What's new in version 23?

Version 23.0 is a significant release containing a number of new features, improvements and bug fixes.

It was released on 07 April 2026.

New features, improvements and changes

Retaining auto-save snapshots as a backup

When you open a document in the Editor and there is an auto-save snapshot from the last time you were working on the document, Lawmaker now retains that auto-save snapshot (renaming it as an “Auto-recover” snapshot) regardless of whether you choose to continue working from it or to discard it. This follows on from the work done in v.22 to retain more backup snapshots, allowing you to recover work should anything go wrong or should you accidentally make the wrong selection (i.e. selecting Discard changes when you meant to continue working with them).

See Saving your document.

Compare documents

The Compare Document Versions feature has now been moved to the Document Actions dropdown menu in the top right on the Project tab and behaves more like MS Word’s compare feature where you are prompted to select the original document to compare with the revised version. It has additionally been updated to handle dual language renditions meaning if you select a document which contains 2 language renditions, both renditions will be compared in the output.

See Comparing documents.

Import from Word

The Import from Word feature has been extended to handle more document types including Scottish Parliament and UK Bills as well as Church Measures.

It has also been improved to handle more types of content and Word-specific formatting across all document types including unhandled LISTNUM field codes which were occurring frequently in WSI documents drafted in the old SI template.

See Importing documents from Word.

Export to Word

The option to export a document to Word has been extended to Scottish Parliament Bills, UK Bills, Church Measures, and secondary legislation. Comments will be included in the content that is exported which will allow you to view comments in MS Word’s bubble layout. However, tracked changes are not yet supported. This is a beta feature with further improvements to be delivered in future releases. If you spot anything that isn’t working as expected, please get in touch with the Lawmaker Support team so we can log it with the other refinements.

See Exporting documents to Word.

Creating Lists in the Preamble of SIs and Bills and in commencement tables within SIs

When inserting new elements from the CCA in the Editor, you can now choose the generic ‘List’ option inside the Preamble of Bills and SIs, and in the Commencement Table at the end of commencement SIs.

It is also now an option on the Front Cover of UK Private Bills.

Creating a List allows you to select various different numbering styles (or bullets or em-dashes) for a series of paragraphs. The List option was originally added to the body of most document types in version 20.0.

See Working with lists in tables and elsewhere for guidance on how to create Lists and list Items in the Editor.

Quoted Structures

We have made it easier to insert Quoted Structures from the CCA when working in a provision that contain a Quoted Text element. Now, if you press Enter when your cursor is inside a Quoted Text element, ‘Quoted Structure’ will appear as an option in the CCA.

Tagging internal and external references in Welsh

Following the addition of support for WSI drafting in version 22, we have extended the Tag references function to support automatic identification of Welsh-language references in the Editor.

Both internal references (to other provisions in the same document) and external references (to existing enactments on legislation.gov.uk) should now be identified successfully. Welsh mutations - variations in the spelling of certain words depending on context - are also supported by the updated tagging algorithm.

See Welsh Statutory Instruments - quick links | References

Numbering and IDs in Welsh language text

It is now possible to renumber a Welsh rendition of a document and for Welsh numbers to be handled e.g. Rhan 1, Pennod 1 and Yr Atodlen or Atodlen 1 etc. This works inside Welsh WSIs as well as quoted structures in any English document that is amending Welsh legislation (as long as the quoted structure is marked up as Welsh using the language selector).

See Numbering.

Document checks

A number of changes and improvements have been introduced:

• Reference checking: the rules checking for malformed references have been updated to cope with references in Welsh and to allow for references that include punctuation within a word, e.g. “sub-paragraph”.

• Courtesy translations: a new document check has been added to highlight references in Welsh that appear to be courtesy translations of English-only legislation (and therefore are not currently linked to legislation.gov.uk).

• Citations in footnotes: Improved checking for incorrect formatting of citations in footnotes including identifying cases where “I” is incorrectly typed as “1” (e.g. "S.1. 2020/123") and checking for that references to UK Acts are correctly formatted.

• Empty Parts and Chapters etc.: A new check has been added to detect grouping elements that have neither a heading or a number element as a result of them being deleted (the Part or Chapter etc. would therefore be invisible in the Editor other than in the breadcrumbs). Quick fix options are offered to either tidy things up by removing the remaining Part/Chapter/etc. wrapper or to add back the heading and number elements.

• SI number check: the existing check for correct formatting of the SI year and number has been disabled because the number is generally incomplete during the drafting phase.

• Opening words: A new advisory rule has been added to highlight opening words that do not end in the expected em dash (—).

