Editorial Update/Update Editor Checklist

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Research: is the amendment data correct? do you know what to do when you carry out the update?

Some reminders before you start

See Specific update Issues - Some General Reminders

Check the TOES data for your amendment

You can use these URLs to check the TOES data:

https://editorial.legislation.gov.uk/changes/affected/<type>/<year>/<number>/data.xls?extended=full-with-co&sort=affecting-year-number

https://editorial.legislation.gov.uk/changes/affecting/<type>/<year>/<number>/data.xls?extended=full-with-co&sort=affecting-year-number

Does the TOES data reflect the amending provision?

Open the amending legislation in legislation.gov.uk and check:

  • Most importantly, is the effect recorded against the correct affected legislation and provision?
  • Is the type of effect right? Has it been qualified in some way (in part, specified purposes, etc.)?
  • Commencement: Is the commencement date correct? Is the commencement wholly in force or is it qualified in some way (check the IFDQ)? Is there a commencement order? Look at that. Should it be a whole or retained text amendment?
  • Are there savings/transitional provisions?
  • Is there a Comment to Editor saying your amendment contains (or confers) a power? Is anything else mentioned you need to take into account?

Approach to update

  • Do you need to carry the amendment out in full or as a retained text or limited extent amendment?

For instructions about how to do provision level and high level insertions, substitutions and repeals, follow the links on the Textual amendments page.

  • Renumbering provisions: remember that brackets only need to go around the provision number.

Where unsure about what to do, have you consulted the Wiki guidance? If you cannot find what you need, ask a reviewer. Perhaps the Wiki guidance could be added to or improved. Feed this back to Sarah and Richard.

See more on Approach to Update, Specific Update Issues, Limited Extent Amendments and Applying partially in force amendments which are then brought further into force over time.

XMetaL: making sure that the amendment is applied correctly

See the detailed guidance on XMetaL and XML tagging.

In particular, look out for the following:

Be careful to select the correct task in the Resource Manager

  • Beware the order of tasks in the XMetaL Resource Manager. It does not always follow the same order as the tasks shown on the Update Details page. It tends to put whole sub-provision additions first and whole sub-provision repeals last. It may also not display the full affected or affecting provision details, so you need to be careful to select the right task.

Carrying out the amendment in the XML - make sure you know what to do to carry out the amendment before you start

1. Is your amendment straightforward, or do you need to do anything else in the data?

You may need to do more to apply your amendment than just selecting the text and choosing the XMetaL amendment option. For block amendments, it may be better to select a part of the amendment tagging and do your amendment step by step rather than picking up the whole amendment by using the block amendment tags. For example:

Do you need to retag your amendment, or remove any tagging (drafters footnotes, internal links), non-breaking spaces?

2. Do you need to amend the attributes of any of the tagging?

  • if the inserted/substituted text contains a power, have you set the power attribute in the attribute inspector to power = true?
  • hyperlinks
  • in ordered lists in definitions (or in retained EU law provisions) you may need to use the “number override” attribute to get the right paragraph number to show in preview

3. Where tagging needs to be changed, use the Element List to insert new tagging. As a rule, do not copy and paste tagging (unless you have removed its attribute metadata, e.g. restrict start date, extent, etc).

4. Pay attention to spacing, punctuation, existing amendment brackets and commentary references (or comrefs) for drafters footnotes as well as existing editorial annotations. This may determine where you place your cursor.

  • Will applying your amendment remove a bracket or a comref? Where all the words for an existing amendment are now removed/replaced then the existing brackets can go. But where one or more words remains the original brackets should remain around those words.
  • Does the drafters footnote need to be kept any longer?

After you have carried out the amendment in the XML - has your amendment been applied correctly?

Check the amendment

ALWAYS scroll back up after you have carried your amendment and check it has actually been applied: an amendment will not be applied if your cursor is in an illegitimate position in the XML tagging, but XMetaL doesn’t warn you, it just sends you down the page to look at the annotation as usual. Scroll back up to look at what you think you’ve just done to the XML.

