The Government decided on 18 March not to legislate to enact the proposals in the consultation paper Next steps for the House of Lords. Lord Falconer said on 18 March:
"Following discussion at Cabinet today, the Government has decided not to proceed with the House of Lords Reform Bill.
"The vote in the Lords last week to refer the Constitutional Reform Bill to a select committee makes it abundantly clear that they will not pass our Lords Reform Bill to remove the remaining hereditary peers and set up a statutory appointments commission.
"In these circumstances, there is no point in committing further legislative time to this issue at this stage. We will not let the matter rest there but will return to it in our manifesto for the next election."
Any proposals for substantial reform of the composition of the Lords will have to look at the Lords' role, powers and procedures and its relationship with the House of Commons. It is important to decide what the Lords is for, and what it should contribute to the parliamentary process before turning to the issue of composition. That had always been the Government's intention.
The proposals consulted on in September included a proposal to bring the rules for disqualification from the House of Lords more in line with those for the House of Commons. This would have included disqualifying peers sentenced to a prison term of more than one year, with retrospective effect. However, the decision on 18 March not to proceed with legislation at this stage means that this anomaly will remain.
Life peers will not be able to resign from the House of Lords without a change in legislation. Existing MEPs who are members of the House of Lords will be able to remain as such until 2009, when European legislation dictates that no one may be a member of both the European Parliament and a national parliament.
Yes. Without new legislation, the current system of by-elections to replace deceased hereditary peers in the House of Lords will continue.