In Scotland in 2017, the statute of limitations on child abuse was changed from 3 years to unlimited, allowing survivors to take civil action against their abusers. It has energised the police, courts and media to examine the issue, and resulted in hundreds of civil claims, which will grow.
As it stands in England, Wales, and NI, any legal claim on child abuse has to be lodged by a victim’s 21st birthday, or within 3 years of ‘knowing about it’, which effectively rules out any action in adulthood. It takes decades for victims to understand the abuse and resource themselves to speak out and to try and tackle it, childhood sexual abuse takes on average 20-30 years to disclose.
This is a very rare opportunity to lobby for a modernisation of the law, to bring it into alignment with Scotland, and afford victims in the rest of the UK the same access to justice. It makes no sense for people in Scotland to be able to seek justice and reparations, while people in the rest of the UK may be blocked for another 20 years till the law is revisited.
It is also essential that the law change includes all forms of child abuse, including psychological and physical, not just sexual.
There are links to consultation forms on this post so that you can have your say on this important topic. These don’t take long to fill out (about 15 mins) and there’s full Department Of Justice consultation document here too. Seen & Heard have completed one on behalf of our organisation, it would be great if you could complete this too! The more voices, the better!
