House of Commons amendment list logic

Introduction

This page sets out the detail of how Lawmaker generates and updates Commons amendment lists including:

• what amendments/motions are included,

• how they are sorted,

• if and how they are numbered,

• other rules relating to headings etc. that are automatically generated.

(Rolling) Marshalled Lists

What amendments are included?

Amendments (or ping pong motions depending on the stage) will appear in the Rolling Marshalled List if they were recorded as having been “Ready for Publishing” up to the date of the amendment list and and they haven’t already got an outcome recorded against them e.g. Withdrawn before debate, Agreed to etc..

How are they sorted?

Amendments are sorted according to a number of factors when they are inserted into a Marshalled list. The sorting algorithm currently sorts by the follows criteria:

1. Amendments are first sorted by the clause or schedule to which they relate. If there is an Order of Consideration then this is applied to the sort. Otherwise amendments will be sorted in the order the clauses and schedules appear in the Bill.

2. Amendments relating to the same clause/schedule are then sorted by their page and line numbers (and column numbers, for amendments to tables).

3. New Clause and new Schedule amendments are sorted by amendment number.

4. Amendments to amendments are sorted after the amendment to which they relate.

5. Finally, amendments that would otherwise be sorted to the same place are sorted by their user-specified sort code e.g. “M1” before “M2” etc.

Ping pong motions are sorted by the amendment they are referring to on the Consolidated List of Amendments (CLOA)

Numbering

Amendments (and ping pong motions) will not be numbered by Lawmaker when a Marshalled List is generated or updated.

Numbers should be manually assigned to amendments as part of setting the list ready for publication

You can assign simple consecutive numbers to amendments using the renumber function in the Tools menu > Renumber Amendments.

Starred amendments

A black star will automatically appear before an amendment or ping pong motion that has never appeared on a previous rolling marshalled list

A white (hollow) star will automatically appear before an amendment or ping pong motion that has been published once already on a rolling marshalled list (converting the black star to an white star)

You can manually add or remove black and white stars by right-clicking on your selected amendment and selecting 'update star status'

Headings and rules

The system will automatically insert short rules between amendments and motions in the list

Interstitial headings can be inserted by selecting 'Interstitial heading' from the insert menu when you are editing a Marshalled List

Amendments to amendments (A2A)

• Amendments to amendments (A2A)

  • Amendments to amendments will appear after their target amendment in the sorted list

  • Line numbers will appear automatically against the target amendment in the PDF (not in the Editor) when you generate a PDF of the Rolling Marshalled List/Daily (as long as the A2A is in the same list)

    • You can manually specify whether an amendment or ping pong motion should be line numbered in a PDF by right-clicking in the Editor on the selected amendment/motion and selecting "Update line numbering status" 

  • A heading will automatically appear before the amendment to amendment

  • If you have more than one A2A amending the same target amendment, delete the text from the subsequent A2A's headings without deleting the heading element and the headings then will not appear in the PDF

Withdrawn amendments

The “Withdrawn amendments” section of the marshalled list does not appear by default when you create or update a marshalled list. You can insert it by placing your cursor at the appropriate point, pressing Enter and selecting "Withdrawn Amendments" from the insert menu.

• These will be listed at the end of the list whenever they are withdrawn before debate

Motions and resolutions and Orders

Motions and resolutions must be manually inserted into the Marshalled list by selecting 'motion' or 'resolution' from the insert menu

Orders cannot be inserted, they are created by converting a resolution into an order by right-clicking on the selected resolution and selecting 'Convert to order'

Proceedings

• It is assumed that outcomes against motions and amendments will be recorded in the appropriate Marshalled List.  Once you have finished updating the amendments and motions with outcomes, you can generate the Proceedings. 

• If you are planning on generating a Proceedings at the end of each day, you will need to create a new Proceedings each day of the sitting. 

• The system will create an empty document.  You will need to copy and paste motions and resolutions into the Proceedings from the Marshalled List.  Amendments will be automatically inserted when you run 'Update List'.

• The 'Update List' operation will not remove any amendments, motions, resolutions, interstitial headings, witness information or section/schedule outcomes.  This means that you can build up a running Proceedings document if you prefer - with new amendments appended to the end of the list and before the glossary and adjournment statement.  

• An interstitial heading will be inserted before the group of inserted amendments allowing you to record the sitting day information if required.  If not, select the interstitial heading element from the breadcrumb or from the structure view and delete it from the list.  They can be manually inserted from the insert menu (CCA) if you later decide you want one.

• The system will insert any amendments that have an outcome recorded against them on or between the supplied start and end dates in the 'Update List' dialogue box.  This is why you should record outcomes against the amendments before generating a proceedings.

• You can insert Witness List information using the insert menu - as well as clause/schedule outcome statements.  Short rules will be inserted automatically in the appropriate place as you build up the content of the document.

Ping Pong (Marshalled List)

• As covered previously, drafting ping pong motions and amendments is the same as creating Amendments - use the 'Amendments Workspace' to create a List of Draft Amendments (LoDA).  To view these motions, look to the Amendment Manager – and it is here, as well as in the LoDA itself, that you can advance your pp motions and amendments to the submitted stage, and then to tabled, and then to Ready to Publish.  At this point, you are ready to create an Official List.

• Official lists can be generated the same way as 'normal' amendments but you must select stage = Ping Pong

Ping Pong Proceedings

• It is assumed that outcomes against ping pong motions and amendments will be recorded in the appropriate Marshalled List open in an Editor, or in an ephemeral list created for that purpose.  Once you have finished updating the amendments and motions with outcomes, you can generate the Ping Pong Proceedings! 

• The system will create an empty document.   Amendments with decisions against them will be automatically inserted when you run 'Update List'.

• The 'Update List' operation will not remove any amendments, motions, resolutions, interstitial headings, witness information or section/schedule outcomes.  This means that you can build up a running Proceedings document if you prefer - with new amendments appended to the end of the list and before the glossary and adjournment statement.  

• The system will insert any amendments that have an outcome recorded against them on or between the supplied start and end dates in the 'Update List' dialogue box.  This is why you should record outcomes against the amendments before generating a proceedings.

•  Explanatory statements are not typically used at pp stage, although the functionality to add them remains in the CCA. Motions, resolutions and a space to list withdrawn amendments at this stage are options available from the CCA.

Reasons Document

• You will need some reason motions set to 'Ready for publishing' before you can generate a Reasons documents

• As with all Commons lists, you need to generate the empty list first, then update it with content by selecting "Tools > Update List"