Quoted structures

A quoted structure is the element you insert in Lawmaker to contain inserted or substituted provisions when you are creating a textual amendment in a Bill or SI, or creating a parliamentary amendment.

A quoted structure can contain any kind of provision and will normally appeared indented on the page and surrounded by quote marks. In the Editor a quoted structure will be shown with a dotted line around it to distinguish from other provisions.

(They’re called “quoted structures” because element used in Akoma Ntoso to hold structured content that is being quoted in some way from another document. They are similar to what, in the existing SI template, were called “long quotes”.)

If you are creating a textual amendment that only inserts or substitutes a single word or a phrase then you should use a quoted text element instead - see Quoted Text.

How to insert a Quoted Structure

1. Use any of the following methods:

   • press Enter and select Quoted structure

   • right-click in the Editor and select Insert Quoted Structure

   • from the Insert menu in the toolbar, select Insert Quoted Structure

   • use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Q.

2. Select a starting element and adjust any other settings in the dialogue box (see Quoted Structure properties below).

3. Click Insert.

Lawmaker will insert a quoted structure containing the selected starting element on a new line, below the provision your cursor is in.

Please ensure you select the correct Starting element. It is currently not possible to change it after you have created the Quoted Structure.

See Quoted Structure properties > Starting element below for more detail.

If the starting element has a number, then the number will be left empty (but parentheses will still be present if the element number would normally have them) and it will be locked (see Locking and unlocking numbers). You can manually add a number to the first element and subsequent elements will be numbered accordingly.

How to edit Quoted Structure properties

To edit the properties of an already-existing Quoted Structure, either:

• right-click on the Quoted Structure and select Update Quoted Structure Properties; or

• with your cursor in the Quoted Structure, select Insert > Update Quoted Structure Properties.

Quoted Structure properties

When you insert a quoted structure you can set various properties of the the quoted structure. These properties (apart from Starting element) can be updated after the quoted structure is inserted - see How to edit Quoted Structure properties above.

Document type

Selecting the document type determines how the contents of the quoted structure will be formatted and what starting elements are available.

By default, the document type will be the Act type that corresponds to the document you are editing (e.g. an Act of the Scottish Parliament if you are editing a Scottish Bill, or a UKPGA if you are editing an amendment list for the Commons or the Lords).

The possible types are:

• Act of the Scottish Parliament (asp)

• United Kingdom Public General Act (ukpga)

• UK Statutory Instrument

• Scottish Statutory Instrument

• Northern Ireland Statutory Rule

• Northern Ireland Order in Council

• Church Measure

• EU Regulation, EU Directive or EU Decision

If you select a different document type to the body of your document, then in the PDF, the textual insertion will be formatted like the document type you’ve selected, rather than the rest of your document, except for font size and style. E.g., if you are working in a Scottish Bill and you select a United Kingdom Public General Act as the document type then the contents of the Quoted Structure will be formatted as in a UK PGA.

If you want the contents of the Quoted Structure to look exactly like other provisions in your document then set the document type to that which corresponds to your document.

Starting element

(Can’t be changed after quoted structure is inserted.)

The list of possible starting elements is determined by the document type. The list include all possible elements in the main body and in schedules - there are separate options for grouping elements in the body and schedule (e.g. “Part” and “Sch Part”).

Indent level

All provisions in a quoted structure are, by default, indented compared to how they would be if they appeared directly in the document.

The Indent level option allows you to alter that indent.

• Indent level “none” means the normal indent will be applied.

• Indent level “-1” removes the normal indent that is applied to provisions within a quoted structure.

• Indent levels “1” and above add additional indent beyond the default indent.

See Cases where you may need to adjust the indent level of a quoted structure or use adjacent quoted structures for more on when and how to use this feature.

Start quote and end quote

If a quoted structure is to be surrounded by quote marks, you should select them here.

By default, a quoted structure will be set to have double inverted commas “ and “ except in the case of a Scottish Parliament amendment which uses < and >.

Please use the Quoted Structure properties window to insert/edit quote marks. Do not try to type quote marks directly in the Editor.

Following text

Enter here any text that you want to appear directly after the closing quote mark. This will usually be punctuation and/or a conjunction, e.g. “;” or “, and”.

Please use the Quoted Structure properties window to insert/edit Following text. Do not try to type Following text directly in the Editor.

Creating a textual insertion that starts inline using Quoted Text and Quoted Structure

If your textual amendment starts inline, amending an existing provision, before adding a new provision - as in the example below - you need to use quoted text for the inline part, and then a quoted structure for the new provision.

See Quoted Text | Inserting-a-quoted-structure-immediately-after-a-quoted-text for detail.

Inserting a Quoted Structure immediately after another Quoted Structure

To insert a quoted structure immediately after another quoted structure either:

• right-click in the Editor within the existing quoted structure and select Insert adjacent quoted structure, or

• From the Insert menu on the toolbar, select Insert adjacent quoted structure.

See Cases where you may need to adjust the indent level of a quoted structure or use adjacent quoted structures for more on when and how to use this feature.

Nested Quoted Structures

It is possible to insert a quoted structure within an existing quoted structure. Just place your cursor within the existing quoted structure and follow the instructions above to insert a new quoted structure.

Tables in Quoted Structures

You can insert a table as a starting element by selecting “table” as the starting element.  This will take you to the “Insert table” dialogue box allowing you to specify the type of table/table row that you want to insert. If you just want to insert a single row of a table then insert a table with only 1 row and no table number, caption or header - see Inserting and managing tables.

Copying / moving Quoted Structures

If you want to move a Quoted Structure from one area of your document to another, you can do so by:

• Clicking and dragging it using the Structure View - see Moving provisions, tables and amendments within a document | Moving-using-the-structure-view

• Copying/cutting and pasting it - take the following steps:

  • Place your cursor in the Quoted Structure

  • Select “Quoted structure” from the breadcrumb

  • Press CTRL+c or CTRL+x as appropriate

  • Place your cursor in the provision/amendment you want your Quoted Structure to appear after

  • Press CTRL+v.

The Quoted Structure should appear in the correct location underneath the provision.

Moving existing provisions in and out of Quoted Structures

See Moving elements in or out of Quoted Structures for help with this.

Tagging references in Quoted Structures

The Tag References feature will only pickup external references when the cursor is in a Quoted Structure because there won’t be enough context to resolve any internal references found.

However, you can create manual x-refs to and from provisions in a Quoted Structure - see References. (You can’t currently create manual cross-references to provisions within a quoted structure that is marked as relating a EU document type.)