The latest headlines for big sinews. Some of twitter is top users have had their accounts hacked urging hello again, and welcome to wednesday in parliament. Borisjohnson agrees to an inquiry into the pandemic, but is he prepared for the next one . Has the Prime Minister actually read this report that sets out the reasonable worst Case Scenario and tells the government what it needs to do about it in the next six weeks . Has he read it . Mr speaker, i am of course aware of the report and we are of course. We are of course taking every reasonable step to prepare this country for a second spike. Also in this programme, the home secretary says too many people are arriving in the uk illegally on small boats. What i would say and i will be very clear about it, these numbers are just shocking, theyre appalling, and theyre unacceptably high. And why shoppers in wales wont have to wear face masks. But first Prime Ministers questions, and another question time dominated by the governments handling of the pandemic. Borisjohnson agreed in principle to hold an independent inquiry but not yet. The Prime Minister was also pressed by the labour leader, sir keir starmer, on whether he had learnt the lessons of a report which warned about 120,000 possible new coronavirus deaths in a second wave of infections this winter. The report was clear july and august must be a period of intense preparation, ie now. Can the Prime Minister make clear that he intends to implement the recommended actions in this report in full and at speed . Mr speaker, not only are we getting on with implementing the preparations for a potential new spike, but he will know that the government is engaged in record investments in the nhs. £34 billion. What i think the house may not realise isjust in the last year since this government has been in office, there are no 12,000 more nurses in the nhs, 6000 more doctors, and it was thanks to their hard work, thanks to the hard work of the entire nhs that we were able to prevent our Health Service from being overwhelmed this spring and we will take steps to ensure that it is not overwhelmed this winter as well. One of the key recommendations in this report commissioned by the Governments Office for science is that testing and tracing capacity will need to be significantly expanded to cope with increased demands over the winter. The reality is this. Trace and track is not working as promised as it stands today. The report makes clear in needs to be significantly expanded to cope with the risks of autumn or winter. What assurance can the Prime Minister give that the system will be fit for both purposes and the timeframe envisaged in this report, ie by this september . Mrspeakeronce again, he attacks the test and trace operation which is working at absolutely unprecedented scale, and 144,000 people across the country, 144,000 people across the country have now agreed to self isolate to stop the spread of the virus, and i can certainly give the house the assurance that our test and trace system is as good as or better than any other system anywhere in the world and yes, it will play a vital. It will play a vital part in ensuring that we do not have a second spike this winter. But i have to ask in light of the last few questions, has the Prime Minister actually read this report that sets out the reasonable worst Case Scenario and tells the government what it needs to do about it in the next six weeks . Has he read it . Mr speaker, i am of course aware of the report and we are of course. We are of course taking every reasonable step to prepare this country for a second spike. Borisjohnson said keir starmer should support what the government was doing. Instead of endlessly knocking the confidence of the people of this country, knocking their confidence in test and trace, knocking their confidence in our schools and the safety of our schools, and knocking our confidence in our transport network. Now is the time for him to decide whether he backs the government or not. Keir starmer it is perfectly possible to support track and trace and point out the problems. And standing up every week saying its a stunning success is kidding no one. That isnt giving people confidence in the system. They would like the Prime Minister to stand up and say there are problems and this is what im going to do about them. Not this rhetoric about stunning success when it is obviously not true. Finally, this afternoon. This afternoon, Prime Minister, im meeting the families of the covid 19 bereaved families forjustice group, a group of hundreds of families whove lost loved ones. They will be listening to the Prime Ministers answers today. So what would the Prime Minister like to say to them . Prime minister. Mr speaker, ijoin with i think every member of the house in mourning the loss of everybody who has died in this epidemic. We will do absolutely everything we can to protect our country and to stop a second spike, but what he has to decide is whether he wants to back that programme or not because one day, he says its safe to go back to school. The next day, hes taking the line of the unions. One day, theyre supporting our economic programme. The next day, theyre saying our stamp duty cut is unacceptable bung. One day, they say they accept the result of the brexit