If you're just joining us, Rishi Sunak is appearing before the Liaison Committee, taking questions from MPs about the work he's done as prime minister since December.

Labour's Dame Diana Johnson's questions focus on the government's Rwanda Bill - she specifically asks if there's an airline in place to take illegal migrants to Rwanda or if the RAF will be deployed.

The Home Office "are considering a range of options," Sunak says, adding preparations are being made but refuses to give specifics.

Image source, UK Parliament

It's now the turn of Sir Bob Neill, chair of the Commons Justice Select Committee, to grill Sunak. He begins by asking what's being done to unblock "record levels of delays in our criminal courts and record numbers in prisons".

Sunak says it's worth remembering the impact of the pandemic and outlines that he made a decision in the pandemic to protect jury trials, which the committee agreed to:

He adds that the government is in "the process of the largest prison building programme since to Victorian age" - but there's a particular issue of what Covid did to the remand population in prisons, which is causing the pressure.

Neill insists "the backlog has not returned to pre-Covid levels" and claims it would not be possible to achieve the government's target "without radical change".

Crabb now asks about the 600,000 people under the age of 35 who are currently economically inactive due to long-term sickness.

Sunak says he believes work can provide "purpose and fulfilment", adding that he believes "everyone that can work should work".

The PM bemoans the huge numbers of people currently not working because of long-term sickness as "one of the unfortunate consequences of the pandemic" - highlighting that there are three times as many people currently signed off than there were a decade ago.

"We need to make progress," says Sunak, insisting government are "doing a bunch of things" such as the Back To Work plan and introducing more access to Talking Therapies.

But he agrees the current welfare system "isn't working as intended" which is why WCAs (Work Capability Assessment) are set to be reformed.

We're now hearing from Tory MP Stephen Crabb, who asks if it's the PM’s assumption that the triple lock should be in place for the entire period of the next Parliament.

Sunak says he has nothing further to add to what Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said about this over the weekend. (Hunt said the Conservatives will keep the triple lock system to decide rises in the state pension if they win the election.)

Pressed on whether he thinks that is affordable, Sunak says: “I do, because the track record of the government is that we make priorities.”

He says ensuring people who work hard all their lives have the dignity they deserve in their retirement is important to him - the triple lock is an expression of that, he says, and he's proud pensioners are "less likely to be in poverty” as a result of the policy.

Walker, still asking questions, wonders what Sunak thinks about mobile phones and children's mental health: "Do you think there's more that we can do to protect children in this space?"

Sunak responds by saying that as a parent of two girls "at mobile phone age, this is something I think about a lot".

He says he's glad the guidance in the Online Safety Act has been "warmly welcomed" and that he wants it to help schools to ensure that children do not to have their phones on during the day:

Sunak adds that he recently spoke to Molly Russell's and Brianna Ghey's parents about some of these issues, and has been reflecting on the conversations that he had with them.

We're slowly making our way around the table at which members of the Liaison Committee are sat.

Next up is Tory MP Robin Walker, who changes the subject to financial education. He asks the prime minister how you strike the right balance between making students study maths until they turn 18 - as previously set out by Sunak - and at the same time make sure that they are equipped with the financial education they need to thrive in the modern world.

Sunak says that the subject of schools is "dear to my heart", and that those are not in opposition to each other.

Broadening maths education will ensure everyone has a good understanding of the subject, he says, which is "hugely important" for future earnings and employment potential.

"Sadly, we haven't done a good enough job at it in the past," he says.

No promises made on cash-strapped councilspublished at 13:41 Greenwich Mean Time 26 March

13:41 GMT 26 March

Ben Wright
Political correspondent

I'm also listening in to today's hearing and thought an exchange a little earlier between Labour's Clive Betts and the prime minister was interesting.

Betts asked what the next few years could mean for severely cash-strapped councils - some of which have either already declared effective bankruptcy or are teetering on the brink - to which Rishi Sunak accepted things are "challenging" but made no promises.

He said a new spending review will be needed to divvy up the cake. That will happen after the general election.

Non-protected Whitehall departments are braced for very tight budgets, whoever wins. But the details will only be revealed after the country votes.

This could be a theme to Sunak's answers this afternoon.

Up next is Steve Brine, of the Commons Health Select Committee, who quotes Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and asks the PM to identity which parts of the NHS are "woefully inefficient".

Sunak responds that the NHS has it's own productivity plan - not decided by the government - and suggests it needs to adopt new digital technology.

Outdated IT systems, he says, have meant doctors and nurses have lost some 13 million hours of work each year.

