北宋給事中的封駁權先是受到唐末、五代的影響廢而不舉。太宗淳化四年（993）恢復封駁權之行使，然行使此項權力者非給事中，而是「知通進、銀臺、封駁司」。封駁權恢復後，行使之情況並不順利，朝廷可用各種方法規避之，封駁權甚至數度中斷。元豐（1078〜85）改制後，給事中重掌封駁權，惟封駁權之行使並未因而有所改善，朝廷依然設法規避之。又宋代的政治傳統：詔敕代表君主個人的意旨，使得給事中審查之際多所忌諱。此外知制誥或中書舍人擁有繳詞權，臺諫勇於論事，影響所及，朝廷不當之舉措，給事中先則寄望於中書舍人繳還詞頭，後則卸責於臺諫之論列，終使給事中不論於牽制相權抑或限制君權方面都有所不足。

In early North Sung Dynasty, under the infl uences of the later Tang and Five Dynasties, the document reviewing function of the reviewing policy adviser was absent. In 993 A.D., this function was resumed but not delegated to the reviewing policy adviser, rather than the offi cials who were appointed to “co-administer the affairs of the reviewing policy advisers.” Following this reintroduction, this function didn’t perform very well, because the authorities had attempted to avoid it by all means. In 1082 A.D., the function was finally delegated to the reviewing policy adviser as part of Yuan-Feng reform, howewer the political conditions remained the same.
The document reviewing function was initially devised to prevent unwise or unjust actions by emperors or councilors. However, they had many ways to avoid this function from being performed. Therefore, the document reviewing function, either performed by the reviewing policy adviser or others, failed to prevent effi ciently emperors’ or councilors’ imprudent actions.