PMQs live blog | 16 February 2011

VERDICT: It was, comparatively, a quieter session than last week. Miliband was not as effective and missed the bus on the forestry u-turn. His attack on the government’s growth agenda was more spirited (Miliband is better with statistics than jokes). Even so, he concentrated on youth unemployment, which has been a long-term problem in Britain. Therefore, it doesn’t work as a critique of government policy. This is a very difficult time for the government and for Cameron personally; he will be relieved then to have emerged from PMQs largely unscathed. More worrying for Cameron, there was a hangover from last week’s 5 hostile Tory backbench questions, particularly on the issue of Europe. Dissent is in the air, which is why Theresa May’s statement on the fate of the sex offenders’ register after the Supreme Court’s human rights judgement, a backbench bugbear, is so important.   

12:23: Tory backbencher Philip Davies raised the question of the Supreme Court’s decision that the sex offenders’ register contravenes the European Human Rights Convention.