What's new in version 21.0?

Version 21.0 is a significant release which includes several new features and improvements, together with some bug fixes.

It was released on 20 October 2025.

New features, improvements and changes

Backup snapshots when saving

Lawmaker now retains more backup versions when you save a document, making it easier for you to restore content that has been accidentally deleted or lost by some other means.

From the Project tab you can now access a snapshot of every save you made to a working version in the last 24hrs. Snapshots older than that are deleted other than the 3 most recent ones which are always retained.

See Saving your document.

Adding introductory text to a Schedule

There is now an additional option at the beginning a schedule to insert opening words before the rest of the content - the option in the CCA is “Schedule introduction”. This introductory paragraph can then be followed by any other schedule content, e.g. Parts or cross-headings.

See Inserting provisions and other elements.

Updating references while renumbering

When renumbering the whole document, you can now update the references in the document at the same time.

If you select “Update x-refs in the whole document after renumber” then, once the renumbering action is complete, Lawmaker will go back through the document and update references so they reflect the updated numbering.

See Renumbering provisions.

List formatting

The indentation of lists in PDFs has been adjusted to make sure unnumbered lists are clearly distinguishable from the paragraph above them.

See Working with lists in tables and elsewhere.

Adding sort codes to amendments in the Editor

We’ve changed the way you confirm changes to amendment sort codes and other amendment information in the Editor to make it quicker and more intuitive.

To confirm a change all you need to do now is press Enter. As soon as you start editing, a reminder message will appear.

See Managing amendment information .

Amendment Workspace and Official Lists Tab

The performance of the Amendment Workspace and Official List tabs has been improved. Snapshots for individual lists are now only loaded when you click the toggle next to a specific list with the result that the initial loading of the page is quicker. If you’re viewing a list of snapshots it should also automatically update when a new snapshot is created, e.g. if you generate a PDF.

It is now possible to sort the lists on both the Amendment Workspace and Official list by any column.

Lists on the Official Lists tab now show the count of amendments contained within them in the same way as is shown on the Amendment Workspace.

Amendment Manager

The overall performance of the amendment manager has been improved, in particular the time taken to load the screen when there are a large number of amendments.

In addition, we made some improvements to the information available on the screen and how you navigate through the amendments:

• We’ve added a bar showing a count of all the amendments visible in the amendment manager and a count of the amendments you’ve selected.

• We’ve changed the scrolling behaviour on screen so that the amendment filter options and the Amendment Actions menus remain visible when scrolling down a large list of amendments.

See Amendment Manager Tab - viewing and managing individual amendments.

Applying amendments

This version introduces a number of improvements to the auto-application of amendments:

• you can now apply amendments to list items,

• leave out and substitute amendments in Northern Ireland that use “head” or “sub-head” instead of “paragraph” or “sub-paragraph” are recognised and applied correctly,

• number locks on new provisions are removed automatically when amendments are accepted in NI and UK Bills.

See Auto-application of amendments to a Bill version and Accepting all applied amendments in a bill version

Northern Ireland Marshalled lists

When you generate a marshalled list for a NI Bill, the order of consideration is now only included if the stage is set to Consideration Stage.

Sorting now takes into account amendments that substitute whole clauses or schedules.

API

The Lawmaker API now includes an endpoint enabling authorised organisations (e.g. the UK Parliament) to update the proposer and supporters on specific amendments. This enables direct integration between parliamentary systems and Lawmaker.

New organisation

The Welsh Government has been added as an organisation in Lawmaker in preparation for Lawmaker being used to draft Welsh Statutory Instruments in a future release.

Bug fixes