 | This article is missing information about the legal systems in Scotland and Northern Ireland.(September 2023) |
In the United Kingdom, there are time limits after which court actions cannot be taken in certain types of cases. These differ across the three legal systems in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has no statute of limitations for any criminal offence tried above magistrate level. [1]
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for Limitation of Prescription. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 32 Hen. 8. c. 2 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 24 July 1540 |
| Commencement | 12 April 1540 |
| Repealed | 16 September 1887 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1887 |
Status: Repealed | |
Limitation was first brought in by Henry VIII, in the Limitation of Prescription Act 1540 (32 Hen. 8. c. 2).
In modern times, the key piece of legislation relating to civil claims in England and Wales is the Limitation Act 1980, which identifies the time limits for various types of cases.
If a lender allows six years to pass without receiving any payment, an action for recovery may become statute-barred. [2]
The general time limit for injury litigation is three years, with multiple exceptions and special cases. The statute of limitations for injuries to children only starts at the age of eighteen. The statute of limitations for brain damage begins only when the victim has been medically acknowledged as regaining cognitive ability. The Montreal Convention (1999) and the Athens Convention (1974) govern the statute of limitations for compensation for injuries sustained on an aeroplane or while at sea, respectively. [3]
The limitation period for libel, slander, slander of title, slander of goods, or other malicious falsehood is one year. [4]
Contracts may provide their own limitation periods as agreed between the parties. In the case of Inframatric Investments v Dean Construction (2012), the prospective claimants were time-barred in seeking litigation against the defendant because a meeting where "without prejudice" negotiations had taken place, intended to resolve the parties' dispute, could not be treated as falling within the period up to practical completion of the contracted works, because they did not form part of the completed "services" from which, according to the contract, the limitation period was to be calculated. [5]
The principal piece of legislation governing civil limitation periods in Scotland is the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. [6]
The main legislation covering limitation periods in Northern Ireland is the Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989. [7]
Unlike other European countries, the United Kingdom has no general statute of limitations for crimes triable by jury, known as indictable offences. [8] This includes either-way offences that are tried by jury.
Following a number of acquittals and wrongful convictions of people charged with serious sexual crimes alleged to have been committed several decades prior, there has been some debate as to whether there should be a statute of limitations for historical rape and sexual assault cases, as prosecutions rely solely on personal testimonies and have no physical or scientific evidence due to the passage of time. [9]
In England and Wales, magistrates' courts hear summary and non-indicted either-way offences [8] — generally, crimes that are punishable by a fine and/or by less than 6 months' imprisonment.
Section 127 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 [10] states that normally:
A magistrates' court shall not try an information or hear a complaint unless the information was laid or the complaint made within 6 months from the time when the offence was committed or the matter of complaint arose.
This time limit does not apply to either-way offences tried summarily. However, any time limit for such an offence imposed by statute binds the magistrates' court as it would a Crown court.
In Scotland, the time limit for a summary offence (regardless of which court tries it) is six months, unless an enactment sets a different time limit. The clock stops while the accused is deciding whether to accept a fixed penalty notice, compensation offer, or work offer in lieu of prosecution. The limit does not apply to either-way offences even if tried summarily. [11]
Section 1 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 [12] and article 5 of The Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 [13] require a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) to be served within 14 days of applicable offences being committed; if that does not occur, it may follow that any further action may be prevented. However, there are exceptions to the 14-day rule; for example, if an "accident" (i.e., collision) occurs or if the vehicle was not being driven by the registered keeper of the vehicle (as, for example, a company vehicle), the police may make appropriate investigations. The date of the offence is excluded.
The onus is on the body issuing the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) to ensure the notice is served within 14 days. The definition of "served" has changed. Prior to 1994, NIPs were served by registered or recorded post, but in 1994, the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 was amended to allow for standard postal delivery. Several successful defences to a NIP have been conducted on the production of the envelope that contained the NIP, in which the postmark on the envelope indicated to a court that the NIP could not have been received (served) within the 14-day limit.
Section 176 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 [14] requires that proceedings for any offence under that act, namely personation, fraudulent voting, vote tampering, violating vote secrecy, publishing pre-closure exit polls, etc., [15] must begin within one year of the offence being committed.
An indictment is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indictable offence, an offence that requires an indictment.
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. In most jurisdictions, such periods exist for both criminal law and civil law such as contract law and property law, though often under different names and with varying details.
A summary offence or petty offence is a violation in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment.
