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Before you start this exercise, you will need a published bill. For these exercises, create a project containing a published version of the following Bill: The following steps will allow you to create the data required for this exercise.
Download the XML document for the exercise by clicking on the link you’ve been provided with. By default, the downloaded file is usually placed in the “downloads” folder on your computer.
Log in to Lawmaker.
From the Dashboard, create a new project of the type you need for the exercise. Give it a title such as [Your Initials] Drafting, Submitting and Managing Amendments Bill. (See Creating a new project.)
From the Project tab for that project, select DocumentActions > Upload document, and select the XML file for the exercise which you have downloaded. It can be uploaded into the default folder that has been created in the project. (See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/688419.)
On the newly uploaded document version, select Actions > Update Document Information and update the Title to match the title you originally gave the project.
On the uploaded document version, select Actions > Generate PDF to generate a PDF selecting line numbers. (See: Generating and viewing a PDF.)
Exercise 1: Drafting amendments in a List of Draft Amendments (LoDA)
This exercise will show you have to create a traditional List of Draft Amendments (LoDA) to start drafting traditional style amendments in.
Step 1: Create a traditional LoDA
From Amendment Workspace tab, create a new traditional LoDA
On the Amendment Workspace tab, click on the +New button in the top right and select Traditional as the type of amendment and supplying the bill version, Consideration Stage and calling the list Extension of permitted hours
When the list loads, type Extension of permitted hours into the Subtitle at the top of the list (this is an optional field, you don’t have to use it)
Step 2: Insert a new clause amendment
The insert menu in a traditional LoDA gives you various pre-populated amendment options, including New Clause amendments. Recreate the following new clause amendment—
Place your cursor in the List Body element and click on Enter to view the insert menu
Select New Clause amendment
Edit the instruction element so that it reads Before clause 1 insert—
In the empty clause in the quoted structure, add the heading Removal of restrictions on late opening for on-sales on Sunday
Type A1. into the num (click on the left side of the num element if you’re finding it hard typing into it) and lock its num (Right-click > Lock/Unlock Number)
Type In Article 30 of the Licensing Order (occasional licences), in paragraph (1)(c), for paragraphs (ii) and (iii) substitute— into the empty Text element
Click enter and select Quoted Structure, selecting Northern Ireland Order in Council and sub-paragraph (i) leaving other options unchanged and adding a full-stop in the following text.
Type iii into the empty num and on Sundays, between half past 12 in the afternoon and 1 in the morning of the day next following, into the empty Text element
To insert the following subsection, make sure your cursor is outside of the nested Quoted structure (but still in the overall quoted structure of the amendment) and click Enter and Subsection (1) can be selected
Continue inserting the remaining provision and text
Save your changes when complete
Step 3: Change a new clause amendment to include a grouping level (e.g. cross heading)
This step will explain how a grouping level can be inserted into a new clause amendment: this workaround can be done before you draft the new clause, or after you have drafted the new clause—
This step assumes you are starting with a new clause amendment in a traditional LoDA. The new clause doesn’t need to be populated to complete this step
Click on the <section> breadcrumb within the quoted structure so that the whole section is highlighted
Use keyboard shortcut CTRL+X to cut the section out of the quoted structure leaving behind a placeholder for quotedStructure
Place cursor in the quotedStructure placeholder and click Enter and select Part
A new part is inserted into the quoted structure. Add the heading text Restrictions
Paste in the section that is currently on your clipboard using keyboard shortcut CTRL+V. The new clause is pasted within the part grouping level. You can check this by putting your cursor anywhere within the clause and checking that the breadcrumb shows … > Quoted structure > Part > Section …
Step 4: Insert a page-line (insert structure) amendment
The insert menu in a traditional LoDA gives you various pre-populated amendment options, including page-line amendments. Recreate the following page-line amendment with structure—
Place your cursor in the first amendment’s instruction and click Enter to select Page-line insert structure amendment
In the instruction element tweak the placeholder text so that it reads Clause 1, Page 1, Line 9
At the end of the instruction, delete the em-dash and add the text ', or
The default starting element is a subsection. In this case we need a paragraph. Place your cursor in the empty Text element and select Subsection from the breadcrumb to delete it leaving behind the quotedStructure element
With your cursor in the quotedStructure element, click Enter and select paragraph (a)
The paragraph’s num element is empty but contains the parentheses. You will need to lock the number to prevent it from being changed (right-click > Lock/Unlock Number) and type in c
Continue inserting the remaining provisions and text
The start quote for this amendment started in the instruction so update the Quoted Structure properties (right-click > Update Quoted Structure Properties) and change the start quote to None
Step 5: Insert a stand part motion
The insert menu in a traditional LoDA gives you various pre-populated amendment options, including stand part motions. Recreate the following stand part motion—
Place your cursor in the last amendment’s instruction and click Enter to select Stand part motion
In the instruction element tweak the pre-populated rubric to read The Minister gives notice of his intention to oppose the question that clause 12 stand part of the Bill.
