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• Minute-by-minute coverage of PMQs as David Cameron faces questions from the Commons
• Listen to PMQs here

11.24am:Hi there. Andrew Sparrow busy covering request Chilcote live today but you can follow all the action at prime minister's questions with me here from midday.

Two weeks ago at PMQs Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley, protested to David Cameron about justice secretary Kenneth Clarke's then rather vague comments about reducing prisoner numbers:

Does my right honourable friend accept that the millions of people who voted Conservative at the last election in order to make him prime minister did not do so in order to see a reduction in the number of people sent to prison or to see those criminals given softer sentences?

Cameron replied:

The challenge is going to be delivering that tough response at a time when the last government left us absolutely no money. What I would say to him is that we have to address the failures in the system: the fact that half of all prisoners are on drugs; the fact that more than one in 10 are foreign nationals who should not be here in the first place; and the fact that 40% commit another crime within one year of leaving prison. That is the record of failure that we have inherited, and it is the record of failure that we have to reform.

Now Clarke has considerably expanded his comments, and as Alan Travis and Andrew Sparrow report is today warning that simply "banging up more and more people for longer" is actually making some criminals worse, without protecting the public.

In our worst prison he makes tough criminals. Many people went to jail without a drug problem and came out addicted. A small prisoners can meet some new friends ... recidivist

It is virtually impossible to do anything productive with offenders on short sentences. And many of them end up losing their jobs, their homes and their families during their short time inside.

This shift in policy may go down well with many academics in the criminal justice field. Caroline Chatwin, a lecturer in criminology at the University of Kent, said:

But, as Davies predicted, it may prove less popular with Cameron's own party, especially given the Tory leader's comments defending the usefulness of short sentences on the campaign trail:

My mother was a magistrate in Newbury for 30 years. She sat on the bench and she did use those short sentences that you're talking about. I've got to tell you, when someone smashes up the bus stop, when someone repeatedly breaks the law, when someone is found fighting on a Friday or Saturday night, as a magistrate, you've got to have that power for a short prison sentence when you've tried the other remedies.

Cameron's answer two weeks ago and some parts of Clarke's speech today suggest the prime minister may defend the moves on grounds of cost â€" an issue every government department is being forced to come to terms with since George Osborne's first budget last week. Chatwin was sceptical though that a move towards Clarke's approach would actually save money.

It certainly is very expensive to put people in prison and unjustified because it isn't working. But, in my opinion, if you want to sort the prison system out you are going to need a lot of money, not to build more prison places but to renovate places we have got and build new prisons based on different smaller, community based designs, offer reform programmes, workshops, classes that will cost money etc etc.

The prime minister may also be asked today about government plan to sell off the Royal MailThat Daily Mail reports will include the provision of shares in the company's postal workers, the supreme court decision that the British soldiers serving abroad are not protected by British human rights law, British Home Secretary Theresa May 's disposal of the police "to the beat "purposes and Cameron's agreement to the terms of an inquiryin the British complicity in the torture of terrorism suspects.

Join me at 12 in the air.

11.37am: Clarke can sometimes go out on a limband he was guided back to the party line before. But it seems that Cameron support his justice secretary over the prisons.

Downing Street denied today that the prime minister was at odds with Clarke over sentencing. Cameron's official spokesman said that, while the prime minister believed there was a role for short-term sentences, he also believed that community punishments needed to be made "more meaningful". The Press Association news agency reported him saying:

Ken Clarke speaks for the government on these matters. I think that what the justice secretary said is consistent with what the prime minister has said.

12.00pm:Cameron up. Labour 's Kevin Brennan asked why he wants to "put fewer criminals," in prison to do with the crime or saving money.

12.01pm: Harriet Harman, the acting Labour leader, asks about the Guardian report that 1.3m jobs will be lost due to the budget. Can he confirm that?

Cameron says the Office for Budget Responsibility has produced tables on public and private sector employment. Unemployment is due to fall, he says. Cameron says under Labour's plans there would be 70,000 fewer public sector jobs. But he does not answer Harman's question.

12.03pm: Harman asks why he is keeping the Treasury document seen by the Guardian "hidden".

12.04pm:Cameron said that the figures published today (on the OBR) show more jobs in the private sector. He says that Lord Jones, former Minister of Labour, made a showing that he supported the Conservative plans to cut its budget deficit.

12.06pm: How much extra will this cost in unemployment benefits, Harman asks. Cameron says again that unemployment will fall during this parliament.

12.06pm: He asks Harman if she backs the public sector pay freeze. You can always tell when he doesn't want to answer a question because he asks me a question, says Harman.

12:07 pm: My advice would be to look at the figures before standing up and asking the question, says Cameron (a little patronisingly).

We will look at the figures, if he will publish their responses Harman briskly.

(They are talking about two different sets of figures.)

Why are the Lib Dems sitting there and letting this happen, Harman asks. No one who voted Lib Dem voted for this, she says.

