§ Mr. HeddleTo ask the Attorney-General if he has any plans to monitor the working of the Latent Damage Act; and if he will make a statement upon the aspect of deliberate concealment.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe Lord Chancellor has no plans to do so at present since it is too early to say whether such an exercise is necessary.
The Latent Damage Act 1986 provides that the overriding time limit of 15 years in an action for negligence is not to apply where there has been deliberate concealment of any fact by the defendant. A defendant will therefore not be able to take advantage of his own wrongdoing by relying on the lapse of time.