Part 3: General Schedule 2: Limitation periods: England and Wales Part 2 – Restriction of foreign limitation law
Part 2 of Schedule 2 amends the Foreign Limitation Periods Act 1984, and ensures that where foreign limitation periods are applicable to personal injury and/or death claims connected with overseas operations brought in England or Wales, claimants cannot benefit from more generous time limits in that foreign law. Those amendments restrict – to a maximum of six years from the date on which the cause of action arose – the court’s discretion to extend the normal time limit for bringing claims against the Ministry of Defence, the Secretary of State for Defence, or members of Her Majesty’s forces for personal injuries, deaths or false imprisonment that occurred in connection with an overseas operation.
	Paragraphs 2(2) and (3) insert a new section (1ZA) into the Act.
	Subsection (1ZA)(1) specifies that, for subsection (1ZA)(3) to apply, the conditions set out in subsections (1ZA)(1) and (1ZA)(2) must be met.
	Subsection (1ZA)(1) requires that the cause of action has arisen in connection with an overseas military operation, and is subject to the limitation law of the foreign country under whose law the tort claim has been brought.
	Subsection (1ZA)(2) requires that a period of six years must have elapsed since the date on which the foreign limitation period began, or when the action could first have been brought.
	If both those conditions are satisfied, subsection (1ZA)(3) specifies that the defendant (i.e. Ministry of Defence, the Secretary of State for Defence, or members of Her Majesty’s forces) will have a complete defence to any such claim. This ensures that no claim in relation to overseas operations that is brought in reliance on foreign law can proceed after six years.
	Subsection (1ZA)(4) defines the meaning of "overseas armed forces tort action".
	Subsections (1ZA)(5) and (6) specify what should happen in relation to claims where the limitation period under the applicable foreign law has been suspended, interrupted, or disregarded, or where the Limitation (Enemies and Prisoners of War) Act 1945 applies.
	Paragraph 2(4) inserts a new subsection (3A) into section 7 of the Act, and specifies that new section 1ZA applies to any claim that is commenced after that section comes into force. Claims that have been commenced before new section 1ZA comes into force are unaffected by these amendments.