Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the merits of increasing the six year period for claims allowed under s.32(1)(c) of the Limitation Act from the consequences of a mistake.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The effect of the legislation is that for civil claims which involve the consequences of a mistake, the relevant limitation period only starts when the claimant discovers the mistake or could have discovered it with reasonable due diligence (subject to certain exceptions). As such it enables a normal statutory time limit to be postponed if a court is satisfied the conditions are met in an individual case.
It is important that the law of limitation achieves a balance between the competing interests of claimants and defendants. The Government has no plans to review this section.