What's new in version 18?

Version 18 is a significant release which includes a range of new features and improvements. It also includes some bug fixes.

It was released on [date].

New features and improvements

Auto-application of amendments

See Applying Amendments.

The auto-application process

Amendments can be now applied to a Bill version that is open in the Editor. As well as creating a new version containing the applied amendments or applying amendments to a previously saved working version, you can now apply amendments to a Bill that you have open in the Editor (any changes to the Bill will be saved as part of the application process). (LDAPP-4486)

Accepting amendments

Applied amendments can be accepted one-by-one as well as all at the same time. Much in the same way that individual tracked changes can be accepted, it is now possible to accept individual applied amendments using the inline amendment panel. (LDAPP-4467)

Improvements to the auto-application logic

There are a number of improvements to the types of amendments that can be handled by the auto-application feature and to the logic used in applying them:

• Amendments that insert provisions including a cross-heading, Part or Chapter can now be applied. Previously it was only possible to apply amendments that inserted a section/clause or smaller provision. Now amendments that insert a cross-heading containing a section When the amendments are accepted, some additional clean-up takes place to ensure the hierarchical structure of the document remains correct. (LDAPP-4515, LDAPP-4475, LDAPP-4523)

• Amendments which leave out text beginning with punctuation can now be applied successfully. (LDAPP-4543)

• Amendments to tables that leave out, insert or substitute words in a table cell can now be applied. (Amendments that leave out, insert, or substitute table rows will be handled in a future release.) (LDAPP-3107)

• Order that amendments with the same insertion location are applied is determined by the sort code value. This is particularly relevant for New Clause/Schedule amendments in the Commons but may be useful elsewhere too. (LDAPP-4471)

• Handling amendments to the same line has been improved so that application of a later amendment is not affected by the application of any earlier amendment in cases where the amendments rely on ordinal references (e.g. “after second “the” insert…”) or where one amendment leaves out text to the end of a line and another amendment inserts content “at end” of the same line. (LDAPP-4473)

Inline amendments

The performance of the Editor has been improved when the document contains a large number of inline amendments. In particular, keyboard lag when typing has been significantly reduced. (LDAPP-4480)

Other amendment improvements and changes

Submitting amendments

The process for submitting amendments from the Amendment Manager and from within the Editor has been made more consistent. In particular, a new interface has been introduced that shows the different checks that have been carried out as part of the submission process and identifies the specific amendments that have failed any of the checks. (LNI-61)

Publishing amendments

Similarly to submitting amendments, there is a new interface making it clearer what checks were carried out as part of the publishing process when publishing amendment lists. (LNI-42)

Commons amendment list templates

Minor updates have been made to the templates for Commons Official lists (LDAPP-4384)

Reference tagging

Further improvements have been made to Lawmaker’s ability to tag external references in complex cases. In particular:

• Lists of references that refer to different types of provisions (e.g. section, paragraph and schedule references in ““in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 30C(5) to (7), 32(7), (8) and (13), 33(4A), (5) and (8) and 34(5) of, and paragraph 9(1) of Schedule 1 to, the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018”) are now tagged. (LDAPP-4532)

• Contextual references following the words “after”, “before” and “omit” in textual amendments are tagged correctly. (LDAPP-4500)

• References that rely on an alias are tagged even where the alias includes brackets (e.g. a reference to “F(No.2)A 2023” can now be handled) (LDAPP-4499)

• Some cases which shouldn’t be tagged are now handled appropriately (references inside defined terms and “that part” when it occurs in a phrase like “that partial”) (LDAPP-4479, LDAPP-4447)

SI/SSIs

Auto-generation of citation footnotes

Chapter numbers, e.g. “(c. 3)”, are now added to primary legislation references in a legislative history footnote. (LDAPP-4541)

Inserting italic headings in schedules

An option in the CCA to insert a “Italic Heading” is now present when you are working in a schedule of an SI or SSI. This will insert a Section element without a section number (i.e. without “Section 1” before the heading). (LDAPP-4545)

Order of procedures when creating a new SI/SSI project

The order of procedures in the dropdown menu in the Create New Project dialogue box has been changed to put the most common procedures (e.g. Made Negative) at the top. (LDAPP-4521)

Increased space for signatures in PDF

The space between the end of the text and the start of the signature has been increased in the PDF following user feedback. (LDAPP-4562)

PDF generation and formatting

Auto-hyphenation option for tables

A new option has been added to the table properties dialogue box that allows you to choose between auto-hyphenation and no hyphenation within the table. Auto-hyphenation will automatically hyphenate text in the table (using an in-built dictionary of syllables). This will be particularly useful for complex tables with a number of columns where, without hyphenation, text would get squashed together or overlap due to the presence of long words. (LDAPP-4504, LDAPP-4511)

Table number formatting

Table numbers in PDFs are now bold (as they appear in the Editor). (LDAPP-4522)

Document management (Project tab)

Editor improvements

Quoted structures

Validation

Accessibility and misc

Origins and destinations