• Number elements containing unexpected text: A new rule has been added to detect cases where content of a provision has accidentally been added to the num element rather than within the main text element of the provision. A quick fix is available to move the extra text into the correct element.

• Straight apostrophes in the signature block: A check has been added to detect straight apostrophes in the signature block with a quick fix to correct them to curly apostrophes.

• Schedule paragraph numbers: A rule has been added to highlight schedule paragraphs that have an empty number element with a quick fix to delete the empty element (on the basis that unnumbered schedule paragraphs should not have a number element at all).

Improvements related to Amendment functionality

Adding Sort Codes in the Amendment Preview

It is now possible to view, add, and edit amendment Sort Codes from the Amendment Preview.

The Sort Code field appears at the top of the Preview modal. Changes can be saved by clicking the Next, Previous, Save, or Save and close buttons.

Note that it’s now possible to add or update both the comment and the Sort Code at the same time using the Amendment Preview.

See Adding or editing a Sort Code.

Amendment Manager

We have added the ability to select or deselect multiple amendments in the Amendment Manager by using shift-click.

See Selecting and deselecting amendments in the table.

Side-lining in PDFs and auto-application of amendments for Scottish Bills

We have made several improvements to Lawmaker’s rendering of side-lines in the PDFs of Scottish Bills (and, in future, Senedd Cymru Bills).

Version 23 aims to fix several issues which previously affected the length and/or position of the side-lines which are (optionally) rendered against provisions containing tracked changes. Previously, these lines were often too long or positioned incorrectly. New PDF generation logic has been introduced to correct as many of these issues as possible.

Additionally, you can now use Lawmaker’s auto-apply feature to insert user editable track-change mark-up into the Bill, which should allow remaining side-lining issues to be fixed manually. (Previously, auto-apply generated track-change mark-up which was not user editable.)

Finally, we have removed the requirement for Scottish Parliament users to publish two versions of each as-amended Bill version (a clean version and a version with tracks and side-lining). Beginning in version 23, only the tracked version (the version with side-lines) needs to be published: Lawmaker will create a clean snapshot in which all changes have been accepted as part of the publication process.

See the following user manual page for more information on how this works: Producing a side-lined PDF of an as-amended Bill version using auto-apply (in Scotland and the Senedd).

Relevant interests in Scottish Parliament Amendments

The existing functionality for marking relevant (or registered) interests against members' names in amendment lists has been extended to Scottish Parliament amendments.

See Marking members with relevant (or registered) interests for guidance on how to use this feature.

Scottish Parliament Groupings

Scottish Parliament users can now manage the grouping of amendments on the Amendment Manager, and generate a pre-populated Groupings list based on that grouping data.

See Managing amendment groupings in the Amendment Manager and generating a Groupings List.

Secondary legislation

Welsh Statutory Instruments (WSIs)

Lawmaker has been updated to include further refinements to WSIs including:

• the option to ‘Finalise version’ which is a feature available in the Actions dropdown menu for your document on the Project tab. This gives you the option of renumbering, updating references and inserting a table of contents into your WSI without needing to open the document in the Editor. See Finalising a document.

• the option to ‘Edit portion of document’ which is another feature available in the Actions dropdown menu for your document on the Project tab. If you have a large WSI and know you only need to update a particular portion of it e.g. a part, or a couple of regulations, this feature will allow you to select the specific portion(s) to open in the Editor. It is available for either language rendition. See Opening and editing a portion of document.

• Welsh renditions open in the Editor will have the initials “(CY)” before the version description in the browser tab to distinguish it from the English rendition if you happen to have both open at the same time.

• the option to ‘Copy to another project’ which is a feature that allows you to select a document in one project and select whether to copy both renditions or a single rendition to a different project. See Copying a document to another project.

• PDF snapshots of WSIs can now be marked as ‘Signed’. See Marking a document as 'Signed'.

• it’s now possible to upload the XML of a WSI to create a new working version. You also have the option to upload the English-language rendition, the Welsh-language rendition, or both renditions as part of the single Upload action. See Create a new document by uploading an XML file.

• the Welsh banner text at the top of draft Welsh SIs has been modified slightly in response to feedback from Welsh Government drafters.

New SI drafting organisations

New organisations have been created for drafters who work on UK legislation for the Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man). Organisations have also been created for NHS England and the EU Relations Legal Advisors.

Updates to SI subject list

The SI subject list has been updated to add the following new subjects:

• CARBON BORDER ADJUSTMENT MECHANISM

• DISPOSAL OF HUMAN REMAINS

• SCOTTISH LANGUAGES

Bug fixes