Image source, PA

The length of roadworks on motorways and A-roads in England should be shortened to reduce drivers' frustrations, ministers have urged.

Contractors are being asked to limit lane closures, with one report suggesting they should only be between two and five miles long.

Highways England, which manages the roads, is looking at the request to shorten roadworks, the BBC understands.

The Department for Transport said "common sense decisions" were needed. Read our full story

And the conference decides to refer the proposal on changing the way the deputy leader is chosen back to the party for further consideration.

Former Lib Dem MP Lorely Burt backs the idea of the deputy leader of the Lib Dems being elected by party members. She tells conference: "It’s time for a change, I think it’s time to stir it up and we should support the motion.” Ms Burt lost her seat at May's general election but she is to join the House of Lords after being nominated for a peerage.

Next up is the "most geeky session in conference", according to Lib Dem Federal Conference Committee member Justine McGuinness. Oh yes, it's "constitutional amendments" time.

But Ms McGuinness assures the hall it's a pretty straightforward motion before them - to enable Lib Dem members to vote for the party's deputy leader, she adds:

Lib Dems show their appreciation for Charles Kennedy. 

A short film on Charles Kennedy's life is played to the conference hall, and as it concludes everyone, from party grandees to activists, gets to their feet in a standing ovation, applause filling the room. Chair Linda Jack says that if it wasn't for the other business planned today she's sure it would last all day.

Standing room only in the conference hall at Bournemouth for Charles Kennedy tribute. 

Beginning the tributes is Liberal Democrat peer Lord Wrigglesworth. He praises Charles Kennedy's "ready wit, attractive personality and debating skills". He says the former MP had "a very successful life" by any standards but the tragedy is that despite all he achieved "he could have done even more if he had the chance".

Lord Wrigglesworth says that for him and his wife, attending Mr Kennedy's funeral was "one of the saddest experiences of our lives".

The Lib Dem conference approves the human rights policy motion, meaning it's time for the next item on the agenda: tributes to former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy, who died earlier this year aged 55.

Up next in the Lib Dem human rights debate is ex-coalition justice minister Sir Simon Hughes, who lost his seat at the general election. 

He thanks his supporters over the years and says he was "very sorry" not to have been re-elected in May. "It was the greatest privilege of my life," he says of his time as an MP.

Addressing the motion, which he supports, Sir Simon says the Lib Dems should be "proud" of their role in championing and "advancing" civil liberties.

The rights embodied in the European Convention of Human Rights "are British rights as much as anybody else's rights", he says, and adds:

The Daily Politics

Last year the Lib Dems were in government. Now the party has slipped to an opposition party of eight MPs, how different does its conference look and feel?

Adam Fleming tours the Bournemouth venue to see what a change 12 months have made. He spoke to former MP Duncan Hames and the Daily Telegraph sketch writer Michael Deacon.

The Daily Politics

Vince Cable has put forward the idea of centre-left politicians coming together to form a "fully fledged political party" who could link up with unhappy MPs potentially deserting Labour after the election of Jeremy Corbyn.

After looking back to the 1980s and the formation of the SDP, which later merged with the Liberals, Jo Coburn heard from Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee who was in the SDP, and Mr Cable who left Labour to link up with the SDP, and lately served as business secretary in the coalition government.

Image source, Dods

The police are to take no action against Lord Sewel over allegations of drug use which led to him quitting the House of Lords.

The peer resigned in July after being filmed by the Sun on Sunday allegedly taking drugs in the company of prostitutes.

The case led to calls for reform of the House of Lords.

The BBC's home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the Met Police had closed its inquiry as there was "insufficient evidence to proceed".

The policy motion resolves to champion human rights and the UK's membership of the European Convention on Human Rights and to oppose any attempt by the Conservatives to introduce a British Bill of Rights.

It also sets out opposition to "bulk collection of data by internet service providers, which would lead to a disproportionate level of surveillance of members of the public".

When in coalition, the Lib Dems blocked Conservative plans for a communications data bill -  dubbed a "snoopers' charter. 

Ministers want new laws to help police and agencies monitor online threats.

Ellie Barrett-Rees, an activist from Thornbury and Yate, takes to the stage and reveals to the room that she's a bit nervous as it's her first time speaking at the Lib Dem conference.

Giving her "full support" to the motion, she says the Human Rights Act is of "vital importance" to the UK and adds that plans to scrap it are "deeply alarming". The legislation offers protection to vulnerable people and all UK citizens, she adds.

James Landale
Deputy political editor

Image source, Reuters

For more than 24 hours now, Downing Street has been refusing to dignify Lord Ashcroft's allegations with an official response.

Privately, Downing Street officials have been dismissing the claims contained in the peer's biography of David Cameron as "ridiculous" and "nonsense".

But what does the prime minister think himself about the lurid allegations of drug taking and porcine ritual?

Carry on reading here.