referendum. The next day, today, theyre going to tell their troops to do the exact opposite. He needs to make up his mind which brief hes going to take today. Because at the moment, mr speaker, hes got more briefs than calvin klein. Were getting on were getting on with delivering on our agenda for the country, getting this country through this pandemic, and taking it forward the acting lib dem leader kept up his push for an inquiry. Under this Prime Minister, we suffered one of the worst death rates in the world and europes worst death rate for health and care workers. Previously, hes refused my demand for immediate inquiry, immediate independent inquiry, saying its too soon. Even though back in 2003, he voted for an independent inquiry into the iraq warjust months after the conflict started. If he still rejects an immediate inquiry, will he instead commit in principle to a future Public Inquiry . Yes or no . Prime minister. Mr speaker as i have told the house several times, i do not believe that now in the middle of combating still as we are a pandemic is the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry, but of course mr speaker we will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future, and certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened. The snp focused on life after brexit warning of a possible power grab with the uk government imposing lower food quality standards on scotland. We know this government is undertaking a full scale assault on devolution. A brexit settlement scotland rejected, imposed on scotland. An immigration system scotland rejected, imposed on scotland. A decade of tory governance scotland rejected, imposed on scotland. It is no wonder the first ministers Approval Ratings are three times that of this Prime Minister. Effective leadership and respecting the will of the people contrasted with the bumbling shambles coming from westminster. I find it extraordinary for him to attack unelected bureaucrats for any role they may have in scotland when his proposal is to hand back the powers that we are going, that this place is going to be transferring to scotland back to brussels where they are neither elected nor accountable to the people of scotland. So, i really dont know what he means. The Prime Minister. Earlier at question time, borisjohnson admitted he couldnt wave a magic wand to save everyjob affected by the crisis, despite last weeks £30 billion package from the chancellor. As part of that package, a temporary cut in vat has come into force, allowing firms in the food, drink, and hospitality sectors to slash prices. The treasury estimates households could save £160 on average from the cut from 20 to 5 . But not all firms will pass on the benefit a point raised when rishi sunak appeared before mps on the treasury committee. Moving on to the changes to vat, is there a risk with those changes that it does not pass through to the consumer and effectively the £4. 1 billion earmarked for the cost are to vat effectivelyjust becomes an extra grant for those sectors . Look, i obviously am not going to be able to sit here and direct the pricing of every single business in the country and that when be right or appropriate. That would not be right or appropriate. But i think throughout this crisis, businesses have been doing difficult jobs and they have been responding well when those things have been asked of them. What we do know is that last time around when we had a generalised vat cut again in 08 09, about four out of five businesses from memory passed that vat cut on to consumers. I was out today getting my lunch and that was certainly the case and i know lots of companies are making a feature of that but obviously it will be a decision for individual companies to make. But i think the important thing is, you know, whether the benefits slightly flows to consumers or to the businesses or some mix of that, all of that is helpful for safeguarding jobs. In terms of the interventions youve made, the £30 billion or so in interventions youve made, are you confident that that, alongside the interventions you made with the Job Retention programme, the support to businesses, on balance that what you are doing is going to be enough to prevent the rapid rise, the projected rapid rise in unemployment including the youth unemployment numbers which are very worrying for all of us . I would agree with you, i am particularly worried about youth unemployment. Young people are 2. 5 times more likely to work in closed sectors, we know that. And we also know from experience and from academic and economic evidence that young people are the ones who are at the greatest risk of scarring if they lose contact with the Labour Market early on in theircareers. That has a very damaging impact on them for years and years to come which is why it is right and appropriate to target interventions on them. Rishi sunak. Youre watching wednesday in parliament with me, david cornock. Dont forget that if you miss our daily round up, you can catch up via the bbc iplayer. It was the last ever session of questions to the department for International Development, following borisjohnsons announcement last month that its to merge with the foreign office. The department was set up in 1997 under the blair government. The