Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the proposals outlined in his Department's consultation document Legal Protections for Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans serving in operations outside the United Kingdom will result in varying the legal protections offered to civilians (a) killed and (b) injured while serving outside the UK to take action through the courts for compensation; and if she will make a statement.

The consultation on Legal Protections for Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans will close on 13 October 2019. The Ministry of Defence will study carefully the responses on its proposals (on a statutory presumption against prosecutions arising from overseas incidents occurring more than 10 years previously; on a partial defence that takes account of the operational context; and on limiting the courts’ discretion to extend the three-year time limit for bringing civil claims for personal injury or death) before deciding how to take these measures forward.

The proposed civil litigation longstop will not preclude Service personnel or civilians deployed on overseas operations from bringing claims in relation to PTSD or other conditions that manifest or are diagnosed more than 10 years after the incident which caused the condition, as section 11 of the Limitation Act calculates time limits from the later of (a) the date on which the cause of action accrued or (b) the date of knowledge.