He says the digitisation of operating theatre processes will allow hundreds of thousands of more operations per year, and that adopting recent technology will help doctors read MRI and CAT scans more accurately.

The PM also says the NHS app can be improved to streamline appointments, which would reduce missed appointments by half a million.

Changing tack somewhat, Baldwin now asks about the headline feature of the recent Budget - National Insurance being cut by 2p - and the fact it was leaked to the papers ahead of the Budget announcement.

Baldwin asks if the PM knows how that happened and if there's an inquiry under way.

The prime minister says he deplores leaks, noting he suffered from them as chancellor himself.

He says he can't be sure if there is any specific inquiry under way to investigate the source of this particular leak, but adds it has been historically difficult to identify the persons responsible.

Harriet Baldwin, still asking questions, pushes the PM to confirm that debt is still rising, and is "rising for the next several years". The Commons Treasury Select Committee chair said she has not seen it forecast to return to what it was before the pandemic and asked if there is any hope for future taxpayers that debt could "ever reach those kinds of levels again".

Rishi Sunak responded by saying "yes, I would like to believe so" and added that headline debt is due to start falling from next year.

He added: "Over time there is no reason for it not to continue falling as long as we have strong control over public spending."

Baldwin now focuses on public debt and cites the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as saying that debt is actually rising in the country. She asks the PM how he feels about the growing debt.

Sunak responds by saying it's "very important" that the UK gets debt under control.

He outlines the context of the last few years - namely the pandemic - and how the government was forced to step in during the pandemic to protect businesses and the NHS.

And he insists that the government is "meeting its fiscal rules", saying "every time the chancellor has stood up since I got this job, the debt profile has improved".

Harriett Baldwin starts by asking the prime minister about his economic strategy - and how it's going.

Rishi Sunak says that when he first got the job of PM, he set out five priorities: “Three of them were economic: to halve inflation, grow the economy and reduce debt.”

He says progress has been made on all three, particularly inflation.

The PM says "we'd all like to see" the economy growing faster, and claims that last year the economy outperformed expectations.

Rishi Sunak has taken his place in front of the Liaison Committee.

Stay tuned as we bring you what he says - and remember you can watch the proceedings live by clicking the Play button at the top of the page.

When Rishi Sunak last appeared before the Liaison Committee, perhaps not surprisingly the most discussed topics were the conflict in Gaza and the cost of living crisis.

But the Rwanda Bill and fuel poverty were also high on the agenda.

The prime minister was questioned about food prices not coming down, and the ongoing financial struggles facing families in Britain.

He was scrutinised about the impact of Brexit on tourism, overseas workers and the hospitality industry - with fellow Tory Dame Caroline Dinenage saying the UK had become “less attractive” in all three areas since we left the EU.

At the session three months ago, Sunak was also asked what he thought was the greatest strategic challenge facing the UK, to which he answered “the hostile international environment”.

Image source, Getty Images

Well, for each government department there's a select committee of MPs tasked with scrutinising the work of that individual department.

The cross-party Liaison Committee, external is a kind of super-committee made up of all the MPs who chair those individual select committees. Currently it has 35 members.

The committee looks at the government’s record in office - covering broad areas such as home affairs, foreign affairs and the Treasury. It also meets three times a year specifically to probe the work of the prime minister.

Sir Bernard Jenkin, who presides over the committee, is chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

In common with the Houses of Parliament, the majority of members of the Liaison Committee are currently Conservative MPs - though this has not saved previous Tory prime ministers from receiving tricky questions in the past.

Image source, Reuters

While the order of questioning is determined on the day, we can anticipate some themes around questions from December's committee session, external.

This included questions ranging from global education for girls to asylum backlogs.

Given yesterday’s news of the UN resolution on calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, it's thought there'll be some questions focused on the UK’s part in this and, more generally, the work the PM has done around the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Another likely topic, as we've already said, is the UK’s security around China and hacking revelations announced yesterday.

Other areas of scrutiny that often arise are around the UK’s economy and household struggles. With the cost of living still being an issue for millions across the UK, Sunak could face questions over how much that has improved for the lowest income households.

Sam Hancock
Live reporter

Hello, you join us with just over half an hour to go until Rishi Sunak sits down in front of the Liaison Committee.

The prime minister faces questions from various MPs about the economy, public services, strategic thinking in government and global issues - such as sanctions the UK is imposing after accusing China of being behind cyber campaigns.

Sunak was last before the committee in December, while today's session takes place immediately before parliament breaks for the Easter recess.

We, along with colleagues from our politics team at Millbank, will bring you the latest updates - as well as some analysis along the way. Stay tuned.