Roadmap - January 2024

This section contains the roadmap setting out our plans for future Lawmaker development. This is a living plan which is updated regularly in light of user feedback and the strategic direction approved by Lawmaker’s steering group.

This roadmap was last updated in January 2024.

See Feature and improvement requests for the current full list of suggested new features and improvements that may feature on the roadmap as it is updated over time.

Key

11B - feature referred to in 2021 paper proposing de-prioritisation of certain features from version 11

REUL - feature or improvement that will be delivered through Retained EU legislation funding

PSIP - feature or improvement mentioned in the Performance and Stability Improvement Plan

Timeline and releases	Q4 2023 Version 16	Q1 2024 Version 17	Q2 2024 Version 18	2024 Future versions

Timeline and releases

Q4 2023

Version 16

Q1 2024

Version 17

Q2 2024

Version 18

2024

Future versions

Document types and specific document features

Adding the ability to handle new document types and specific features that only occur in certain document types; refining existing features.

Tables of origins and destinations (11B)

Automatically generate citations in SI/SSIs (REUL)

Table notes (11B, REUL)

Church measures (11B)

NI Statutory Rules? (REUL)

Update numbering sequence for UK bills to include 'O'

Amendments

Enhancements and refinements to the functionality for creating, editing and managing amendments and amendment lists, including ping pong, creating amendments inline and automatically applying amendments to a Bill.

auto-apply amendments - improvements from feedback

Improve sorting of Lords amendments to amendments

Improved error checking for Orders of Consideration

auto-apply amendments - improvements from feedback

Improvements when submitting large numbers of amendments

Inline/auto-apply - move amendments (11B)

Inline/auto-apply - preamble and long title in UK Bills (11B)

Notification of new amendments (11B)

Delete amendments from Amendment Manager tab (and PDR)

Manage amendments by stage instead of Bill version

Specify an order of consideration for ping pong stages

Amendment preview enhancements

Inline/auto-apply - divide amendments (11B)

X-refs to children of unnumbered sections

Refine paste amendment logic

Update 'update list' feature so it works for Ping Pong lists

Robustness, resilience, performance, accessibility, data quality

Making the overall experience better for users by making the system more intuitive/accessible, harder to break and less likely to generate invalid XML, e.g. improved validation, improvements to paste logic, progress bars on slow tasks

Enable actions (e.g. PDF generation, list publishing) to complete in background to improve performance (PSIP)

Improved Schematron validation

Data quality improvements (REUL)

Improved approach to validation and document checks (REUL, PSIP)

Data quality improvements (REUL):

Handle "quoted text" in XML like quoted structures (REUL)

Implement new colour scheme/branding throughout application (11B)

Refine tracked change behaviours

Authoring and editing

Adding new capabilities related to creating and editing content that will improve productivity or content quality. For example, user-generated templates, importing from http://legislation.gov.uk , improved table functionality

Automated tagging of external cross-references - base functionality (REUL)

Automated tagging of external cross-references - aliases and amending provisions (REUL)

Enable provisions within schedules to be edited individually

Insert internal cross-references from provision/breadcrumb

User-defined text templates (11B)

Table formatting - row height and text alignment (11B)

Table formatting - custom borders (11B)

Refine 'Update x-ref' to work with converted section/schedule elements

Refine smart paste

Improve logic for cursor placement and Editor view after action

Enable x-refs inside quoted structures to other doc types

User, project and document management

Adding new capabilities and refining existing features to help manage and interact with user accounts, projects and document versions within projects. For example, user management by org admins, permission/access control, archive/deletion tools

Document Admin dashboard (archive, delete, download) (11B)

Set project to inactive (and reactivate) (11B)

Improved labelling of snapshots and significant versions (REUL)

Change project title manually

Print output

Features relating to the generation of print-ready PDFs of documents. For example, user-controlled page breaks, hyperlinks, including comments, multi-volume PDFs.

Generate large print PDFs (REUL)

Generate multiple-volume PDFs (11B)

Generate PDFs with landscape-orientated tables (11B, REUL)

API

Additional endpoints and enhancements to existing endpoints to provide data required by external systems and to enable other interaction between those systems and Lawmaker. For example, paging of large responses, enabling external systems to create amendments or update amendment statuses.

API - images in amendments

API updates for TNA publishing system integration (11B, REUL)

Infrastructure and software components

Changes to cloud infrastructure and software components that make up the Lawmaker service for security, scaling, performance, resilience etc. For example, work on Disaster Recovery environment, patching of software components to up-to-date, supported versions.

Oxygen 25 upgrade (PSIP)

Implement AWS Shield Advanced (additional cybersecurity protection)

Implement new infrastructure design (PSIP, REUL)