Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

So, after years of discussion about the desirability of reforming the House of Lords, the changes proposed by the Coalition Government have been kicked into the long grass. Tory backbench MPs have ensured that this Coalition policy would not see the light of day. Even the more modest reforms proposed by Lord Steel have been shelved – including sensible proposals that members of the House of Lords should be able to resign.

One consequence of this outcome is that the propsed changes to the constitution of the House of Commons are now also under threat – though final decisions on the size of the Commons and changes to constituency boudaries will not be made until 2013.