The first Consolidated List of Amendments will bring together all agreed amendments from the second House from all amending their stages.
Subsequent versions are updated to include messages going back to the other House with any agreed amendments being removed from the document.
How to generate the first Consolidated List of Amendments
Towards the end of the final stage, a consolidated list of amendments can be generated, pulling together all the agreed amendments from all stages in the 2nd House that are either agreed, or highly likely to be agreed once the final stage is completed. It’s often generated a day or two early to give OPC enough time to review it before it is sent to the originating House for publishing.
Copy amendments to Ping Pong stage
Start with current bill version: from the Amendment Manager select using the checkboxes all ‘agreed’ amendments (tip: use the filters here); or any amendments that are likely to be agreed.
Copy the amendments to ping pong stage by selecting Amendment Actions > Move/copy to a different stage
In the dialog box:
Select “Copy amendments to a different stage”
Select Ping Pong for stage
Bill version should be “As brought from…” version
Click on Confirm button when ready
The amendments will be copied to ping pong stage and you will be able to view them by selecting the correct bill version filter in the top-left of the page (in this case, the “As brought from…” stage)
Repeat steps 1-4 above for any other amending stage in the 2nd House if they had agreed amendments.
The selected amendments will essentially be duplicated and copied across to Ping Pong stage. The following changes will be made to them:
The newly created amendments will be assigned new DNumbers
They will no longer have a number assigned to them
Any proposers and supporters will be removed
Any events that were recorded against the original amendment (submitting, tabling, publishing etc.) will not be copied across so they will appear as “Draft”
Once the amendment tabs are changed from filtering by bill version to filtering by stage, this process will be a lot easier see what’s going on.
Generate the Consolidated List
Once all amendments have been copied across to Ping Pong, it’s possible to generate the Consolidated List:
Select Amendment Manager > Create Official List
In the dialog box that appears, select ‘Consolidated List of Amendments’
Fill in the options on the dialog box and click on Create button
In newly created list in the Editor:
Update the amendments in the list so that they point to the version of the Bill when it first entered the 2nd House
Merge, delete and move amendments around as required
If you made changes to clause & schedule numbers as part of updating the amendments:
Manually update the clause/schedule number in the interstitial heading, and
Manually update the Provision cell in the Amendment Information right-hand panel with the new clause number (e.g. “sec_1”) or new schedule number (e.g. “sch_2”)
After you’ve finished updating the amendments, manually insert any missing interstitial headings where required (select Interstitial heading from the Insert Menu, making sure your cursor is in the ping pong motion before the location where the interstitial heading should be inserted)
Renumber the amendments so that they are now numbered 1 to n (Tools > Renumber amendments)
Save and close the list
Share the document version with the other House and let them know that it’s ready for them to prepare for publishing
Edit rights to the amendments belong to the House that published the latest version of the bill i.e. users in the second House.
When you share your Consolidated List with the other House, make sure the amendments, interstitial headings and sort order is correct.
If you pick up a shared Consolidated List and notice there is a mistake with the amendments, you will not have edit rights to the amendments UNTIL YOU PUBLISH THE CONSOLIDATED LIST. To correct the data you can either:
Contact someone in the other House who can make that change to the amendment for you
If the mistake is inside the amendment (e.g. page number wrong or message is wrong) they can update the amendment in a temporary list and save – when you refresh your Consolidated List – you will see their changes; or
If the mistake is in the list (e.g. a missing interstitial heading or the sort order is incorrect) they will need to update the Consolidated List itself and reshare the new version with you.
If you cannot get hold of someone in the other House in time, publish the list (to assign edit rights to you), make the change and then republish the list once it’s complete. As long as you do this before the scheduled update on LegHub is run, no one will see the first published mistake in the amendment on the website.
How to create subsequent Consolidated List of Amendments
Once a ping pong round is complete, a revised Consolidated List of Amendments needs to be sent back to the other House so that they can publish the list and start the next ping pong round in their House:
Duplicate the last published version of the Consolidated List
Open the list in the Editor:
Update the amendments that are still in play with any new messages (messages will include message text and potentially reasons or amendments)
Delete the amendments that are no longer still in play
Move amendments around according to any new groupings
Create new interstitial headings as required
Save and close the list
3.Share the list with the other House and let them know that it’s ready for them to prepare for publishing
Consolidated List of Amendments will always appear on the Official Lists tab, regardless of the bill version filter applied
Messages are children of the amendments they relate to. If a message relates to a group of amendments, it will be the last amendment in that group that adopts the message and its associated message text, reasons and amendments.
Messages can be moved between amendments using drag & drop in the Structure View. This may be necessary when an amendment in a group of amendments has been resolved and up until then had been the parent for the messages in that amendment group. You can move these messages to the remaining amendment still in play.
It is envisaged you will copy and paste agreed ping pong amendments directly into the message rather than retype them.
House of Commons
The Lords now include the Clause/Schedule number in the amendment instruction so when editing amendments to convert them into the Lords format, don’t forget to add the Clause and Schedule (or Long Title) into the instruction as well.
When updating new Clause and new Schedule amendments (NCX and NSX amendments), the provision number in the location table will not automatically update. You will need to update both the location field and the Provision field for each new clause/schedule amendment and then drag them into the correct location, inserting an interstitial heading before them as necessary.
If you change the clause or schedule number in an amendment, you will need to update the Provision field in the location table on the Amendment Information right-hand panel and then drag them into the correct location, inserting an interstitial heading before them as necessary.