My Lords, the limitation longstops provide service personnel with a greater level of certainty that they will not be called on to give evidence in court many years after an event. The uncertainty that the Bill proposes to address can have a significant effect on service personnel and veterans. It prevents them from drawing a line under certain traumatic experiences, always knowing that there is a possibility that the events of the past may be dug up again. This is why it is important to have finality and why the limitation longstops need to have a clear end.
In moving the amendment, the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, asks for the policy that underlies this measure; that is the policy. For the reasons that I have discussed, it is important that limitation longstops have a clear end, one that cannot be overcome. Were it to be overcome by the existence of some residual discretion, such as the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, would seek to have imposed, that would negate the benefits to service personnel of greater certainty that they will not be called on to give evidence many years after the event. Let us remember that, in claims such as can be anticipated, it will most likely not be Ministers standing in the witness box and accounting for decisions taken; it is likely to be the very comrades of service personnel themselves.
Six years provides enough time to bring a claim: to echo the words of the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, it is a fairly lengthy period. The vast majority of service personnel and veterans already bring relevant claims within six years of the date either of the incident or of knowledge. As I say, giving discretion to the courts to allow claims after the expiry of the longstops will negate the benefits, and we want to provide service personnel and veterans with those benefits which flow from greater certainty.
The noble Lords, Lord Thomas of Gresford and Lord Faulks, adverted to a contrast with the situation that may arise in relation to Northern Ireland. That is indeed a special context, and, echoing the words of the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, this is a matter to be dealt with in separate legislation.
The longstops apply to all Human Rights Act and death and personal injury claims connected with overseas operations. We believe that six years is a sufficient period to commence proceedings, regardless of who is bringing the claim. Where claims cannot be brought within the relevant timeframe because the claimant was not aware that their injuries were caused by the actions of UK Armed Forces, the date-of-knowledge provisions help to mitigate any unfairness that might otherwise be caused.
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Rather than extending the discretion of the courts indefinitely, I submit that we must accept that it is reasonable to have a line drawn after a particular period of time. This principle of finality was accepted in Stubbings v United Kingdom from 1996, a judgment that has been confirmed repeatedly. Here, the European Court of Human Rights upheld an absolute six-year limitation period. The court noted the need in civil litigation for limitation periods because they ensure legal certainty and finality, avoid stale claims, and prevent injustice where adjudicating on events in the distant past involves unreliable and incomplete evidence because of the passage of time—the very considerations which inform the Bill before this House.
We also need to provide the right level of training and communication to our Armed Forces to ensure that our service personnel are aware of their rights and can bring claims, if necessary, in a timely fashion. With the right level of communication, we would hope to see that those claims from service personnel which historically have been brought more than six years after the event would be brought earlier should they arise in future.
We must remember that all claimants already need to convince the court to extend the primary limitation period of three years or one year, and that these arguments are not certain to succeed. The later the claims are brought, the more difficult they are to prove, as well as to defend. It is therefore in the interests of all claimants to bring their claims as soon as possible. In situations where claimants are unaware of who was responsible for their injury, or where an illness is diagnosed many years after an incident or operational tour to which it is attributable, the date of knowledge provision will help to mitigate the impacts of the longstops.
However, I submit that we must move towards providing that greater certainty which will reassure service personnel and veterans. Therefore, while I acknowledge the words of the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, that these matters will be returned to, I recommend that these amendments are not pressed.