What's new in version 14?

Version 14.0 contains a number of new features, a new interface for managing users, some performance improvements and a range of fixes to support issues that have been raised.

It was released on 24 May 2023.

General features and improvements

Draft watermark on PDFs

When generating a PDF of any document, including SIs and SSIs, you can select to include a “Draft” watermark on every page. See Generating and viewing a PDF.

Validation improvements

A number of enhancements to the automatic document validation have been included (these show in the Document Checks panel at the right of the Editor)

1. A new check identifies sections and schedules in Bills (and regulations/articles etc. in SIs) that have IDs which include an “occurrence counter” component. This component indicates that the provision number duplicated another number at some point but the ID should be resolved before doc is published or shared.

2. A new check identifies amendments that belong to a different stage from the amendment list that contains them.

3. The existing check on the correct formatting of paragraph numbers, e.g. (a), (b) etc., has been updated to allow for numbers after “z” i.e. (z1), (z2) etc.

4. A new check for empty “defined term” elements in definitions in amended Bills.

5. A new check for amendments that appear to be missing a closing quote mark at the end of the amendment instruction.

6. A new check highlighting table cells in Bills that have been vertically merged (because this will cause problems for line numbering in the PDF of the Bill).

User management interface

Users who have user administration privileges can create and manage users within their organisation via a new User Administration page. See User Administration .

Amendment features

Restricting permissions on amendments

You can now restrict permissions on draft lists of amendments (and the amendments in those lists) in the same way that you can restrict Bill and SI documents.

See Managing amendment permissions

Bulk status update of amendments

The existing limited bulk status update feature in the Editor has been replaced with a new feature that enables you to select all or some amendments in a list and then apply any valid status transition to the selected amendments. See Updating the status of amendments within the Editor .

Commons Programme motions etc.

Functionality in Lawmaker for handling motions and orders in Commons amendment lists has been improved, particularly in relation to programme motions.

• Proposers and supporters can be added to a programme motion.

• As well as resolutions, it’s now possible to insert a “Motion to amend order” at the beginning of a Commons Marshalled list, to support the format of motions that amend existing orders.

• It’s now possible to insert an Order directly at the end of a Commons Marshalled list (rather than having to create it a a resolution first at the beginning of the list and then convert it to an Order).

Ping pong - add additional headings before amendments within motions and amendments to amendments

Within Ping pong motions, you can now add headings (centred and italic) before individual amendments. (This is to support the creation of lists like https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2017-2019/0111/18111-I.pdf).

See Add a heading to an amendment within a ping pong motion

Ping pong - structure view improvement

Structure view behaviour in the Editor has been improved so that amendments within a ping pong motion as shown in the structure view with the amendment’s instruction text (instead of just “amendment”).

Statutory instruments

SI Subject and Department list updates

The subject list for SIs and SSIs has been updated to correct some errors and add additional subject headings.

The department list used when inserting signature blocks into SIs and SSIs has been updated to reflect recent changes in government.

Extending Finalise Document feature to SIs and SSIs

The Finalise Document feature (accessible from the Actions menu on the Project tab) now works for SIs as well as Bills and enables the user to carry out several tasks on the whole document (e.g. updating cross-references and renumbering) with one click.

List of support tickets that have been fixed