Training Module: Generating official lists at Further Consideration Stage

📘 Introduction

📚 Exercises

🛠️ Getting started

This exercise would ideally be done after you have completed Training Module: Preparing the 'as amended' version of the bill although you will additionally need some Further Consideration stage amendments: Further_consideration_stage_amendments.xml

✏️ Exercise 1: Republishing your As Introduced Bill

In this scenario we need to use our imagination. Let’s pretend no amendments were ‘Made’ at Consideration Stage and we’re about to start Further Consideration Stage. In Lawmaker, YOU MUST REPUBLISH THE ‘AS INTRODUCED’ BILL VERSION in order to clear out the Consideration stage amendments from the Amendment tabs.

Republishing the ‘As Introduced’ Bill at Further Consideration Stage

Detailed steps to republish the As Introduced bill version

On the Project tab, find the published As Introduced bill version on the right hand side and select Actions > Duplicate Version giving the version description a different name to distinguish it from the Consideration Stage As Introduced version e.g. As Introduced_FCS
Find the newly duplicated document version on the left hand side of the Project tab and select Actions > Update Document Information and update the version rubric by typing As Introduced - FCS
Select Actions > Generate PDF and click Generate button
Once the PDF has generated, toggle the snapshot view to see the PDF Snapshot created and select Actions > Publish Version

You can call this version whatever you like, it won’t be published on the Assembly website, it’s just a way for Lawmaker to differentiate between the As Introduced version used at Consideration Stage, and the As Introduced version used for Further Consideration Stage (which essentially means it will hide all the Consideration Stage amendments from the Amendment tabs).

This is because Lawmaker filters the amendment pages by bill version - if there wasn’t an ‘as amended’ version created after introduction, then all FCS amendments would get appended to the CS amendments which isn’t an issue for Lawmaker but does present a usability issue for you.

Make sure you let OLC know that the ‘As Introduced - FCS’ is the bill version they should be creating amendments to.

✏️ Exercise 2: Import pre-prepared amendments for Further Consideration Stage

To generate official lists at Further Consideration Stage, we need to import some amendments and update their status.

Detailed steps to import and update amendment statuses

From the Amendment Workspace tab click on the Upload button and select the Further Consideration stage amendments XML file which you have downloaded. Ensure you select As Introduced_FCS bill version and Further Consideration Stage.
Open the imported amendment list in the Editor and bulk update the statuses using Amendment Status right-hand panel and selecting the Bulk update statuses button
Select the Draft to Submitted state transition
Save your changes and close the list of amendments using the Close Editor button

✏️ Exercise 3: Generate the Notice of Amendments

Step 1: Table the amendments

Before you can generate an official list, you need to table the submitted amendments that you want to appear in the list.

Detailed steps to table the amendments

Filter the list by submitted amendments and select them all
From the top right on the Amendment Manager screen, select Amendment Actions > Table Amendments

Step 2: Generate the Notice of Amendments

Generate the Notice of Amendments, making any adjustments required before generating a PDF ready for checking and publishing.

Detailed steps to generate the Notice of Amendments

From the top right on the Amendment Manager screen, select Amendment Actions > Create official list
Select Notice of Amendments at Further Consideration Stage and give the list a unique name e.g. NoA. Leave cut-off date empty.
When the list loads in the Editor, check that the amendments are sorted and grouped correctly.
Make any adjustments if required then save and close the list using the Close Editor button
On the Official Lists tab, find the Notice of Amendments you just created and select Actions > Generate PDF and click on the Generate button and send for official checks

✏️ Exercise 4: Publishing the amendment list

Assuming the amendment list has completed all checks then the list is now ready for publishing

Step 1: Publish the bill in Lawmaker

You need to publish the amendment list in Lawmaker in order for automated processes when generating subsequent lists to run correctly.

Detailed steps to publish the list in Lawmaker

Click on the black triangle to the left of the list name to expand the view of snapshots
On the grey PDF snapshot version, select Actions > Publish version
The published version will appear on the right-hand side of the Official Lists tab and a snapshot is created under the working version.

Step 2: Publish the list on the Assembly’s website

You can now upload the final version of the pdf onto the website

✏️ Exercise 5: Generate the Marshalled List

Assuming there have been no last minute amendments tabled, you can now generate the Marshalled List.

Detailed steps to generate a marshalled list

From the top right on the Amendment Manager screen, select Amendment Actions > Create official list
On the create amendment list dialog box, select Marshalled List at Further Consideration Stage and provide a unique name for your Marshalled List e.g. ML. Update the cut-off date to be the deadline date that appears in the preface of the Marshalled List, leave cut-off time and update list date with the date of the debate
Check that the amendments are sorted correctly.
Make any other adjustments if required then save and close the list using the Close Editor button
On the Official Lists tab, find the Marshalled List you just created and select Actions > Generate PDF and click on the Generate button and send the list for official checks

When ready, publish this list using the same instructions from Training Module: Generating official lists at Further Consideration Stage | ✏️-Publishing-the-amendment-list

🩹 Trouble shooting

I can’t see any amendments in the Amendment Manager: check that haven’t got any filters set e.g. the Quick Filters.

☑️ When complete…

Move to Training Module: Creating an Act of the NIA and submitting to TNA