UK
Pardons scheme extended to all gay sex convictions imposed under repealed laws, governments announce


A PARDONS scheme for historical gay sex convictions imposed under repealed laws will be extended to “right the wrongs of the past,” the Tory government announced today.

The move will see the government’s “disregards and pardons scheme” expanded from a narrow set of just nine former offences which “largely focused on buggery and gross indecency between men,” the Home Office said.

If someone had been convicted of a crime under now scrapped legislation, they can apply to have it disregarded — wiped from their criminal record and not be required to be disclosed.

But an amendment to the widely criticised Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will broaden the criteria to include any repealed or abolished civilian or military offence that was imposed on someone purely for, or due to, consensual same-sex sexual activity.

All those whose cautions and convictions are disregarded under the scheme will also receive an automatic pardon, and anyone who has died before the changes came into place — or up to 12 months afterwards — will be posthumously pardoned.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the move “will go some way to righting the wrongs of the past and to reassuring members of the LGBT community that Britain is one of the safest places in the world to call home.”

She also thanked cross-bench peer Lord Cashman and his Tory colleague, Lord Lexden, for their five-year campaign to widen the scheme.

In a joint statement with the University of York’s Professor Paul Johnson, who also backed the initiative, the peers said: “We are delighted that our long campaign will at last bring many gay people, both living and deceased, the restitution they deserve.”