NI Troubleshooting

Find the missing amendment on the Amendment Manager and check the following:

• Status

  • This is visible on the Amendment Manager status column

  • To appear on a Notice of Amendments or Marshalled List, it must be at status ‘Tabled’

  • To appear on a Notice of Withdrawals it must already have been updated to “Withdrawn”

  • A fast-track way of updating amendment statuses is to open the amendment in a temporary list and open ‘Manage lifecycle events’ (a hyperlink on the Amendment Status right-hand panel)

• Published status

  • You can check this by opening the amendment in a temporary list and viewing ‘Manage lifecycle events’ (a hyperlink on the Amendment Status right-hand panel)

  • To appear on a Notice of Amendments, it cannot have been published on another list

  • For Notice of Withdrawals and Marshalled List, the published status does not matter

  • It is possible to delete a published status using the ‘Manage lifecycle events’ dialog box if it was published on a previous list by mistake

• Tabled date/time

  • When creating a list, you need to specify a cut off date (cut-off time is optional)

  • Make sure the missing amendment’s tabled date/time falls within the specified cut-off date (and time if applicable)

Check the amendment:

• Tabled date/time

  • When creating a list, you need to specify a cut off date (cut-off time is optional)

  • Make sure the extra amendment’s tabled date/time does not fall within the specified cut-off date (and time if applicable)

  • You can edit the tabled date/time to a slightly later date/time using the ‘Manage lifecycle events’ dialog box if it was tabled within the specified cut-off date/time

• You can edit an amendment at any time, in any list in the Editor.

• Editing an amendment will update the source amendment so that any subsequent lists it appears on, it will display the latest updates

• The only time changing an amendment will not affect the source amendment is in the Speaker’s Brief. This allows users to truncate long amendments without it affecting the source amendment.

• If the mistake is spotted straight away, before the website has been updated, you can correct the mistake and republish the bill with the same version description (e.g. “As Introduced” or “As amended at Consideration Stage”)

• The updated version will replace the original version in the application for the purposes of inline amending and in the Public Document Repository (PDR) where the website will eventually get bill data from (after the manual EpiServer process is replaced). You might need to do something elsewhere as part of managing the website, this guidance will be provided by your website team/IS team.

• If the mistake was spotted late, after the bill had been printed and published on the website; you can update the bill in Lawmaker, but you will need to follow existing processes to handle reprints and correction slips etc.

• If the mistake is spotted straight away, before you have published the amendment list on the website, you can correct and republish the amendment list.

• The updated version will replace the original version in the Public Document Repository (PDR) where the website will eventually get amendment list data from.

• If the mistake is spotted late, after the amendment list has been printed and published on the website, you will need to follow existing processes to handle reprints etc.

• You can update the footer information (e.g. “adding ‘Revised’ after the list number) by opening the list in the Editor and updating the list number field in the Document Information right hand panel.

• If a last minute amendment is tabled, create it as you usually would (e.g. via an inline LoDA)

• Before you generate the Marshalled List, you will need to submit and table the last minute amendment

• Generate the Marshalled List and the last minute amendment will automatically be included.

• Add an asterisk to the last minute amendment to indicate that it hasn’t appeared on a previous Notice of Amendments by placing your cursor in the amendment in the Editor and right-clicking and selecting ‘Update star status’

• Notify the Bill Office so that they can mark the amendments as ‘rejected’

• You still won’t have edit rights to these amendments. If you wanted to continue editing the erroneously submitted amendments, you will need to copy them to a different stage (From the Amendment Manager, select your amendments and select Amendment Actions > Move/copy to a different stage) selecting the current stage and bill version. This will create a duplicate of all the selected amendments, removing the ‘submitted’ status allowing you to edit and resubmit when ready.

• You can update the status of an amendment quickly using the ‘Manage lifecycle events’ link on the Amendment Status right-hand panel in the Editor

• Caution: the statuses drive a lot of the automated processes in Lawmaker e.g. generating official lists so use this ‘back door’ access carefully so as not to create unintended consequences.