  • If you have inserted/substituted text and it contains a power, have you set the power attribute in the attribute inspector to power = true?

See more on Approach to Update and Specific Update Issues.

Check the annotation

Once the amendment has been carried out and the auto-annotation has been generated, check that the annotation is accurate and complete whilst still in XMetaL to see if it says what you were expecting, i.e. check that it is the correct annotation for the effect you have just applied. If not, it’s simple to UNDO the effect while still in XMetaL or for more minor errors you can carry out any edits if necessary (refer back to the effects spreadsheet if you need to):

  • Type of Effect is correct;
  • If the amendment type is ‘omitted’ or ‘ceases to have effect’ that the annotation contains the words ‘by virtue of’ instead of the usual 'by';
  • Punctuation is correct (e.g. no unnecessary spaces);
  • Date cited is that of the Point of Time you are editing and, where applicable, the correct In Force Date Qualification has been added after the date. If your amendment is not ‘wholly in force’ and has a different type of In Force Date Qualification (for example ‘for specified purposes’), this will be included in the annotation and you will need to make sure that this has been rendered correctly: for further details on what the annotation should look like see Annotations and In Force Date Qualifications;
  • If a limited extent amendment, the extent is referenced (if it needs to be);
  • Affected provision is correct;
  • Affecting provision is correct;
  • Savings are referenced (where applicable); and
  • Commencement order is referenced (where applicable).

See more detail on the structure of textual amendment annotations in Annotation Conventions.

Preview: double check the point in time (PiT), amendment and annotation before moving on

ALWAYS preview your amendment in the update details preview and website preview when you have checked an amended provision back in from XMetaL. Sometimes things can go wrong on check in. Note that you may need to refresh the page to see your changes (Ctrl+F5).

Presentation of Provision Level amendments

Amendments should be set to Edit Complete for you to view them in the Newly Edited Version.

In the Newly Edited Version or the website Preview you should see all your amendments appearing in the correct place, with the correct spacing and punctuation, and an accompanying F-note reference appearing immediately after the opening amendment bracket or before the repeal dots, and for:

  • repealed/omitted words should be replaced with 3 dots;
  • ceases to have effect - the affected text should be enclosed by brackets;
  • limited extent or retained text substitutions - both the new and the old text should be enclosed by separate sets of brackets;
  • limited extent or retained text repeals - the repealed text should be enclosed by brackets;
  • has anything changed from the previous PiT that shouldn’t have? Pay attention to previous amendments. Is anything missing (or anything appearing that shouldn’t be there)? For example, if a definition which is a list item has been omitted, make sure that any sub-paragraphs have been removed; and
  • Check for images (e.g. formulas and forms) in the affecting provision and, if present, ensure that you use the image tool in website preview to make them appear in your amended provision.

Timeline: in the website Preview check that the PiT has generated correctly and you can move between PiTs without any errors. Your amendment may not be visible if the timeline is wrong. Click on the timeline resolver button in website preview to fix this. If you need to, you can select a PiT to add from the dropdown menu.

Annotation: Perform the checks listed in Textual amendment annotation checks.

Presentation of Higher Level amendments

Amendments should be set to Edit Complete.

1. For the insertion of whole provision or range of provisions, in the Preview check:

  • new provisions appears on the Table of Contents in the correct place;
  • that the provision/Part/Chapter/Schedule shows the correct extent;
  • when the new provision/s is viewed alone there are opening and closing brackets enclosing the text with an accompanying F-note reference appearing immediately inside the opening amendment bracket. The timeline should show one Point in Time as at the date of the insertion;
  • when viewing the higher level ‘parent’ e.g. Part Heading, the newly inserted provision is in the correct place complete with brackets and F-note reference, the annotation should appear after the inserted provision. The timeline should show a new Point in Time for the newly inserted provision; and
  • check for images (e.g. formulas and forms) in the newly inserted provision and, if necessary, ensure that you use the image tool in website preview to make them appear in your amended provision.

