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Minister for Community Safety submission of 6 October 2021

PE1860/C - New legislation for Prescription and Limitation Act

Thank you for your email of 07 September 2021 seeking further information from the Scottish Government.

As mentioned in previous correspondence, section 19A of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 allows the courts to override the principal limitation time limits where it is persuaded that it is equitable to do so. The Committee asked for an indication of how often courts have exercised its discretion under section 19A. The Scottish Government does not collect this kind of information.

I had contacted the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) to ascertain whether it collects such figures. It confirmed that as the information is held in a court interlocutor, which SCTS are unable to interrogate, it cannot provide the data as requested.

The overwhelming majority of the types of civil cases discussed here are likely to be initiated within the 3-year time limit. Under these circumstances, it will only be in a few cases that a court will ever have to consider whether to use its equitable discretion to dis-apply a time limit. There will, in addition, be a number of cases that settle either after an action is initiated in court or before: in these instances, a court will not have to consider exercising its discretion.