(1)The M1Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this section.
(2)After section 18 of that Act there shall be inserted the following section—
(1)Subject to subsections (2) and (3) below and section 19A of this Act, no action for defamation shall be brought unless it is commenced within a period of 3 years after the date when the right of action accrued.
(2)In the computation of the period specified in subsection (1) above there shall be disregarded any time during which the person alleged to have been defamed was under legal disability by reason of nonage or unsoundness of mind.
(3)Nothing in this section shall affect any right of action which accrued before the commencement of this section.
(4)In this section—
(a)“defamation” includesconvicium and malicious falsehood, and “defamed” shall be construed accordingly; and
(b)references to the date when a right of action accrued shall be construed as references to the date when the publication or communication in respect of which the action for defamation is to be brought first came to the notice of the pursuer.”
(3)In section 19A(1) of that Act (power of court to override time limits) after “18” there shall be inserted the words “ and 18A ”.
(4)In section 22(2) of that Act (assigned rights of action) for the words “or 18” there shall be substituted the words “ , 18 or 18A ” and for the words “, as the case may be, 18” there shall be substituted the words “ of the said section 18 or, as the case may be, subsection (4)(b) of the said section 18A ”.
(5)In Schedule 1 to that Act, in paragraph 2 (obligations to which the five year prescription does not apply) after subparagraph (g) there shall be inserted the following—
“(gg)to any obligation to make reparation or otherwise make good in respect of defamation within the meaning of section 18A of this Act;”.
Marginal Citations