The government will press ahead with plans for a supreme court despite high level criticism.

The Queen announced in parliament on Wednesday that the law lords will be removed from the upper house in a bid to divide parliament from the judiciary.

"My government will continue its programme of constitutional reform by establishing a supreme court, reforming the judicial appointments system and providing for the abolition of the current office of lord chancellor," she told MPs and peers.

But the plans have come in for criticism from at least a third of the law lords whose jobs will be changed.

And the decision to abolish the ancient post and powers of the lord chancellor has been slammed as ill thought through since it was announced in June's Cabinet reshuffle.

However a full Constitutional Reform Bill will be published and pushed through parliament in the next year.

Britain's highest court will reside outside of parliament for the first time in its history and will also assume responsibility for resolving any disputes between Westminster and the devolved administrations.

The appointments commission will take the power to select judges out of the hands of government.

And the rank of Queen's Counsel will be reformed following a review, with critics having claimed the "silk" system for barristers distorts the legal market.

But the Conservatives home affairs spokesman Alan Duncan criticised the proposals.

"The Government have totally failed to put a cogent case for the abolition of the Lord Chancellor and the ejection of the Law Lords from the Upper House," he said.

"There has been no pressure to create a Supreme Court and the Government will find themselves at odds not just with the legal profession but with all who want to see a well-designed system of justice.

"They must prove that their plans for the House of Lords are not just a plan to stuff the upper chamber with yes-men, happy to do the Prime Minister's bidding. They must prove that, after the Law Lords attacked the Government's criminal justice proposals, it is merely a coincidence that the Prime Minister wants rid of them.

"And they must prove, as the Lord Chief Justice has demanded, that their reforms do not curtail the independence of the judiciary."