Training Module: Managing amendments in the Amendment Manager

This module will explain how you can use the Amendment Manager to manage amendments.

📘 Introduction

Amendment Manager Tab - viewing and managing individual amendments

📚 Exercises

🛠️ Getting Started

Continue fromTraining Module: Submitting amendments

✏️ Exercise 1: Filtering and sorting amendments

This exercise will show you how to access the different filter options

Detailed step to filter and sort amendments

In the Amendment Manager tab, click on the Filter button to filter the list by the different options. The red banner will tell you how many amendments were found using the selected filter.
To clear the filters, click on the Clear button
The Location filter will accept “Clause 1” or “Section 1” or “Schedule 1”
The Member filter will search for that Member as a proposer and/or a supporter in the amendments
To close the filter panel, click on the grey chevron button at the top left of the filter panel after clearing all the filters you applied.
Click on the column headers to sort the amendments in the table.

✏️ Exercise 2: Previewing and commenting on amendments

This exercise will show you how to preview an amendment should you want to look at the whole amendment in a list without having to open it in a temporary list.

Detailed steps to preview and add comments to amendments

Click on the eyeball button in the Preview and Comment column, selecting the one at the top of your list
A preview pane will open showing the full text of the amendment
Click on the Next button to view the next amendment in the sorted order
Add a comment against the amendment and click on the Next button
This time, add your initials to the Quick Comment box and click on Quick Comment button
Click on the Next button and click on the Quick Comment button again which will be pre-populated with your initials. This could be a useful way of marking that you have reviewed the amendment
Click on the Edit amendment button in the bottom left
The Editor will open with the amendment in so that you can edit it if you wish. Update the amendment by adding a supporter and save your changes and close the list with the Close Editor button
You will return to the preview pane with that same amendment. Click on the Refresh preview and comment button which will show your saved changes
Click on the Save and Close button to exit the preview pane and return to the Amendment Manager tab with your comments visible.

✏️ Exercise 3: Flagging and putting amendments ‘On hold’

This exercise shows you how to put an amendment ‘on hold’ or flag it if there were any special reasons to do so. Putting an amendment ‘On hold’ will prevent it changing state e.g. being submitted. This can be useful if you are waiting for some more information before it is ready for submission. A flag won’t stop anyone editing or changing its status but is a visual way of flagging an amendment in the list if this were useful.

Detailed step to add flag and set amendments to on hold

To add a flag, click on the flag icon against any of your amendments
To remove the flag, click on the flag icon again
To change an amendment’s status to ‘On hold’ select the amendment and select Amendment Actions > Set ‘Draft’ to ‘On hold’. As the name implies, you can only switch a draft amendment to on hold.
To change an amendment’s status to ‘On hold’ select the amendment and select Amendment Actions > Set ‘On hold’ to ‘Draft’. As the name implies, you can only switch a draft amendment to on hold.

✏️ Exercise 4: Moving or Copying amendments to a different stage

This exercise shows you how you can move or copy an amendment to a different stage

Step 1: Copy an amendment to another stage

This is useful if the same amendment comes up in a later amending stage and will save you from retyping the amendment. Copy will create a new version of the amendment, assigning it a new DNumber and resetting it to Draft. It can also be useful if you are a Counsel user and submitted an amendment by mistake. You can select the amendment and copy it to the same stage and bill version which will create a new version of that amendment which would otherwise be locked to you.

Detailed steps to copy an amendment to another stage

Select an amendment using the check box
Select Amendment Actions > Move/copy to another stage and select Copy amendments to a different stage selecting a different stage from which you are currently in. If there was more than one published version, you could select the bill version the stage relates to.

Step 2: Move an amendment to another stage

This is useful if you created an amendment against the wrong stage; or if you drafted an amendment at Consideration Stage but it wasn’t tabled until Further Consideration Stage. Move will move the actual amendment so it will retain its DNumber but it will be reset back to Draft if it wasn’t already.

Detailed steps to move an amendment to another stage

Select an amendment using the check box
Select Amendment Actions > Move/copy to another stage and select Move amendments to a different stage selecting a different stage from which you are currently in. If there was more than one published version, you could select the bill version the stage relates to.

✏️ Exercise 5: Editing a list of amendments in a temporary list

This exercise will teach you how to edit amendments in a temporary list. You can use this as an alternative option from selecting Edit Amendment on the preview pane

Detailed steps to edit amendments in a temporary list

From the Amendment Manager, select the amendment(s) you wish to edit
Select Amendment Actions > Create temporary list
Click on the Amendment Manager tab and you will see a brown warning message letting you know that you have a temporary list open. You can only have one temporary list open at one time. If you have closed it using the browser button, Lawmaker won’t know that you’ve closed the list and the brown warning will remain on the Amendment Manager. This is why there’s a link to reopen the temporary list so that you can close it down properly using the Close Editor button.
Back in the Editor, make the changes and save and close the temporary list using the Close Editor button.

✏️ Exercise 6: Creating a new List of Draft Amendments from a subset of different amendments

This exercise will show how it is possible to create a new list of draft amendments containing different amendments from different lists.

Detailed steps to create a new list of draft amendments

From the Amendment Manager, select a subset of amendments you wish to add to a new List of Draft Amendments
Select Amendment Actions > Create temporary list
In the Editor, save this list as a List of Draft Amendments by selecting Documents > Save as
Provide a unique list name e.g. New List
The Editor will reload with the newly saved List of Draft Amendments allowing you to draft new amendments in it if you need to, or make further edits as required.
Close the list using the Close Editor button.
Return to the Amendment Workspace tab and see that the newly created list appears on this tab.
Open the new list and check that the amendments you were expected are visible.

✏️ Exercise 7: Applying amendments to the bill

This exercise will teach you how to select one or more amendments to apply to a copy of the bill.

Detailed steps to apply amendments to the bill

Select all the amendment(s) from the LoDA called ‘Extension of permitted hours’ (created in Training Module: Drafting traditional amendments ) (use the filter > List of Draft Amendment’s name)
Select Amendment Actions > Apply amendments
Select ‘Create new Bill version (visible on the ‘Project’ tab) specifying a folder called As amended and a version description Minister’s amendments
When the new version of the bill has been created on the Project tab in the specified folder, open it making a note of how many amendments were applied (2 of the amendments won’t apply as they were amendments to amendments and should be manually applied to the target amendment before the target amendment is applied to the bill)
Open the Inline Amendments right-hand panel and click on each of the amendment cards to see where it has been applied in the bill.
Click on the tick on each card and watch them being auto-applied
The Document Check right-hand panel will flag any issues with the document once the amendments have been applied. These will all be resolved once the whole document is renumbered and cross references throughout the whole document are updated following any consequential changes.