New reform report on House of Lords

The Eames Report will propose changes to the Lords' code of conduct and rules relating to peers' outside interests.

Meanwhile, a separate report by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee is expected to rebuke Labour's former Home Office minister Tony McNulty for claiming second home expenses on a house where his parents lived.

According to unconfirmed reports by the BBC, Mr McNulty will be told to repay about £13,000 and apologise to the Commons.

Mr McNulty claimed a total of £60,000 in expenses on the north-west London house - which he owns - after moving to his new wife's home when they married in 2002. He insisted he had not broken the rules, as he continued to use the house as a base when working in his Harrow constituency at weekends.

Labour's Leader in the Lords, Baroness Royall, asked an internal committee chaired by Lord Eames, the former Archbishop of Armagh, to review the code of conduct in May this year after a series of controversies hit the Upper House. These included the suspension of Lord Truscott and Lord Taylor of Blackburn for offering to lobby to change the law in return for cash.

The Lords Code of Conduct came into effect in 2002 and requires peers to "act always on their personal honour" and observe the principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

There was discontent among MPs on Wednesday night as Downing Street revealed they would not be granted a vote on the implementation of the Kelly Report into expenses.

Veteran Labour backbencher Austin Mitchell told BBC2's Newsnight: "Not to give us a vote on the main issue is sheer cowardice. All the party leaders are in a conspiracy. They want to force this through and get it over with so they can reflect the credit on themselves and say `We've dealt with this' and leave the troops to make the sacrifices."

The report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, ordered by Gordon Brown at the height of the expenses scandal, will be published next week. It is expected to include an end to claims for mortgage payments, a ban on employing relatives and a reduction in the generous "golden handshake" for MPs leaving Parliament.