The government promised a free vote on further reforms - including whether it should become an entirely elected chamber.
But no timetable was given and it is unclear whether the Bill will even be introduced during this Parliament.
A few days earlier though, the South West learned that one of its most prominent former MPs is to be elevated to the partially-reformed House.
Paul Tyler, who stood down at the last election as Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, will join a very small number of South West peers when he takes up his seat in the Upper House.
The government has always proclaimed its intention to make the House of Lords more representative of the country.
But are ministers prepared to make the upper house more representative of the regions?
In what was meant to be only the first stage of reforms six years ago, the government removed the right of more than 600 hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords.
and the Duke of Somerset
Lord Clifford regrets that he is no longer able to speak in the House on issues which loom large in the South West - such as agriculture and fishing.
Charter 88 and the Campaign for the English Regions (CFER) - two groups campaigning for a wholly elected second chamber - believe the regions deserve much more representation.
CFER thinks elections to the Upper House should be territorially based, like those to the Commons.
Peer diversity
The government has already laid out criteria to ensure a more diverse range of people are appointed to the Lords.
These include gender balance, age profile, ethnic representation, disability representation and faith representation.
Top of the list is regional diversity - but regions distant from Westminster still find themselves with only a handful of representatives in the Lords.
It is difficult to establish precise regional affiliations for every member of the House, but some basic number-crunching shows that while there are at least 250 peers representing the interests of London and the South East, only around 23 peers are fighting the South West's corner.
The Earl of Arran is one of only two hereditary peers from the South West to retain a seat in the House. He believes it is a case of quality, rather than quantity.
The existing South West members, he says, do a good job - and it is for the Commons rather than a revising chamber like the Lords to provide direction representation for the regions.
Three certainties
We asked the government for an interview with a minister to establish its intentions regarding the regionalisation of the Lords, but no-one was available for comment.
In a statement, however, the Department for Constitutional Affairs did tell us that it "would not wish to respond to the issue of regional diversity in the House of Lords at this time."
It added: "Our key concern at the moment is to establish the working rules of the Upper Chamber; then, the government will consider its composition ... which will be subject to a free vote."
There are presently only two certainties: there will be further reform; and it will require the remaining 92 hereditary peers to give up their seats.
Or perhaps a third: the Devil is well and truly ensconced in the rest of the details.
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