I don't know whether they gave any consideration to going to the alternative vote system. Historically, it was always done in the Commons by having someone propose the name of a candidate and debating that in the usual way and voting on that, so I guess to move to the Lords system would have been a bigger departure from the traditional system, which stuck with the usual format of parliamentary proceedings in which a motion is proposed and then voted on.
On October 2nd, 2014. See this statement in context.