THE Government will refuse to let the House of Lords dictate U-turns on either the Scotland Bill or the European Elections Bill when they return to the Commons later this week and next.

Despite united Tory and Liberal opposition in the Lords and sizeable minority opposition within Scottish Labour ranks, the Government will press ahead with its plans to reduce the number of members of the Scottish Parliament.

The Government's proposals, which link the number of Westminster MPs to the number of MSPs, could mean around 20 fewer MSPs, and a reduction of 14 or 15 MPs.

It will also refuse to accept the Lord's amendment which would introduce an ''open list'' system of voting in next year's Euro elections to allow the electorate to vote for individuals rather than a party list only. Instead it will hope to buy off the Lords with a promise to review the electoral system soon after the European elections.

Last night a senior Tory peer said: ''It's not a hell of a lot - the least they could get away with''.

The Government is prepared to take a gamble on the Lords accepting the will of the Commons rather than lose the legislation.

If the Lords did accept the Government's amendment, the lack of time left in this session would mean that both Bills could fall. The Government is banking on Tory peers putting pressure on their hereditary colleagues to allow the legislation to reach the statute book. A Government source claimed ''it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas if the hereditary peers blocked the Government's legislative programme''.

Another said it was important for the Tories to demonstrate that hereditary peers would not block a Labour Government's legislative commitments.

The Government will win an overwhelming majority in the Commons when it rejects the Lords' amendments but that will disguise discontent within Labour's ranks. It is already known that the Scottish Constitutional Minister, Mr Henry McLeish, urged the Government to guarantee 129 Scottish MSPs and last night Dundee East MP John McAllion confirmed he would abstain when the Bill returned to the Commons. Mr McAllion said the number of seats should be decided by a separate boundary commission.

The Government is much less ambivalent about the open or closed list system of voting in the Euro elections. The leadership favours closed lists on the grounds that the voters should choose between parties rather than individuals.

Ironically, the Tory leadership in the Lords does not want the European Elections Bill to fall because they too have made arrangements to deal with PR. The difficulty they have is controlling their hereditary peers who believe ''their execution is nigh so might as well be as disruptive as possible''.

Meanwhile, the Government yesterday ruled out as ''inappropriate'' any chance of a Minister at Westminster also becoming part of the Scottish administration at Holyrood.

It agreed to demands from the Opposition to amend the Scotland Bill to make it impossible for any Minister to exercise a dual Scottish-British mandate.

It brought forward its own amendment to prevent anyone from being a Minister of the Crown and a member of the Scottish Executive at the same time during the Bill's last day in the House of Lords.

Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish, the senior Scottish Tory spokesman in the Lords, praised the Government's for acting on the so-called ''Ron Davies amendment'' after hearing Opposition concerns.

That is a reference to Mr Davies, the fallen Welsh Secretary, who had hoped to combine his Cabinet role with the new job of First Secretary in the Welsh National Assembly.

However, the Government refused to give any ground over various titles which will be used in Scotland's Parliament.

It rejected by 113 votes to 99 a Conservative amendment to the Bill which would have let Holyrood's 129 MSPs change the ungainly titles of Presiding Officer, First Minister and Scottish Executive to other names it preferred. Many politicians in various parties think they are dull and lacking in appropriate gravitas.

The Scottish Office insisted that its suggested titles were clear and unambiguous and would avoid any confusion with existing titles already used at Westminster.

The Western Isles Council voiced ''extreme disappointment'' after a bid to guarantee its status as a separate parliamentary constituency was defeated by 134 votes to 85.

Lord Sewel, the Scottish Office Minister in the Lords, claimed the Western Isles - which has just 22,000 voters compared with the UK average of 70,000 - had nothing to fear from a forthcoming review by the Boundary Commission which will cut Scotland's 72 Westminster MPs.