Statute of Limitations UK: Limitation Periods Explained

"Statute of limitations" is a US term. The UK has the same underlying idea, deadlines for bringing a legal claim, but under different names and different rules.

England and Wales call it a limitation period, set out in the Limitation Act 1980. Scotland calls the equivalent prescription and limitation, under the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, and the Scottish version works differently in a way that matters. This guide covers England & Wales and Scotland; Northern Ireland has its own separate regime, noted below.

What "Statute of Limitations" Means in the UK

There is no UK statute called a "statute of limitations." A reader searching that US term in a UK context is usually looking for one of two things: the civil deadline for suing someone (a limitation period in England and Wales, or prescription in Scotland), or the criminal deadline for charging someone. Both exist, but they work very differently from each other, and differently again between the two legal systems within the UK.

England and Wales run on limitation, governed by the Limitation Act 1980. Limitation is procedural: once the period expires, the claimant's underlying right technically still exists, but the court will not hear a claim to enforce it.

Scotland runs primarily on prescription, governed by the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. Prescription is substantive: once the prescriptive period runs out, the underlying obligation itself is extinguished, not merely unenforceable. That distinction is explained in more detail below.

England and Wales: Limitation Periods Under the Limitation Act 1980

The Limitation Act 1980 sets separate time limits for different types of civil claim, and the period that applies depends on what kind of claim is being brought, not a single blanket rule.

Tort claims (s.2) must be brought within six years from the date the cause of action accrued. Simple contract claims (s.5) carry the same six-year period from accrual. These are the general default rules that apply unless a more specific provision overrides them.

Personal injury claims are the main exception. Under s.11, a claim for negligence, nuisance or breach of duty where the damages include personal injury must be brought within three years, not six. That three years runs from the later of two dates: when the cause of action accrued, or the claimant's "date of knowledge" under s.11(4), meaning when they knew (or reasonably should have known) about the injury, its seriousness, and who caused it.

This is a discoverability rule, not a fixed three-years-from-the-accident cut-off; an injury that only becomes apparent later can still be claimed within three years of that discovery. If the injured person dies within the limitation period, s.11(5) gives their estate three years from the date of death, or the personal representative's date of knowledge if later.

Defamation and malicious falsehood claims sit apart from the general tort period. Section 4A gives libel, slander and malicious falsehood claims a one-year limit from accrual, far shorter than the standard six years for other torts. For more on how defamation claims work in England and Wales, see defamation explained.

Section 33 discretion lets a court allow a personal injury or fatal accident claim to proceed even after the s.11 (or s.12) time limit has passed, if it would be equitable to do so, weighing the prejudice to each side. This discretion is narrow: it applies only to personal injury and fatal accident claims. It does not give courts a general power to revive an expired contract claim, an ordinary tort claim, or a defamation claim brought outside its one-year window.

England & Wales civil limitation periods at a glance

Criminal Cases: No General Limitation Period

Unlike many US states, England and Wales have no general statute of limitations for criminal offences. Whether a case can still be brought years later depends on what kind of offence it is.

For summary-only offences, heard only in the magistrates' court, s.127(1) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 imposes a strict deadline: the information must be laid, or the complaint made, within six months of the offence being committed. Miss that window and the case cannot proceed.

For indictable offences, which include either-way offences prosecuted on indictment, s.127(2) expressly disapplies that six-month bar. There is no general time limit for charging an indictable offence; absent a specific statutory exception for that particular offence, it can be charged at any time, including many years after the fact. This is the clearest contrast with the US, where felony offences often carry their own limitation periods. If being arrested years after an alleged indictable offence, the passage of time on its own does not bar the prosecution.

Scotland: Prescription and Limitation

Scotland's approach starts from a different legal concept, and the difference is more than terminology.

Under s.6 of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, most obligations are subject to five-year negative prescription. If a qualifying obligation has run for a continuous five-year period from its "appropriate date" without a relevant claim or acknowledgment being made, the obligation is extinguished, not merely time-barred. This is the key conceptual difference from English limitation: in England and Wales, an expired limitation period bars the remedy while the underlying right technically survives; in Scotland, prescription extinguishes the obligation itself.

Section 6(4) excludes certain periods from the five-year calculation, such as fraud or induced error by the debtor, and any period the original creditor was under legal disability. The Prescription (Scotland) Act 2018 amended s.6(4) and inserted a new s.6(4A), changes that came into force on 28 February 2025, adjusting how the fraud and error exclusion is assessed.

Scotland also has its own personal injury limitation rule, separate from the general prescription regime. Under s.17 of the 1973 Act, a personal injury action must be brought within three years, running from the later of the date the injuries were sustained (or, for a continuing act or omission, when it ceased) or the pursuer's "date of knowledge", meaning awareness that the injuries were serious, attributable to an act or omission, and of the defender's identity. Section 19A gives the Scottish courts an equitable discretion to allow a personal injury action to proceed outside that three-year period, similar in function to the s.33 discretion in England and Wales.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has its own separate limitation law, the Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989, which this page does not cover. Do not assume the England & Wales or Scottish periods above apply there; a claim or charge arising in Northern Ireland needs its own check against the NI regime.

Limitation and prescription rules turn on exactly when a cause of action accrued or when a claimant gained knowledge of it, which is often a genuinely contested question of fact. This guide explains the general rules and is not a substitute for advice on a specific claim or charging decision. For related reading, see our guide to defamation explained or being arrested.