Step 6: Insert an amendment to an amendment
The insert menu in a traditional LoDA gives you various pre-populated amendment options, including amendment to amendment. Recreate the following 2 x amendments to amendments—
Place your cursor in the last amendment’s instruction and click Enter to select amendment to amendment
In the Amendment context element tweak the pre-populated rubric to read As an amendment to the amendment to clause 8, page 9, line 28 tabled by the Chairperson of the Committee for Communities on 18 May 2021
In the Instruction type in the following Leave out from ‘means’ to end and insert ‘, in relation to premises, means a tour of the premises which—
Click Enter and select Quoted Structure, selecting starting element paragraph (a), and leaving start quote with none as the start quote is in the instruction
Inserting the remaining provisions and text
Place your cursor in the instruction and click Enter to insert another amendment to amendment
Type As an amendment to the amendment inserting a new clause entitled ‘Sales and consumption of liquor in local producer’s premises’, tabled by the Chairperson of the Committee for Communities on 18 May 2021 into the Amendment context
Type In subsection (1), in the new Article 43A, leave out subsection (4) into the instruction
Save your changes
Step 7: Update location information for the amendment to an amendments
Location information is used by Lawmaker to automatically sort amendments in the official lists. In most amendments, the location and instruction elements contain enough information for Lawmaker to parse and auto-populate the location information. Amendments to amendments often don’t contain enough context so the location information must be manually populated.
Update the location table for the second amendment to amendment as follows—
Click on the first of the 2 amendments to amendments and open the Amendment Information right-hand panel. You will see that it has been automatically populated with the clause, page and line information parsed from the amendment context.
Click on the second of the 2 amendment to amendments and view the location table for this amendment. It is mostly empty, apart from ‘leaveOut’ as it is a leave-out-type amendment.
As it is an amendment to a new clause amendment, you need to fill in the Location and Provision fields (See NI amendments to amendments for more information on populating the location table for amendments to amendments)
Add 2 to the sort code - this will ensure the amendment to amendment is sorted after the target amendment which will get updated by the Bill Office with sort code 1. If you are drafting more than one amendment to the same target, you can update the sort code for each amendments to control which order you would like them sorted.
WAIT FOR THE SPINNER before saving your changes
Step 8: Insert provisions into inserted text within the bill
When you are inserting provisions within inserted text, all the provisions within the amendment need to be indented to indicate they are being inserted into inserted text (which is indented in the bill). This exercise will show you how to create this. Without it, the amendment will not be successfully auto-applied if the amendment were to be Made.
Place your cursor in an amendment’s instruction and click Enter to select Page-line amendment
In the instruction element tweak the placeholder text so that it reads Clause 3, Page 4, Line 29
Type At end insert— into the instruction
Click Enter and select Quoted Structure
In the dialog box, select the following:
Document type: select Northern Ireland Order in Council
Starting element: select Paragraph (1)
Indent level: select “1” instead of None which will indent the overall quoted structure by the equivalent of 1 tab
Start quote and end quote can be left unchanged
Following text: leave empty
Click on Insert
Update the empty num to 1A and type The references in this Article to the hours specified in Article 42 are references to those hours as extended by Article 46. into the empty Text placeholder
Save your changes.
