Why jurisdiction changes what a provision means
The Mobile Homes Act 1983 and its Schedule 1 are not one set of rules read the same way in every part of the United Kingdom. Schedule 1 is split into chapters, one for England and one for Wales, and the paragraph numbers carry on across both rather than starting again. Paragraph 20(A1), for example, sits in Chapter 2, which is the England chapter. The same number recurs elsewhere attached to a different rule for Wales. Read a paragraph number on its own, with no chapter and no country attached, and there is no way to tell which version is in front of you.
Why this is not a small distinction
The Mobile Homes (Pitch Fees) Act 2023, which replaced the old index with CPI for the pitch fee review presumption, extends to England and Wales only. Scotland sits outside that change entirely. A figure, a notice period or a presumption stated without its jurisdiction can be correct for the park down the road and wrong for the one in front of you, and a reader holding a notice has no way to tell which case they are in from the paragraph number alone.
The same caution applies to notice validity
The requirements that can make a pitch fee increase notice void, covered under paragraph 17(2A) and paragraph 25A and illustrated in the Beechfield Park determination, are England provisions. A resident in Wales or Scotland reading that outcome needs to know it describes an England rule before deciding what it says about their own notice.
Where England, Wales and Scotland diverge
The same right can sit on a different paragraph number depending on where the park stands. Read the row for your own nation before matching a provision to the notice in front of you.
| Nation | Pitch fee index | Commission on sale | Notice and form rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | CPI replaced RPI for reviews from 2 July 2023, under the Mobile Homes (Pitch Fees) Act 2023. | Maximum of 10 per cent, cut from 15 per cent in 1983 and unchanged since, according to the House of Commons Library. | A pitch fee increase notice has no effect unless it meets the prescribed form requirement under paragraph 25A. |
| Wales | CPI applies from the same date, since the 2023 Act extends to Wales as well as England. | Runs under separate commission provisions from the English regulations. | The equivalent requirement sits in a different chapter of Schedule 1, carrying its own paragraph numbers. |
| Scotland | Not reached by the 2023 change, which applies to England and Wales only. | Runs under separate Scottish legislation. | Notice and form requirements come from Scotland's own statutory scheme. |
The index change and the commission figures above come from the Mobile Homes (Pitch Fees) Act 2023 and the House of Commons Library. Where a cell gives no figure, the Welsh or Scottish equivalent has not been set out here in full; check the current wording at legislation.gov.uk before relying on it.
Checking you have the right version of a provision
A provision on legislation.gov.uk is rarely a single fixed text. It carries a version as originally passed and a version as it stands with every amendment made since, and the two can differ sharply where a provision has been through a change such as the 2023 substitution of CPI for RPI. Before treating a paragraph as settled, it is worth spending a minute confirming which version you are looking at and whether it reaches the jurisdiction you are in.
The extent note
Each Act carries a geographical extent note, usually set out near the start of the document or against the specific section, stating which parts of the United Kingdom it reaches. A provision can extend to England and Wales while a neighbouring one extends to Scotland only, or the other way round, and the extent note is the place that says so.
The amendment history
Below the text of most sections, legislation.gov.uk lists the instruments that have changed it and the date each change took effect. A paragraph can read as complete on the page and still be carrying an amendment made long after the Act itself was passed, so the amendment history is where you check that a change you have heard about has actually reached the words in front of you, and when.
The chapter or part heading
Where a schedule or part of an Act covers more than one jurisdiction, the heading above a numbered paragraph will usually say which nation's rules follow it. It is easy to take a paragraph number out of context and assume it applies wherever you happen to be reading from, so the heading is worth reading as carefully as the paragraph itself before you treat it as the rule in your own case.