With regard to claims for child sexual abuse, limitation as a defence is in its final days. The future will be different now that the Crime and Policing Act 2026 has received Royal Assent. Some cases however are still making their way through the courts, such as the recent case of AB & others v Leicestershire County Council [2026] EWHC 331 (KB) (‘AB’) which demonstrates the subtle complexities of the current regime.

The principles

Claims for damages for personal injury are subject to a three-year limitation period starting from the date when the cause of action accrued (‘primary limitation’). For claimants who were injured in childhood, time only starts to run from the age of 18. They can bring proceedings until 21. 

This principle has been through various changes via legislation or case law.

The law recognises that claimants who were abused (especially if the abuse was sexual) may take longer than three years to bring a claim. Section 33 of the Limitation Act 1980 provides for a discretionary exclusion of time for claims for personal injuries or death. The primary limitation period is disapplied if the court finds it equitable to allow an action to proceed. A balancing exercise takes place between the prejudice to the claimant and the prejudice to the defendant. 

Under section 33(3) the court must “have regard to all the circumstances of the case” which include a non-exhaustive list of six factors: (a) length and reason of any delay by the claimant; (b) whether the delay affects the cogency of the evidence; (c) conduct of the defendant after the cause of action arose; (d) duration of any disability of the claimant; (e) whether the claimant acted promptly and reasonably; (f) steps, if any, taken by the claimant to obtain medical, legal or other expert advice. 

No factor should be given greater weight.

AB

In AB the three claimants alleged they had been abused by Frank Beck (a predatory paedophile who worked in children’s homes in Leicestershire – he was convicted of assaults and serious sexual offences against children in 1991 and died in prison in May 1994) and/or Greville Janner (an MP at the time - later Baron Janner of Braunstone – who faced trial of 22 counts of serious sexual offences against young persons before his death in December 2015).  The three claimants were residents at the Beeches children’s home in Leicestershire at different times between August 1981 and May 1986. They brought claims against Leicestershire County Council.

The judge (Mr Justice Turner) considered limitation at a preliminary hearing. He refused to disapply the primary limitation period. Looking at the Janner claims, he decided that the cogency of the evidence as a whole had been significantly affected by Janner’s death and could not be mitigated by considering contemporaneous documents or the combined recollections of those who worked with Janner at the time. The Beck claims were also affected by the passage of time. That said, Beck had no residual credibility so his death was not as significant to the cogency of the evidence. 

In his careful judgment the judge paid close attention to doubts about the claimants’ credibility, any significant inconsistencies in the allegations they made, the very long delay in making allegations (some of which coincided with publicity about the Janner case). For instance one claimant had made allegations of physical and sexual abuse against Beck in 1993 but only sought to pursue a claim against Janner in 2015. There was no plausible medical reason for doing so. 

The future

The Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) made 20 recommendations – one of which was the removal of limitation period in child sexual abuse cases. Section 96 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 (which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026) abolishes the three-year limitation period entirely for civil claims arising from child sexual abuse. Under the new regime there will be no fixed time limit for bringing a civil personal injury claim for child sexual abuse so long as three conditions are met: 

• Condition 1 is that the damages claimed by the claimant consist of or include damages in respect of personal injuries to the claimant.
• Condition 2 is that the claimant was under 18 on the date on which the cause of action accrued.
• Condition 3 is that the act or omission to which the claimant’s personal injuries were attributable constituted sexual abuse. 

A defendant will only be able to raise a limitation defence if a fair trial is not possible. The new regime does not apply immediately. It is subject to commencement regulations that have not been published yet.