UK Offence Report

Classes of fireplace exempted from section 11 of the Clean Air Act 1956

article 2 of The Smoke Control Areas (Exempted Fireplaces) (Scotland) Order 1989

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

2 The classes of fireplace described in column (1) of the Schedule to this Order shall, subject to the conditions specified in column (2) against that class, be exempted from the provisions of section

11 of the Clean Air Act 1956 (which enables local authorities to establish smoke control areas in which emission of smoke is an offence, but provides for the exemption of certain fireplaces or classes of fireplace).

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach article 2?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Smoke Control Areas (Exempted Fireplaces) (Scotland) Order 1989.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
17 May 1989
In force from
26 June 1989
Extent
S

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

Section 11 of the Clean Air Act 1956 empowers local authorities to declare the whole or any part of their district to be a smoke control area in which the emission of smoke is generally prohibited. Specified classes of fireplace may be exempted from control by order. This Order, which applies to Scotland, exempts 27 classes of fireplace from the provisions of the section subject to certain conditions as to installation, maintenance and operation. The classes of fireplace are the CBR 150, 200, 300, 400 and 600 Flexifuel Heaters and the CBR 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 and 800 Turbo Heat manufactured by CBR Fabrications Limited, the Eclipse Junior, Standard, Senior and Jumbo 30 and 50 incinerators manufactured by Northern Incinerators Limited, the Haat LD, MD and HD incinerators manufactured by Haat Incineration Limited, the Holden Heat House 29.3kw and 45.4kw underfeed boilers manufactured by Holden Heat plc, the RanHeat Boiler type RHA20 manufactured by RanHeat, Energy A/S, the Talbott Pirojet P150, P300 and P600 Heaters manufactured by Talbott’s Heating Limited and the Triancomatic 90 and 140 boilers manufactured by Trianco Redfyre Limited.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.62.

Basis
the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.62 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source