1.  The issues which arise or may arise are:

(i)  the role which the Committee may properly perform in relation to the reference;

(ii)  whether the House of Lords Bill, as it stands after Report in the House of Lords and if enacted in its present form, would have the effect of excluding from the House after the end of the Session of Parliament in which it is passed and for the rest of this Parliament those hereditary peers who have by the end of that Session already come to Parliament in answer to their writ of summons.

  2.  In resolving issue (ii) it will or may be necessary to consider:

(a)  whether a writ of summons to Parliament issued to a peer has any effect (and if so what) after the recipient has come to this Parliament in answer to it; and

(b)  whether any words are used in the Bill which are apt to exclude from the rest of this Parliament those hereditary peers who have already come to this Parliament in answer to a writ of summons; or whether the words are apt merely to exclude those hereditary peers who have not answered to a writ of summons; and

(c)  what effect (if any) Article 3 of Protocol Number 1 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms has upon the interpretation or effect of the Bill.