Helen Liddell and Peter Hain have rejected a call by peers for their cabinet positions to be scrapped.

The controversial call came in a report on the working relationships between the UK government and devolved administrations by the Lords constitution committee.

Both secretaries of state said the call for change was one for the prime minister but insisted that they played a vital role in representing their respective nations.

Funding arrangements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should be reconsidered, the peers said.

And they also warned that relations between the national and other administrations may not always be as cooperative as they are now.

But in a contentious move, the committee said it was time for the government to consider merging the existing devolution and English regions team - currently residing in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - and those parts of the Scotland and Wales Offices that deal with intergovernmental relations.

The move would create a single group of officials able to deal with the full range of intergovernmental issues, the peers argued.

But such a reform would call into question the need for three cabinet ministers to be involved in devolution arrangements, they added.

"For Scotland and Wales, adequate ministerial involvement might be secured by one cabinet minister with responsibility for intergovernmental relations overall, with the possibility of appointing ministers of state to deal with particular policy issues or devolved areas," the report said.

However they accepted that the post of Northern Ireland secretary should continue for the "foreseeable future".

The call for a slimmed down cabinet was swiftly rejected by the secretaries of state for Scotland and Wales.

A spokesman for the Scotland Office said Helen Liddell rejected the proposal, though it was "ultimately a matter for the prime minister".

He insisted there were "no plans" to change the current system and warned that the peers' recommendation "would see Scotland losing its voice in the cabinet".

The Wales Office also expressed scepticism that the plans would be accepted.

"Ultimately this is a matter for the prime minister," a spokesman told ePolitix.com. "But there are no plans at the moment for any change in the current arrangements."

"The secretary of state for Wales performs a vital task in representing the interests of Wales at a UK level and the Wales Office helps to ensure that the devolution settlement works in practice," he added.

In further proposals set to cause controversy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the peers recommended that devolution funding arrangements should be reconsidered.

Peers also warned that relations between the national and other administrations may not always be as cooperative as they are now.

The role of the joint ministerial committee, which consists of representatives from Westminster and the nations, should be clarified should it be needed "as a fall-back in case informal personal relations cease to be sufficient".

"While the current system of devolution has settled in smoothly, relationships between institutions rely too heavily on 'goodwill'," the committee chairman Lord Norton of Louth said.

"It is crucial to implement more formal working practices now, while Labour-dominated administrations are in office in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff, rather than later, when parties of different political persuasions will have to work with each other."