Indecent exposure is the deliberate public exposure by a person of a portion of their body in a manner contrary to local standards of appropriate behavior. Laws and social attitudes regarding indecent exposure vary significantly in different countries. It ranges from outright prohibition of the exposure of any body parts other than the hands or face to prohibition of exposure of certain body parts, such as the genital area, buttocks or breasts.
A citizen's arrest is an arrest made by a private citizen – a person who is not acting as a sworn law-enforcement official. In common law jurisdictions, the practice dates back to medieval England and the English common law, in which sheriffs encouraged ordinary citizens to help apprehend law breakers.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Sexual Offences Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and former British colonies and territories such as Antigua and Barbuda, Crown dependencies, Kenya, Lesotho, Republic of Ireland, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago relating to sexual offences.
The year and a day rule is associated with the former common law standard that death could not be legally attributed to acts or omissions that occurred more than a year and a day before the death.
In England and Wales, a magistrates' court is a lower court which hears matters relating to summary offences and some triable either-way matters. Some civil law issues are also decided here, notably family proceedings. In 2010, there were 320 magistrates' courts in England and Wales; by 2020, a decade later, 164 of those had closed. The jurisdiction of magistrates' courts and rules governing them are set out in the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980.
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides for the confiscation or civil recovery of the proceeds from crime and contains the principal money laundering legislation in the UK.
The Offences against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the Act, incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of Acts sometimes referred to as the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It is essentially a revised version of an earlier consolidation act, the Offences Against the Person Act 1828, incorporating subsequent statutes.
Causing death by dangerous driving is a statutory offence in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as Hong Kong. It is an aggravated form of dangerous driving. In the UK, it was created by section 1 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, and in Hong Kong it was created by section 36 of the Road Traffic Ordinance.
In the United Kingdom, a fixed penalty notice (FPN) is a notice giving an individual the opportunity to be made immune from prosecution for an alleged criminal offence in exchange for a fee. Fixed penalty notices were introduced in Britain in the 1980s to deal with minor parking offences. Originally used by police and traffic wardens, their use has extended to other public officials and authorities, as has the range of offences for which they can be used.
The Criminal Law Act 1967 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made some major changes to English criminal law, as part of wider liberal reforms by the Labour government elected in 1966. Most of it is still in force.
The Criminal Law Act 1977 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Most of it only applies to England and Wales. It creates the offence of conspiracy in English law. It also created offences concerned with criminal trespass in premises, made changes to sentencing, and created an offence of falsely reporting the existence of a bomb.
The Interpretation Act 1978 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act makes provision for the interpretation of Acts of Parliament, Measures of the General Synod of the Church of England, Measures of the Church Assembly, subordinate legislation, "deeds and other instruments and documents", Acts of the Scottish Parliament and instruments made thereunder, and Measures and Acts of the National Assembly for Wales and instruments made thereunder. The Act makes provision in relation to: the construction of certain words and phrases, words of enactment, amendment or repeal of Acts in the Session they were passed, judicial notice, commencement, statutory powers and duties, the effect of repeals, and duplicated offences.
Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets another person in the commission of a crime. It exists in a number of different countries and generally allows a court to pronounce someone guilty for aiding and abetting in a crime even if he or she is not the principal offender. The words aiding, abetting and accessory are closely used but have differences. While aiding means providing support or assistance to someone, abetting means encouraging someone else to commit a crime. Accessory is someone who in fact assists "commission of a crime committed primarily by someone else". However, some jurisdictions have merged being an accessory before the fact with aiding and abetting.
Sentencing in England and Wales refers to a bench of magistrates or district judge in a magistrate's court or a judge in the Crown Court passing sentence on a person found guilty of a criminal offence. In deciding the sentence, the court will take into account a number of factors: the type of offence and how serious it is, the timing of any plea of guilty, the defendant's character and antecedents, including their criminal record and the defendant's personal circumstances such as their financial circumstances in the case of a fine being imposed.
The Perjury Act 1911 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates the offence of perjury and a number of similar offences.
Bail in the United Kingdom is the practice of releasing individuals from remand subject to certain conditions which are designed to enable criminal justice outcomes, primarily trials and police investigations, to be completed efficiently and effectively. The right to bail is guaranteed in a wide range of contexts but is not absolute. The legal systems of England and Wales, Northern Ireland and of Scotland each deal with bail in similar but distinct ways. Bail can be granted by the courts, the police and certain other criminal justice authorities including the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Criminal procedure (investigation) | ||
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| Criminal investigation | ||
| Criminal prosecution | ||
| Charges and pleas | ||
| Related areas | ||
