Editing Statutory instrument (UK) (section)

=== Negative resolution procedure ===

The more common form of control is the negative resolution procedure. This requires that the instrument is either:
* laid before Parliament in draft, and can be made once 40 days (excluding any time during which Parliament is [[Dissolution of parliament|dissolved]] or [[prorogued]], or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days) have passed unless either House passes a resolution disapproving it, or
* laid before Parliament after it is made (but before it comes into force), but will be revoked if either House passes a resolution annulling it within 40 days.<ref name=SIPB>Statutory Instrument Practice, Table B</ref>

A motion to annul a statutory instrument is known as a "prayer" and uses the following wording:

{{quote|That an [[humble address]] be presented to His Majesty praying that the [name of statutory instrument] be annulled.}}

Any member of either House can put down a motion that an instrument should be annulled, although in the Commons, unless the motion is signed by a large number of Members, or is moved by the official Opposition, it is unlikely to be debated, and in the Lords such a motion is seldom actually voted upon.

If a resolution to annul an instrument is passed, it will be revoked by the King through an Order-in-Council. Between the date of the resolution to annul and the date when the Order-in-Council is made, the instrument remains law but ineffective. Anything done under the instrument whilst it was in force remains valid, and the Government is free to make a new statutory instrument.<ref>Statutory Instruments Act 1946, section 5(1)</ref>

The last occasion on which a statutory instrument was annulled was on 22 February 2000, when the House of Lords passed a motion to annul the [[Greater London Authority]] Elections Rules.<ref>[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2000/208/contents/made Greater London Authority Elections Rules 2000] (SI 2000/208)</ref> The last time the House of Commons annulled a statutory instrument was in 1979 when it rejected the Paraffin (Maximum Retail Prices) (Revocation) Order 1979 (SI 1979/797).<ref name=L7p4>House of Commons factsheet L7, page 4</ref>