Managing amendment information
- Matt Lynch
- Edward Griffiths
- Estelle Holmes (Deactivated)
- Sarah Cogan (Unlicensed)
Introduction
Metadata relating to the amendment is displayed in the right-hand panel labelled Amendment Information. In most cases, the amendment information is automatically generated by parsing the amendment instruction/ping pong motion heading to work out the clause/page/line etc. information. This information is used by Lawmaker when sorting amendments or motions in lists. In some cases, namely amendments to amendments in the House of Lords and House of Commons, the instruction doesn't contain enough context for sorting so the Amendment Information can be manually updated to allow more fine-tuned sorting to take place.
In particular, the Sort Code value can be populated with user-defined values to determine the sorting of amendments which otherwise couldn’t be distinguished for the purposes of sorting.
How to view amendment information
In the Editor, on the right-hand side, click on the Amendment Information panel 
How to update amendment information (e.g. adding a sort code)
In the Editor, click on the Amendment Information panel
In the table of amendment information (which includes information about the amendment Type, Location, Provision, etc.), click within the cell for the relevant attribute you want to update
Make changes then wait 4-5 seconds for the document to be updated - you will see a spinner appear in the Editor when this happens
Save the list.
If you select a different amendment in the Editor, the Amendment Information panel will update to reflect the information associated with the newly selected amendment
The Sort Code is an optional field which can be updated to allow fine tuning sorting where necessary (for example, where two amendments are inserting new sections in the same location)
The Location information is updated after an amendment has been saved (including changes to the amendment).
For ‘normal’ amendments, the system will parse the instruction text and work out the various location information which is used by the system for sorting amendments in official lists.
For ‘ping pong’ motions in the UK Parliament, the system will parse the motion heading e.g. COMMONS AMENDMENT 1 in order to link the motion to the target amendment
Appropriate text to insert manually:
Location: "before" or "after" (used in Lords and SP for new clauses and new amendments e.g. "After Schedule 2"
Provision: "sec_7" or "sch_2" or "amnd_3" (amnd_3 = the target amendment)
Page: the appropriate page number e.g "4"
Line: the appropriate line number e.g. "20"
Sort code: this uses numeric or alphanumeric sorting so it's up to you how you would like to assign sort code values in your jurisdiction