House of Lords Bill [HL]

I thank the noble Lord for what he has said about the declaration of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Irvine. Of course, he is entirely right in his interpretation of it. If the noble and learned Lord had stood up at the time and said, "Oh, by the way, what I mean is something like the Steel Bill", then the 1999 Act would not have gone through in the way that it did. As regards the White Paper, the Minister is absolutely right: some issues were unresolved, and they are major and important issues to do with the constituencies, the method of voting and the period of transition. However, those are precisely the issues that would be resolved in a vote in another place and then ultimately in this House.