Time Limit for Child Sexual Abuse Claims to Be Removed

On the 5 February 2025 the Ministry of Justice announced that the current three year time limit for child sexual abuse victims to sue for damages will be removed in England and Wales.

The ‘long overdue’ changes are a result of the recommendations laid out in the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (‘IICSA’), led by Professor Alexis Jay, together with responses to a detailed consultation that was closed in July 2024. Readers may well have seen Professor Jay’s recent complaints to the Home Affairs select committee in which she condemned what she regarded as an inadequate response by the government to IICSA’s recommendations.

At present, civil child sexual abuse claims must be brought within three years of turning 18, unless the victim can persuade the court that a trail would still be fair, just and equitable.

It is the Government’s intention to reverse both of these requirements.

First, they will remove the limitation period itself. The government accepts that survivors are unfairly prevented access to the justice system, not only because the limitation period does not allow them time to develop coping mechanisms and tools to disclose their abuse, but also because it is often the psychological effects of the abuse itself which hinder a survivor’s ability to come forward.

Additionally, the limitation period can lead to claimant solicitors advising that the risk that the Court will not disapply the primary limitation period is too great. This leads to out of court settlements which lower the value of their claim significantly, in order to avoid the claimant having to attend trial and explain why they have delayed in coming forward.

Secondly, they will also reverse the burden of proof, from its current status where the Claimant must ‘argue and satisfy the Court that a fair hearing is possible’, given the passage of time since the events, to a new stance where the Defendant must prove that it is not possible for a fair hearing to take place, and/or that ‘the defendant would be substantially harmed where the action to proceed’. The wording of the press release implies that the government will adopt the text of the amended Limitation (Scotland) Act 2017, section 17A-17D of which set out the tests of possibility and substantial prejudice to which the Westminster government now refer.

Further information and the full consultation response paper can be found here:

https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/limitation-law-in-child-sexual-abuse-cases/results/limitation-law-consultation-response.pdf

Forbes Comment:

It is clear that it is the Government’s intention to promote access to justice for survivors of child sexual abuse. We applaud the intention. We will await with interest the specific terms of the new legislation and its potential impact on the level of claims which might be presented following its implementation.