2. For the substitution of a whole provision or range of provisions, in the Preview check:

  • that the provision/Part/Chapter/Schedule shows the correct extent;
  • when the substituted provision/s is viewed alone, there are opening and closing brackets enclosing the text with an accompanying F-note reference appearing immediately inside the opening amendment bracket;
  • when viewing the higher level ‘parent’ e.g. Part Heading, the newly substituted provision is in the correct place complete with brackets and F-note reference, the annotation should appear after the substituted provision. The timeline should show a new Point in Time for the newly substituted provision; and
  • check for images (e.g. formulas and forms) in the newly substituted provision and, if necessary, ensure that you use the image tool in website preview to make them appear in your amended provision.

3. For auto repeals, in the Preview check:

  • when viewing from the level repealed e.g. whole Act/ Part, you should see a dotty line replacing the original text, an F-note reference and annotation;
  • when viewing a provision that comes within the high-level repealed e.g. a section within the part, then you should see a dotty line, a F-note reference and annotation; and

Timeline: your PiT is reflected in the timeline on website preview and you can move between PiTs without any errors. Your amendment may not be visible if the timeline is wrong. Click on the timeline resolver button in website preview to fix this. If you need to, you can select a PiT to add from the dropdown menu.

Annotation: Perform the checks listed under Textual amendment annotation checks.

Textual amendment annotation checks

1. Check that your new annotation reflects the TOES data. In particular check that the In Force Date, In Force Date Qualification and Commencement Order details have been correctly added. (Sometimes dates get reversed or the IFDate and IFDQ data hasn’t come through into the annotation as we would expect):

  • Type of Effect is correct;
  • If the amendment type is ‘omitted’ or ‘ceases to have effect’ that the annotation contains the words ‘by virtue of’ instead of the usual 'by';
  • Punctuation is correct (e.g. no unnecessary spaces);
  • Date cited is that of the Point of Time you are editing and where applicable the correct In Force Date Qualification has been added after the date (check effects spreadsheet for any qualifications). If your amendment is not ‘wholly in force’ and has a different type of In Force Date Qualification (for example ‘for specified purposes’), this will be included in the annotation and you will need to make sure that this has been rendered correctly: for further details on what the annotation should look like see Annotations and In Force Date Qualifications.
  • If a limited extent amendment, the extent is referenced if it needs to be;
  • Affecting provision (and commencing provision, if there is one) is correct (remember the operative provision should be in bold text), provision name is plural (where affecting and commencing provisions are of the same type) and numbers separated by commas (look out for TOES errors such as incorrect provision type “art.” rather than “reg.”, etc.);
  • Savings are referenced (where applicable); and
  • Commencement order is referenced (where applicable).

See more detail on the structure of textual amendment annotations in Annotation Conventions.


2. Make sure that all hyperlinks have been generated and that they point to the correct document and provision and, if necessary, fix any issues with any of the hyperlinks. If you have used the annotation Edit function, check for broken hyperlinks, particularly where there are multiple sub-provisions cited.

3. Check for consistency in the way that the affected provision has been referenced if there are any existing annotations in your amended provisions.

4. For KO amendment annotations, remember that affecting legislation does not receive its full title and is not hyperlinked, so you will need to get the links to generate using the edit annotation button in preview.

If you need to correct an annotation you can use the edit annotation button in preview or fix it in XMetaL. Beware of bugs if you use the annotation Edit function, and double check for broken hyperlinks, hyperlinks pointing to the wrong document or only part of the legislation title getting hyperlinked after you have used it, particularly where there are multiple sub-provisions cited.

See more on Annotation Conventions and Applying partially in force amendments which are then brought further into force over time.

Auto-annotation checks

For auto-annotations, the Edit Status should say ‘Auto Applied’.

