Managing amendment information
Introduction
Metadata relating to the amendment is displayed in the right-hand panel called 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.
How to view amendment information
In the Editor, 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
Click on the cell for the relevant attribute you want to update
Make changes and wait for the document to update with the changes
The whole right-hand panel can be minimised/expanded by clicking on the grey arrow on the side of the panel
If you select a different amendment in the Editor, the Amendment Information panel will update to reflect the information associated to the newly selected amendment
The Sort Code is an optional field which can be updated to allow fine tuning sorting where necessary e.g. 2 x amendments inserting new sections in the same location
The Location information is updated after an amendment has been saved (including changes to the amendment).Â
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, 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 manually insert:
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 is uses numeric or alphanumeric sort so it's up to you how you would like to use this function in your jurisdiction