12.08pm: Cameron announces the "stupidest piece of spending" by Labour: £2.4m spent doing up "the honourable lady's own department", including "peace pods". He reads out some nonsense about "natural ebb and flow" from the department's description of these. They've gone from peaceniks to peace pods and bankrupted the country in the process, says Cameron â€" not the greatest soundbite in the world.

12.10pm: John Cryer (Lab, Leyton and Wanstead) asks about the leaked Treasury papers the Guardian has seen and says Cameron's comments are tinged with contempt.

Cameron said again publish the numbers. But he talked about the numbers OBR 's, not the private estimates of the Treasury.

12:11 pm: Julian Sturdy (Con, Outer York) says the northern cities, such as their own, ignored labor. Labour MPs don 't like.

12.13pm: George Howarth (Lab) says one benefit of prison is that prisoners can't offend when they are inside.

Cameron replies:

Absolutely ... I believe prison can work; it's just it's not working properly at the moment ... We've got to reform. If the Labour party want to put themselves on the argument of just defending the status quo I think they are making a grave mistake.

It will be interesting to see how the Labour leadership contenders line up on this question. But it seems unlikely that trying to outflank the Tories on the right will be a successful strategy for Labour.

12.15pm: Gary Streeter (Con) asks about young people in care. Cameron says we really do need to do better as a country; 23% of adult prisoners were in care, he notes. Children leaving care at 18 have nowhere to go and no one to help them, the prime minister says.

12.16pm: Green leader Caroline Lucas asks about an exit strategy from Afghanistan and calls for talks with the Taliban to start now.

Cameron congratulated her and her party to victory in his place.

There is no purely military solution in Afghanistan, says Cameron, but it is important to continue with the surge while pursuing a political track.

He says there is a difference between hardline Taliban and people who have been caught up in the insurgency "for whatever reasons". But he does not back talks now as Lucas suggests.

12.18pm: Kate Green (Labour, Stretford Urmston), the former head of the Child Poverty Action Group, asks about job cuts of Jobcentre Plus staff. Cameron welcomes her to the house and again says employment is rising. There would have been cuts in public sector jobs under Labour too. "They've got to engage in this debate, rather than playing this pathetic game of pretending there wouldn't be cuts under Labour," the prime minister says.

12.21pm:Question Charlie Elphicke (Con, Dover and Deal) on David Miliband 's Labour leadership campaign ruled order does not matter.

12.22pm: Robin Walker (Con, Worcester) asks about hospices in his constituency. Cameron calls hospices one of the big successes of the "big society", his plan that voluntary groups and charities take over some of the functions of the public sector.

12.24pm: Cameron is asked about prisons again. He says "We all know you have to keep short sentences in some circumstances". But he asks whether we benefit from them in all circumstances. We have to toughen up community sentences and people will respect them more, the prime minister says.

12:27 pm: Annette Brooke (Lib Dem, Dorset Mid and Poole North) asked if the Prime Minister will help raise the profile of children 'day, she spends. Everyone loves it. Cameron says Sarah Teather held a seminar this morning on children with special needs.

12.28pm: Labour's Michael Connarty notes how unpopular the Tories and the Lib Dems are in Scotland, where his seat lies. He asks for any cuts in Scotland to come before the Scottish select committee. "I'm well aware the Conservative party didn't sweep Scotland ... and thank you for reminding me of that fact," says Cameron.

The PM says he rushed to Scotland and Wales as soon as he was elected and respects those countries.

12.29pm: Graham Jones (Lab) says his constituency of Hyndburn will be hit hard by cuts. Cameron says there are going to be difficult decisions in the budget and public sector cuts but he will help areas of need through tax changes and the regional development grant.

Instant summary

David Cameron is an aggressive and confident performer in the Commons, but his tone can become patronising â€" never an attractive quality. His approach to Harriet Harman's request for him to confirm the Guardian's story about unemployment resulting from last week's budget was a case in point. He refused to answer, and tried to draw attention from this by bringing up other figures provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility. But telling Harman: "My advice would be to look at the figures before standing up and asking the question," was a mistake. It allowed her to reply, quite fairly: "We will look at the figures if he will publish them." This left him looking shifty as well as condescending. It was obvious that he would not answer the question.

Labour, though, ought to think about Cameron's challenge regarding spending cuts. "They've got to engage in this debate, rather than playing this pathetic game of pretending there wouldn't be cuts under Labour," he said. This is true, although it is difficult for the party to outline its own alternative mix of tax rises and spending cuts â€" or indeed to argue that it is not as urgent as the Tories say to cut the deficit now â€" until it picks a new leader. It would help, though, if each of the leadership candidates set out their own detailed plans.

Labour's attitude to the change in Tory prison policy is also worrying for anyone slightly to the left of Michael Howard on this issue. Jack Straw's Daily Mail article

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