Part 3: General Schedule 3: Limitation periods: Scotland Part 2 – Restriction of foreign limitation law
Part 2 of Schedule 3 amends section 23A of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, and ensures that where foreign limitation periods are applicable to personal injury and/or death claims connected with overseas operations brought in Scotland, claimants cannot benefit from more generous time limits in 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 during an overseas operation.
	Paragraph 2(1) and (3) insert a new section 23B into the Act.
	Section 23B(1) specifies that subsection (3) applies where the conditions set out in subsections (1) and (2) are met.
Section 23B(1) requires that the cause of action has arisen in relation to an overseas operation, and is subject to the limitation law of the foreign country under whose law the personal injury claim has been brought.
Section 23B(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 (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.
	Section 23B(4) defines the meaning of "overseas armed forces personal injury action".
	Sections 23B(5) specifies what should happen in relation to claims where the limitation period under the applicable foreign law has been suspended, interrupted or disregarded.