Cook: delay

Ministers have come under fire after it emerged that legislation to speed up the extradition process and overhaul the criminal justice system is to be dropped.

Robin Cook has admitted that the pressures of parliamentary time and the workload of the Home Office will result in three key bills, including the Lords reform legislation, being shelved.

Plans to scrap the double jeopardy rule will hit the cutting room floor as the government scrambles to rationalise parliamentary time.

The opposition has criticised the decision, saying the government has mismanaged the parliamentary programme to make way for legislation on fox-hunting.

"We were told that the extradition bill and the criminal justice bill would be central pieces to David Blunkett's programme," said shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin.

"If these have now given way to a hunting bill and to mismanagement of the parliamentary programme, that is a very worrying indication of the government's sense of priorities and incompetence."

The proposed extradition bill was to have included the introduction of an Europe-wide arrest warrant, which EU ministers agreed to introduce by December 2003. Ministers said the legislation could still be rushed through in the next parliamentary session in time to meet the deadline

The decision to delay the criminal justice bill until the next session was met with dismay. The legislation, which would have paved the way for retrials in the Lawrence case, was one of the jewels in the post-election Queen's Speech.

A delay in the introduction of legislation on Lords reform was also met with anger, with critics suggesting the delay was further evidence that ministers cannot agree on the composition of the upper house.

Within the Cabinet, the lord chancellor, Lord Irvine, and the deputy prime minister, are said to be implacably opposed to any moves to increase the elected element of the second chamber to more than the 20 per cent set out in the government's reform blueprint.

Cook is said to be leading calls for a compromise deal, with 50 per cent of the Upper House being elected as part of a step-by-step process of change.