Exercise 2: Managing proposers and supporters
This exercise will how you how to update proposers and supporters against your amendments.
Step 1: Update the proposer on an individual amendment
To update the proposer and/or amendment on a single amendment, click on the blue Proposer element
Click on any amendment’s blue proposer element
In the dialog box that opens, type Minister for Communities
Put your cursor in that amendment’s instruction and click Enter to insert any amendment after
The newly inserted amendment will inherit the proposer’s name. If you update the first amendment in a list this way, then all remaining amendments inserted will have the same proposer.
Undo the insertion of this amendment
Step 2: Bulk update proposers and supporters
If you want to update all or a subset of amendments in one go, use the bulk update option
Select Tools > Update Members..
Leave All Amendments selected and leave Replace proposer with selected member and select Minister for Communities
Exercise 3: Creating amendments with cross references
It’s possible to create cross references within the quoted structure of amendments to provisions within the published bill or to other provisions within the quoted structure or other amendments' quoted structures.
Create a cross reference to a provision in the bill
We will create a cross reference to section 13 and put it into the amendment to Clause 1, Page 1, Line 9.
Recreate the following cross reference in the amendment—
On the Project tab, open the published version of the bill (from the right-hand side). The bill is read only, but you can copy cross references to provisions in it using the structure view (right-click on the target provision > select cross reference to copy > section 13)
Select the cross reference to section 13
Back in the traditional LoDA, place your cursor in the location of the cross reference and paste it in using keyboard short cut CTRL + V
Exercise 4: Copying and pasting amendments
It’s possible to create new amendments by copying and pasting them into your LoDA which can be useful when you have lots of similar amendments to draft. If you paste an amendment into a different LoDA where it doesn’t already appear, it will create a new instance of the same amendment rather than create a copy. This can be useful when you want to create different lists containing the same amendment.
Step 1: Copy and paste an amendment in the same LoDA
Create a copy of the amendment to Clause 1, Page 1, Line 9
Place your cursor in the amendment to Clause 1, Page 1, Line 9 and select Amendment from the breadcrumb to select the whole amendment (alternatively click on it in the structure view)
Copy the amendment
Place your cursor in the instruction of that amendment and paste a copy of it using keyboard shortcut CTRL+V
The pasted amendment doesn’t have a DNumber assigned. This is how you know Lawmaker has created a copy.
Save the changes to your list (which will create a new amendment for the one you copied) and close the list using the Close Editor button
Step 2: Copy and paste an amendment in a different LoDA
Create a copy of the amendment to Clause 1, Page 1, Line 9
Return to the Amendment Workspace tab
Click on the +New button and create another traditional LoDA called Duplicate amendment
In the empty list, place your cursor in the List Body element and paste in your copied amendment using keyboard shortcut CTRL+V
The new amendment is pasted into the list and it retains its DNumber letting you know that it is the same amendment as the other list. If you make a change to the amendment in the new list, it will be reflected in the other list as they are both the same amendment.
Save your new list and close the list using the Close Editor button
Exercise 5: Creating table amendments
This exercise will show you how to draft table amendments in a traditional LoDA.
Step 1: Create a traditional LoDA
From Amendment Workspace tab, create a new traditional LoDA
On the Amendment Workspace tab, click on the +New button in the top right and select Traditional as the type of amendment and supplying the bill version, Consideration Stage and calling the list Table amendments
Step 2: Create some table amendments
Recreate the following amendments in a traditional LoDA—
Place your cursor in the instruction of the last amendment and click Enter to view the insert menu
Select Page-line amendment
Edit the location element so that it reads Clause 14, Page 19, Line 13, Column 1
Edit the instruction so that it reads At end insert ‘and 42(3)’