In the Preview, check that the Annotation is complete and accurate:

  • Type of effect is correct;
  • Punctuation is correct (e.g. no unnecessary spaces);
  • Date cited is that of the Point of Time you are editing and where applicable the correct In Force Date Qualification has been added after the date (check effects spreadsheet for any qualifications). If your amendment is not ‘wholly in force’ and has a different type of In Force Date Qualification (for example ‘for specified purposes’), this will be included in the annotation and you will need to make sure that this has been rendered correctly: for further details on what the annotation should look like see Annotations and In Force Date Qualifications;
  • If a limited extent amendment, the extent is referenced if it needs to be;
  • Affecting provision (and commencing provision, if there is one) is correct (remember the operative provision should be in bold text);
  • Savings are referenced (where applicable); and
  • Commencement order is referenced (where applicable).

Timeline: your PiT should be reflected in the timeline on website preview and you can move between PiTs without any errors. Your amendment may not be visible if the timeline is wrong. Click on the timeline resolver button in website preview to fix this. If you need to, you can select a PiT to add from the dropdown menu.


Note that, whilst “amendment to earlier affecting provision” effects used to be applied as auto annotations, they should now appear as textual amendments in your update task as they require editorial action; they should therefore no longer appear as auto-annotations.

For Coming Into Force Effects (despite any “no further action” system message):

  • Use ‘Preview Provision’ to spot check start dates on timeline in the website view, it is recommended that you preview at least one provision this way;
  • Use ‘Skeleton Preview’ to spot check start dates and annotations in the rest of the document and pay particular attention where the affected provision in TOES is complicated, e.g. multiple ranges of sub-provisions or combinations of non-sequential sub-provisions are cited. You could also open the whole document in the website preview and use Ctrl+F to search for the date in the I-note annotations to check the annotations;
  • Open the whole document in preview and check that there are no prospective provisions that should be in force (prospective provisions will appear with grey background and be labelled prosp.); and


For a partially in force amendment that has been brought further into force at this PiT:


For all auto-annotations, make sure that all hyperlinks have been generated and that they point to the correct document and provision and, if necessary, fix any issues with any of the hyperlinks.

If you need to correct an annotation you can use the edit annotation button in preview or fix it in XMetaL. Beware of bugs if you use the annotation Edit function, and double check for broken hyperlinks, hyperlinks pointing to the wrong document or only part of the legislation title getting hyperlinked after you have used it, particularly where there are multiple sub-provisions cited.

See more on Annotation Conventions and Applying partially in force amendments which are then brought further into force over time.

Issues: if you can’t apply your amendment or something goes wrong, check Wiki for workarounds and talk to someone about it first before moving on

Adding a note for the Reviewer

  • Blanket amendments: please remember to add a note for reviewer to tell them which provisions you have amended.

Does the issue relate to the type of document you are updating?

If you are updating a REUL or EU Exit document, see the update guidance notes that are specific to those types of document:

If you can’t apply your amendment or something goes wrong, check Wiki for workarounds and talk to someone about it first before moving on.

If you can't apply your amendment, please investigate and try to work out why not (TOES error now or earlier? Have we missed an earlier amendment or applied it incorrectly? Is there an error in the affecting legislation?) and then contact a reviewer to consult about the best way of dealing with the situation.

After consulting, do what was agreed and add a note for the reviewer next to the problematic task explaining what you’ve done, what advice you received and who from.

If the problem derives from an error in the affecting legislation, remember to log a Lex Error and add a note for reviewer to tell them you’ve done so:

If there is a system error in carrying out your amendment or an error in the annotation in that it does not properly reflect the TOES data, this should be raised in an email to Richard with a brief description of the issue, details of the TOES effect and the update details page URL so we can feed it back to TSO.

Below are links to common update problems and workarounds:

Specific Update Issues

Update Troubleshooting

Manual Amendments



Where you’ve had to “bodge” an amendment (i.e. by correcting tagging and copying and pasting text), compare the text of your new amended provision to the affecting provision to make sure it’s right using this tool: https://text-compare.com/

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