In July 2006, to the surprise of many people, Phillips announced his intention to resign from the House of Lords at the age of 67 (the average age of members being 68). He often criticised the cascades of legislation produced by Parliament, saying in 2012: “We are now legislating between 12,000 and 15,000 pages of new statute law a year and we repeal only about 2,000, 3,000 or 4,000 pages. We are legislating more than any respectable democracy in the western world by far. Dire consequences arise from having this excessive quantity of legislation, much of which is half baked and not implemented, or implemented unevenly." He pointed out to the House of Lords during a debate on the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill in 2010, that that Bill alone was longer than the entire legislative output of 1906.