Any subsidiary legislation which requires the approval of the Council has to be submitted to the Council, which may by resolution approve or amend it. Section 35 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance, Cap. 1 provides for the legal basis of such procedure.

To view the terms of the resolutions, click the relevant links in the first column below to go to the Agenda for the relevant resolution. To view the decisions of the Council, read the Official Record of Proceedings of the Legislative Council ("Hansard") of the relevant Council meeting.

The negative vetting procedure

Other subsidiary legislation is first published in the Gazette and then laid on the table of the Council at its meetings. The Council may amend a piece of subsidiary legislation by a resolution passed at a Council meeting held not later than 28 days after the meeting at which it was so laid. This period for scrutinizing and amending subsidiary legislation is called the vetting period.

The vetting period of any subsidiary legislation may be extended by a resolution passed at a Council meeting before its expiry. The Extension of Vetting Period (Legislative Council) Ordinance 2002, which provides for a longer period of extension, commenced operation on 3 May 2002. For subsidiary legislation tabled at Council meetings held before the commencement of the Ordinance, the vetting period may be extended to "the next Council meeting" whereas for those tabled at subsequent meetings, the vetting period may be extended to "the first Council meeting held after the 21st day from the original expiry day".

Unless otherwise provided for in the subsidiary legislation concerned, a piece of subsidiary legislation comes into operation on the day it is published in the Gazette. It continues to operate unless a resolution to amend it has been passed and until the date of publication in the Gazette of such a resolution.

Section 34 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 1) provides for the legal basis for the above procedure.

Check the Gazette of the relevant publication date published by the Government for details of the subsidiary legislation.