, which was chosen for similar plans when she was home secretary last year - and later abandoned by the current government.

Jenrick starts by paying tribute to Patel for her previous work on immigration during Boris Johnson's government. It's critical, he says, that when people cross the Channel "illegally" they are moved "either to detained accommodation... or, in the absence of that, to specific sites where they can be housed appropriately".

He says the sites announced today are just "the first" of many to come - and insists the government wants to "remove people from hotels and move them to a more rudimentary form of accommodation", which will reduce the "pull factor" of the UK.

Jenrick responds to Thewliss by saying the UK's resources could be used either on resettlement schemes or to support people in some of the "most hard-pressed places in the world". He says this is the best way forward rather than open borders.

He adds there is merit in using vessels and that they have been used successfully in Scotland.

He says the government doesn't intend to put minors or families on these sites, but insists they are the best way forward for single adult males.

Jenrick also says that more than 11,000 cases of asylum have been processed from the backlog in the last few months as a result of the new processes.

Over to the SNP's spokesperson Alison Thewliss, who says the UK government has “historical form in the use of internment camps, and it is despicable this government is intent on bringing that back”.

She also attacks the Conservatives for raising the fact the SNP have used two cruise ships to house Ukrainian refugees. Both ships are being stood down now, she says.

The government’s “plan is a prison ship designed as a deterrent” while the SNP scheme “provided wrap around” care, she says.

Thewliss raises a leaked Home Office report being reported in the press, external that found housing migrants on ships was “even more expensive than the hotels plans”.

“When will he stop wasting money on headlines and tackle the real crisis” of migrant processing backlog? she asks firmly.

Ben Wright
Political correspondent

It was telling that Robert Jenrick didn’t name the disused RAF bases the government plans to use for migrant accommodation. He only said they would be in Essex, Lincolnshire and East Sussex.

The minister also said some accommodation at Catterick Garrison, in the prime minister's constituency in North Yorkshire, would be used.

Jenrick wants his Tory colleagues to rally behind this contentious plan to cut the huge cost of hotel accommodation - but it’s going to be a tough sell.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has already criticised plans to use an RAF base near Braintree in Essex and the Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh gave Jenrick a taste of local opposition in his Lincolnshire patch.

It's time for some questions from MPs now. Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh says RAF Scampton is "assumed" to be the base in Lincolnshire, potentially chosen to host migrants.

He says West Lindsey, the local authority, are ready to launch an "immediate judicial review" as soon as that decision is announced. He asks how the government can guarantee the safety of the local villagers and the nearby RAF base, adding that Lincolnshire "will fight" this decision.

Jenrick says Sir Edward is representing his constituents "forcefully". He says the government understands "the impact and the concern" within local communities on this but insists there'll be a "significant package of support" and protections for the local area.

He says it will be a "short term arrangement".

In response to Cooper, Jenrick says Labour doesn't have "the faintest clue" about how to deal with the migrant crisis.

He says Cooper can't bring herself to condemn illegal immigrants who are "breaking into our country" - and that Labour is "too weak" to make the decisions that the Conservatives are making.

Labour would make the UK a magnet with open cheque books and open doors, he says.

Jenrick says the British public know the Conservative party "understand their legitimate concerns".

Cooper goes on, saying the government is failing to make simple decisions when it comes to migration. She tells Jenrick and MPs that there are no agreements between the UK and European countries like France, which makes things worst.

The shadow home secretary says the government is desperate to distract everyone by talking about ferries and barges, but says the detail of the plans is missing. She's referring to government plans currently under consideration to use ferries and barges to house migrants who have enterered the country illegally.

Cooper goes on to ask whether these new sites in Essex, Lincolnshire and East Sussex are additional and if Jenrick will be using more hotels or less in six months time. She also asks whether he'll apologise for failure on cost control.

She says the government has lost control of their budget, the asylum system and lost control of themselves.

Cooper says Labour agrees about the need to end costly hotel stays “but these plans don’t do that”.

Ministers were forced to “admit that they won’t end hotel use, instead these are additional spaces," she says.

A “damming report” from the government’s own independent watchdog says there has been “no cost control” and the Home Office’s contracts have bene “highly inefficient”.

She tells MPs that “different parts of the Home Office operating in different schemes sometimes even found themselves bidding for the same contract, driving prices up”. She also accuses the department of “writing a whole load of cheques in a panic”.

It's over to shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper now, who's responding to the plans.

She says this is an "admission of failure" by the government, and that the situation is not getting better under the Conservatives - it's "getting worse".

Cooper goes on, saying the government previously claimed they'd stop using hotels - but they're used now "more than ever". In a similar vein, she says small boat crossings have increased since the government promised to half them.

Some 40% fewer cases are being decided, she adds, which is "failing to make basic decisions" on asylum applications.

"The asylum system is broken because they broke it," Cooper says of the government, to cheers from the Labour benches behind her.