Paragraph (1) of Article 17 of the Clean Air (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (“the 1981 Order”) empowers district councils to declare the whole or any part of their district to be a smoke control area in which the emission of smoke from a building is, generally, an offence under paragraph (2) of that Article.

Paragraph (7) of Article 17 of the 1981 Order empowers the Department to prescribe, subject to conditions, classes of fireplace which may be used, in a smoke control area, for burning fuel other than an authorised fuel, without producing any smoke or a substantial quantity of smoke.

These Regulations which prescribe classes of exempted fireplaces revoke and replace with amendments, the Smoke Control Areas (Exempted Fireplaces) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 (S.R. 1992 No. 538).

Fireplaces which are manufactured before 2nd August 1999 and which were authorised by regulations may be used notwithstanding the revocation (regulation 3).