Current InternationalDevelopment Secretary was questioned about how and when the decision to abolish her department was taken. Last week, i asked the secretary of state, what partner organisations and nongovernmental organisations were consulted prior to the announcement for the merger between the department for International Development and the foreign commonwealth office. She said the statement of the merger was first made to parliament, and theres been ongoing consultation since then. This stands in stark contradiction to what the Prime Minister said previously when he told this house there had been massive consultation over a long period. Therefore, was the Prime Minister aware hed taken the decision without any evidence to support it, or did he Mislead Parliament to create an illusion of legitimacy to this ideologically driven, disastrous merger . The Prime Minister made the announcement of the new departmental framework to parliament first, and there are ongoing discussions led by the permanent secretary with the ngos. The decision to ask the department was done on a whim by the Prime Minister to try to distract from his handling of the pandemic. Thats why there are still no details of what the department will look like, how it will operate, or how it will be scrutinised to guarantee value for money for uk taxpayers who are rightly proud of the work dfid has done in tackling poverty around the world. So will she guarantee that funds will be focused on the worlds poorest, and any cuts to the aid budget come from funds which currently go to middle and upper income countries, or have been found to have Little Development impact such as those outlined in the one campaign to aid index . The minister insisted the government remain committed to a target of spending 0. 7 of the uks National Income on aid. Dfid is world renowned for its focus and programme expertise, and that will continue to be the case. Poverty reduction will continue to be a critical focus of how we spend the 0. 7 that this government continues to be committed to. We enshrined it in law and it stays there, and the Prime Minister is absolutely committed to that. The ability to help a country become self sufficient and climb up that ladder will absolutely continue. We will continue to commit to the 0. 7 based on gnr. Anne marie trevelyan. The home secretary has said that the number of people arriving illegally in the uk on small boats is unacceptably high. Priti patel told the Home Affairs Committee the situation was shocking and appalling. In a wide ranging session, she was also repeatedly asked about the number of people entering the country with coronavirus. How many people do you estimate are coming into the country at the moment with coronavirus . Well, that i dont know. I mean, on a daily basis, the number of people coming into the country is approximately 50,000 people and thats across all modes of transport. I dont have a figure of people coming into the country on a daily basis with the coronavirus. That figure is held centrally elsewhere in government. If the average prevalence for the people coming into the country was similar to that of spain and spain normally would be about 40 of the cases coming into the country anyway you would then expect that to be sort of over 100 people a day with coronavirus coming into the country. Is that accurate . Well, it sounds to me like theres a bigger hypothetical. So theres no point asking me if a hypothetical figure is accurate. What im really keen to know is, what is the governments estimate . The estimate that we had, and bear in mind that there was a range of data that we had coming in, and it was difficult for the scientific advisers in particular to say that that data was fully reliable the figure i was given, the percentage was 0. 5 of people basically who are potentially bringing in cases from outside of the uk into the uk. Yvette cooper harked back to remarks made by a Senior Home Office official, shona dunn. We went to this figure last time in our last evidence session, and you raised that last time, you said it was 0. 5 of people coming into the country. In that evidence session, shona dunn then corrected you and said in fact, it was 0. 5 of the total number of cases currently in the uk. So can we just clarify which is it . 0. 5 of the number of people coming into the country, or 0. 5 of the number of cases in the uk . Those are very different figures. Sorry, its the cases in the uk. 0k. So 0. 5 of cases in the uk. But given that we dont know how many cases there were in the uk at that time, i ask you again were you ever given, did you ever ask for, and were you ever given an estimate of the number of people coming into the country with coronavirus . Well, as ive already said, it was difficult to get accurate information. Im just asking if you were given estimates. Yvette cooper said that the 0. 