Quoted Text

When drafting a textual amendment within a Bill or SI that only involves a word or a phrase (i.e. does not involve inserting or substituting a whole provision), you should use the quoted text element in Lawmaker to represent the text that is being left out, inserted or substituted, rather than simply surrounding the text with quote marks.

(If you are inserting whole provisions or other structured content then you should use a quoted structure instead - see Quoted structures.)

For instance, quoted text should be used for the highlighted portions in the following examples:

• for “£50,000” substitute “£60,000”

• In subsection (1), after “police,” insert “tri-service serious crime unit,”

• In section 2, insert at the end “or to a limited liability partnership”

A quoted text element should also be used for a textual amendment that starts with a word, phrase or punctuation but then continues with structure, e.g. in the following case:

In section 3(2) of the 2008 Act, at the end of paragraph (b) insert “or,

(ba) the Scottish Ministers.”

Using the quoted text element rather than just manually typing quote marks around the text improves data quality which helps ensure the documents can be published successfully on legislation.gov.uk and helps other Lawmaker functions like the Tag Reference feature operate correctly.

Note: at present quoted text elements should not be used in an amendment instruction when drafting parliamentary amendments (but can be used within provisions being inserted in amendment, i.e. within a quoted structure within an amendment, as they would be within a Bill).

How to insert quoted text

A ‘quoted text’ element can be inserted from the Content Completion Assistant by pressing Enter in the Editor and selecting Quoted text. This will create an empty ‘quoted text’ placeholder with opening and closing quote marks.

Changing quote marks

When you insert a quoted text, by default double inverted commas (“) are automatically inserted as quote marks. These quote marks can be removed or altered if necessary, by:

1. Right-clicking within the quoted text and

2. Selecting Update Quoted Text Properties.

Setting the quote marks to ‘none’ can be particularly useful when the quoted text needs to be followed by a quoted structure - see How to insert a quoted structure immediately after a quoted text below.

How to insert a quoted structure immediately after a quoted text

You may want to insert a quoted structure immediately after quoted text. This should be done if you have a textual insertion that starts inline at the end of an existing provision, then adds a new provision.

To insert a quoted structure immediately after a quoted text do the following:

1. Insert a quoted text element by placing your cursor in the desired location, pressing Enter and selecting Quoted text;

2. Right-click on the quoted text and select Update Quoted Text Properties from the menu;

3. Change the End quote to None and select Update;

4. Insert a quoted structure by

   • right-clicking in the Editor and selecting Insert Quoted Structure

   • using the CTRL+Q keyboard shortcut, or

   • From the Insert menu on the toolbar, selecting Insert Quoted Structure;

5. Fill in the Insert Quoted Structure window with your desired options - for Start quote, select None - and select Insert.

You will now have a quoted text element followed by a quoted structure, without quote marks between them. You can now fill these elements in as desired.

If you have already drafted a quoted structure but now want to insert quoted text before it, then you should simply follow steps 1. - 3. above, then right-click on the quoted structure and select Update Quoted Structure Properties from the menu, then follow step 5.