Back on migration for a second, and home secretary James Cleverly has issued a video statement claiming that the government is delivering “the biggest ever cut to migration numbers”.

In it, he says:

At the end of last year, we promised to change the migration system to deliver the biggest ever cut to migration numbers. And today, we’ve enacted the final part of that plan.

Taken together, the measures we’ve introduced will radically reduce legal migration. 300,000 people who arrived in the UK last year, would no longer be eligible to do so under these new rules.

We’ve tightened the rules around overseas students, the vast majority of whom can now no longer bring dependents to the UK whilst they study.

We’ve reformed the health and social care visa, introducing more safeguards to protect this route from abuse and removing the ability of care workers to bring dependents.

And we’ve also raised the skilled worker visa salary threshold by 48%, and replaced the shortage occupation list to encourage British businesses to invest in a British workforce, and also to prevent wages being undercut by overseas workers.

And finally, we’ve raised the family visa minimum income requirement, ensuring that people can only bring dependents to the UK that they can financially support.

It is a firm approach, but it is a fair approach and we are delivering the change that we promised, and which the British people expected.

The last couple of days at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry have seen some very gentle questioning of key figures in the campaign for justice for subpostmasters like Alan Bates and former MP James Arbuthnot. The chair of the inquiry, Wyn Williams, was even moved to warn people attending the hearing not to applaud at the end of their testimonies. I suspect the tone will be rather different in the next two days, when it will be Post Office and Royal Mail bosses giving evidence. That starts at 10am and I will bring you the key moments.

If you missed the last couple of days, here is what happened …

37 housing and homelessness charities have written to home secretary James Cleverly warning that new government legislation risks criminalising homelessness.

Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said “The government cites a moral imperative to end rough sleeping, yet these new measures will make it more difficult to do so. They will punish people for having nowhere else to go and push them further away from support. The first and easiest thing the home secretary can do is listen to the concerns of these experienced organisations and remove these cruel and counterproductive measures.”

Speaking about the plans during the media round this morning, health secretary Victoria Atkins said:

We have been very, very clear. What we’re trying to target are those criminal gangs that make a living out of intimidating people.

We want to stop some of the aggressive begging that can happen around cash points, for example.

But we do not and will not criminalise people who don’t have a home. Absolutely not. That is not what this bill is about.

There are real vulnerabilities here that we want to support. And this is not about criminalising people who are homeless.

The proposals have been criticised for loose language in the drafting. Police in England and Wales are to be given powers to fine or move on rough sleepers deemed to be causing a “nuisance”.

The bill defines “something that is a nuisance” in relation to a person who “causes or does something capable of causing damage”. A section of the criminal justice bill defines that damage as including “excessive noise, smells”. Education secretary Gillian Keegan was forced to clarify that people wouldn’t be arrested just because they smell.

Campaigners have said new visa rules are destroying the idea that the UK is a place where families can “thrive”.

As the minimum income for family visas rose by more than £10,000 to £29,000 from Thursday, the organisation Reunite Families UK claimed the values of family and love are being treated as “as yet another political football to be sacrificed in order to receive better poll or electoral results”.

The minimum income requirement will rise further to £38,700 by early 2025.

Caroline Coombs, co-founder of Reunite Families UK, said people are feeling “punished” and “excluded” by the new rules.

Coombs said: “This increase, together with the ones which will come into force in the next 12 months destroy the notion of the UK as a place where families can thrive.

She added “We are dealing with a community of members who are punished and feel excluded and discriminated by their own government only because they fell in love with somebody from abroad and do not or cannot earn the ‘right amount’ to be able to love whoever they choose.”

In advance of the publication of NHS England waiting lists, health secretary Victoria Atkins has said “nobody pretended at the time” that it would be easy to bring waiting lists down.

She also blamed industrial action as a factor in Rishi Sunak failing to meet his key pledge on waiting lists.

She told viewers of ITV’s Good Morning Britain:

We know the pain and the anguish that waiting lists cause people – none of us want people to be waiting for the treatments they need. And that’s why the prime minister set it as one of his five priorities, and nobody pretended at the time that this was going to be easy to achieve.

Now, in fairness, in the last four months we have seen a reduction in waiting lists and that is even though we’ve had, sadly, industrial action – particularly damaging industrial action – by junior doctors in January, which of course is the busiest time for the NHS coming out of Christmas.

But despite that we’ve seen this fall in waiting lists, and I am focused relentlessly on trying to improve waiting lists times.

With junior doctors, my message has always been: ‘Look, if you work with Government, if you come to the table with reasonable expectations, as the consultants did, we will be able to find a deal.’

Labour’s big announcement today is a plan to improve bus services in England, with shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh promising to end “four decades of disastrous deregulation”.

She said:

Reliable, affordable and regular buses are the difference between opportunity and isolation for millions of people across the country.

Four decades of disastrous deregulation of Britain’s buses has robbed communities of a say over the vital services that they depend on, instead handing power to unaccountable private operators who have slashed services.

Labour will give every community the power to take back control of their bus services, and will support local leaders to deliver better buses, faster.

Labour’s plans will create and save vital routes and services, end today’s postcode lottery of bus services, and kickstart a revival of bus services across England.

The announcement was given short shrift by transport minister Guy Opperman, who said “Labour’s bus nationalisation policy won’t work but will force huge council tax hikes. Because Rishi Sunak and the Government took the long-term decision to cancel HS2 phase 2, we have been able to extend the £2 bus fare cap and invest £1bn in bus services across the Midlands and the North.”

The NHS England data today comes against a backdrop of persistently high waiting lists and public discontent with the service.

At the end of last month, Denis Campbell reported that public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to its lowest ever level, with long delays to access care the biggest source of deepening frustration, a study has shown.

At the beginning of April, a new estimate suggested almost 14,000 people died needlessly last year in England while waiting in A&E for up to 12 hours.

ONS figures have suggested that the NHS data may be underestimating waiting lists by up to two million people.

Health secretary: government making progress on NHS waiting lists in England

Welcome and opening summary …