5 figure was initally given in march. What is the figure for now today injuly, when weve got different quarantine arrangements in place that presumably are based on some evidence . What is your figure for now of the 50,000, what is the governments estimate about the number of those people who are likely to be carrying coronavirus, and thereby presumably justifying the quarantine arrangements you have in place . Well, i have just told you the figure that i have been given as the only reliable estimate. We will ask for that to come to you in writing from a government scientific adviser. But now, it was time to turn to other pressing issues such as illegal migration. Injanuary 2019, the british and french governments agreed the treaty of sandhurst to improve Border Security to prevent people crossing that channel in small boats. Migration botched reports around 2,300 have successfully crossed into the uk in the first half of 2020. Do you accept those figures . I dont have those in front of me. I see figures on a daily basis because i actually see notjust the data, but every single incident report that comes in. What i would say, and ill be very clear about it, is that these numbers are shocking and appalling, and theyre unacceptably high. She said shed had some difficult discussions with her french counterpart. Currently the french authorities are not intercepting boats at sea. And by that, i mean even boats that are just 250 yards or so away from the french coast. I feel that there could be stronger enforcement measures on the french side, and theyve heard that from me. I believe it was the the schoenberg agreement some while ago which apparently was an informal agreement whereby we could repatriate at sea interceptions back to france, but nothing is ever happened under that agreement, which turns out not to a been worth the gentlemans handshake it was made on. We have stress tested the agreement since last year again and again, and again. And in fact, i think one of my officials described it inappropriately as a gentlemans agreement, which is thoroughly inappropriate. Literally just sort of an informal agreement. And the fact of the matter is these agreements are here to stand the test of time. The home secretary said the uk had offered to conduct joint exercises at sea, with the french to demonstrate how boats could safely be returned to france. A minister has denied that any claimant has to wait five weeks for a payment under the new universal credit scheme. Will quince rejected evidence gathered by the work and Pensions Committee that suggested the five week wait for the first regular payment of the benefit was causing a lot of hardship. He said numerous changes had been made to the programme over the past few years. Where we do have a fundamental difference of opinion with a number of stakeholders is that we dont ask that anybody has to wait five weeks for a payment under universal credit. And that is because universal credit is available, up to 100 of someones indicative award as an advance, and that is interest free repayable over 12 months. Citizens advice has told us, partly on the basis of the work they do for the department in running their help to claim service, that people claiming universal credit are about 70 more likely to be behind with their rent then people claiming housing benefits. Do you accept that thats evidence of an issue here . Well, i suppose there several questions. Firstly, we would need to see that evidence and not just anecdotally, but to see some actual data that would suggest that. The evidence we have suggests. Well, the evidence that we have is that it is people coming onto universal credit with historic rent arrears, the actually then get paid off faster over time on universal credit. Will quince. The snp has said the governments refusal to extend the brexit transition period beyond the end of the year is the ultimate act of self harm. In a debate intiated by the party, its leader at westminster set out his demands. If we are to ensure the most rapid recovery possible from the covid 19 crisis, the uk Must Immediately seek an extension to the brexit transition period for two years. We are in unprecedented times a health pandemic, and economic crisis, the very real threat of a second wave of covid 19 later this year. Now is the moment for the uk government to recognise reality and to reconsider its position. This is not taking back control. This is self induced madness. We could stop this now, we could recognise that this is a price that we cannot pay in the middle of a health and economic crisis. All it requires is political will. All it requires is leadership. When we were debating the Withdrawal Agreement bill back injanuary, we on the opposition benches warned of the foolishness of the government tying its hands by committing the date for the end of the transition into law. We argued that unforeseen events might leave the government needing some flexibility. Although clearly nobody expected a crisis of the scale we are facing with covid 19. I wonder what the right honourable gentleman opposite thinks the odds are of the government extending the transition period . How likely does he think that we would do that, given, after all, its end date is enshrined in law . Given that the government of the uk was elected on a mandate not to extend the transition . Given that the deadline set for asking for an extension to the transition period has passed . Given that doing so would simply prolong the negotiations and bring uncertainty for our businesses . Given that it would hinder our economic recovery . Given that an extension would see us paying more to the eu not a good idea, mr speaker. Given that we would