Ministers are set to announce their aim to create a fully-appointed second chamber.

In its official response to the joint committee on Lords reform the government says: "There is no consensus about the best composition for the second chamber.

"For the time being, the government will concentrate on making the House of Lords work as effectively as possible in fulfilment of its important role.

"It remains the government's policy, as set out in its white paper in November 2001, that the remaining hereditary peers should be removed from the House."