Page Comparison

Version 15 introduces a range of new features and improvements together with further bug fixes.

It was released on [x 30 August ] 2023.

New features and improvements

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Opening dialog boxes from the Amendment actions menu on the Amendment Manager tab - dialog boxes for Submit amendments and other actions now open quicker when working on Bills with a large number of amendments.

Editor - folding

Simplified and improved folding of provisions - “Folding” is the name given to the feature in Lawmaker that allows you to hide provisions in the Editor so you can only see the title or number. This can made it easier to navigate around the document and also improves performance.

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• it only operates at one level, rather than nested levels, so that you can quickly expand and collapse provisions without multiple clicks and so that, even when everything is collapses, the overall document structure remains more apparent.

• the functionality has been extended across Bills, SIs and amendment lists in a consistent way. It now applies to:

  • Sections/Clauses, and schedule paragraphs, of a Bill;

  • Regulations/articles/rules, and schedule paragraphs, of an SI/SSI;

  • the quoted structure (i.e. the provisions being inserted) by an amendment.

• the toolbar in the Editor now has two buttons so you can quickly and easily access the functionality to expand all provisions or collapse all provisions (other than the one your cursor is in).

  

• All provisions in a Bill etc. will be open by default when the document is first opened. (You can use the button the toolbar to quickly collapse them if needed.)

See Folding provisions.

Editor - Validation, document checks and data quality

Improvements to document checks (schematronSchematron) - there were a few updates to the document check validation:

• Checks for correct number format will now accept “legal numbering” style (e.g. 3.13B or 1.2);

• A new check has been added to highlight where two lists have been inserted back to back (this is mostly likely an error and there should only usually occurring within SI explanatory notes - in most cases the user intended for there only to be one list) (LPS-92);

• A check has been added to identify schedule paragraph numbers in SI quoted structures that are missing a full stop after the number;

• A new check highlights any locked numbers that are not within a quoted structure - this helps users manage locks created elsewhere while using the Edit Portion feature or the auto-application of amendments feature that may get in the way of subsequent actions (e.g. renumber) (LMS-949, LMS-1078);

• Various rules have been tweaked to remove false positives (LMS-1460, LMS-1452, LMS-1466) include some errors relating to numbering that would show when using the Edit Portion feature and errors relating to cross-references within amendments.

Quoted structures

Changing quoted structure type - You can now change the document type of an existing quoted structure. This is mainly to allow for the correction of cases where the type was set to a UK Act when you want it to be a Scottish Act instead. (Changing the type more substantially, e.g. from an Act to an SI, will not convert the provisions within quoted structure.)

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• whitespace being added to the preface when converting a Bill into an Act;

• whitespace being added when a quoted structure is inserted into a Bill or SI;

• unnecessary whitespace in the template for Commons resolutions.

Editor Performance

Some significant changes have been implemented in relation to how locking is managed in the Editor to improve the performance of the Editor and make it less dependent on the performance of the back-end servers. This should have an impact particularly when the system is under load (i.e. when lots of users are using it at the same time).

Edit portion functionality

This functionality hasn’t changed but a number of issues and edge cases have been resolved, following a thorough review of the existing code with the result that the feature should now be more robust.

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Version 15 introduces a significant new feature, that enables you to import a document or portion of a document from www.legislation.gov.uk into Lawmaker. As part of importing the document, you can convert it from primary to secondary and you can also convert retained EU legislation. More information on the new feature can be found here: Import legislation from www.legislation.gov.uk.

SI/SSI improvements

Editor formatting of regulations/articles that are divided into paragraphs - we’ve improved the way the Editor handles the presentation of regulations containing paragraphs so that there isn’t any overlap between the regulation number, the em-dash that follows it and the paragraph number (1) - this was particularly a problem when the regulation number was longer than usual or appeared within a quoted structure.

Legal numbering - limited support has been added for legal numbering (i.e. numbering which consists of numbers separated by a full stop, e.g. 1.1, 1.2, 3.4A, etc. in regulation/article/rule numbers. In particular, the renumbering and cross-referencing features will now behave correctly in relation to them (although some numbers will need to be manually locked). See Legal Numbering - DRAFT for how to use this number format. (LMS-810)

List of support fixes

Editor and misc.

Amendments

PDF generation

SI/SSI