have to back eu laws and decisions we had no say in designing an even worse idea. And given that the legislative and the economic flexibility that we need to respond to coronavirus would not be possible. Penny mordaunt. Face coverings are already compulsory for shoppers in scotland, and will be required in shops and supermarkets in england from a week on friday. In wales, theyll be compulsory on public transport from 27 july but, as things stand, wont be required in shops. The issue featured during the last first ministers questions of term in the welsh parliament. Your careful approach in terms of the easing of restrictions has served well in many ways. But you now, i think, risk treading the line between being too cautious and being too slow on this issue. Why is wales lagging behind when so many other countries have acted so decisively . Ijust reject the language of lagging behind. We are doing the things that are right for wales. That does not mean following anybody else just because they have done something that we have decided not to do. The first minister said restrictions on liberty had to be proportionate to the Public Health risk. Large parts of wales didnt have a single positive case over the whole of last weekend 14 of the 22 local authorities without a single reported positive case. The proportionality test is it proportionate to require every welsh citizen going into a shop to wear a Face Covering when the virus is in such a low state of circulation here in wales . 0utdoor bars and restaurants in wales opened this week, they can open indoors from 3 august. Therefore, given the immediate need to support hospitality businesses here in wales, can you give us what specific package of support the Welsh Government would serve supply in the short term . And will he also be bringing forward a specific strategy for the hospitality sector for both the medium and long term to protect its sustainability and protect vital jobs . Tens of millions of pounds of support has already been provided both to the Tourism Sector and, separately and additionally, to the hospitality sector here in wales. And thats in addition to all the help the sector has received from the uk government through the furlough scheme, which has been very important to both those industries. Mark drakeford in the senedd in cardiff, ending this edition of wednesday in parliament. Thank you for watching. I do hope you canjoin me at the same time tomorrow for the week in parliament. Until then, bye for now. Hello there. Prospects look better for thursday but wednesday did not look or feel for thursday but wednesday did not look orfeel much for thursday but wednesday did not look or feel much like summer at all. We had this damp muggy air stream, bringing on and off a lot of cloud and some drizzle earlier on as well. There was some sunshine that did develop it in the south west of finger but then those breaks in the cloud did fill in overnight. It a cloudy start to thursday, might as well, typical temperature is 12 to 13 degrees. There will be early drizzle and Western Hills may stay cloudy all day, but we are likely to see things brightening up elsewhere and some sunshine where we get a bit more shelter, the east of Northern Ireland, east wales, Eastern England and particularly eastern scotland and particularly eastern scotland and when we get some warm sunshine coming through temperatures will left into the early 20s with the highest temperatures pull bee around aberdeenshire and the day is quite cloudy, 18 will be a typical temperature in the afternoon and thatis temperature in the afternoon and that is for the first day of the despot should be dry. There is rain arriving in the north west of scotla nd arriving in the north west of scotland later on thursday, and that whether front will take that rain south and it will stagger south, it may get stuck throughout friday across southern scotland, Northern Ireland and Northern England and north wales. To the north and south there should be sunshine coming through, differing temperatures across much of scotland, cooler and fresher air, temperatures will be lower on friday but towards england and wales especially in the south east it is the pick of the heat, 2526 around the london area. That whether front still on the scene on friday and still moving slowly south on saturday, it is slowing down quite a bit on saturday and eventually we will find this cooler and fresher air following in its wake, but we have cloud and rain moving further south across england and wales, unlikely to reach the south east of england until the evening and in the north in the northern most parts of england and scotla nd northern most parts of england and scotland we are into sunshine. A few showers in the north west, into the south east of england, the highest temperatures 22 or 24 degrees. Some rain likely overnight, maybe a bit of rain left a clear way in the far south east and once it goes it is sunny spells across the board, a few showers again, particularly in the west of scotland. We are into cooler and fresherfor all west of scotland. We are into cooler and fresher for all areas, with the top temperature into the low 20s. z startfeed. A warm welcome to bbc news. Our top stories. 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