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Alan Turing law
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"Alan Turing law" is an informal term for the portion of the Policing and Crime Act 2017[1] which serves to pardon men who were cautioned or convicted under obsolete laws criminalising homosexual acts.[2] The provision is named after Alan Turing, the World War II codebreaker and computing pioneer, who was convicted of gross indecency in 1952. Turing received a royal pardon posthumously in 2013. The law applies to convictions in England and Wales (including military offences, which are tried under English law) and Northern Ireland; a similar law, the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Act 2018,[3] was later passed by the Scottish Parliament.
Several proposals had been put forward for an Alan Turing law,[4][5][6] and introducing such a law was government policy since 2015.[7] To implement the pardon, the British Government announced on 20 October 2016 that it would support an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill that would provide a posthumous pardon, also providing an automatic formal pardon for living people who had had such offences removed from their record.[8][9] A rival bill to implement the Alan Turing law, in second reading at the time of the government announcement, was filibustered.[10] The bill received royal assent on 31 January 2017, and the pardon was implemented that same day.[11] The law provides pardons only for men convicted of acts that are no longer offences; those convicted under the same laws of offences that were still crimes on the date the law went into effect, such as cottaging, underage sex, or rape, were not pardoned.[12]
Manchester Withington MP John Leech, often described as 'the architect' of the Alan Turing Law, led a high-profile campaign to pardon Turing and submitted several bills to parliament, leading to the eventual posthumous pardon.[13]
Background
[edit]All homosexual acts between men were illegal until the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 in England and Wales, the Criminal Justice Act 1980 in Scotland, and the Homosexual Offences Order 1982 in Northern Ireland. As the three regions are separate jurisdictions, and many elements of criminal law are devolved matters in the United Kingdom, the British Government, by convention, only legislated a pardon for England and Wales.[12]
Alan Turing, after whom the proposed law has been informally named, was a mathematician, codebreaker and founding father of computer science who died in 1954 in suspicious circumstances, following his conviction for gross indecency in 1952. A campaign to pardon Turing was led by former Manchester Withington MP John Leech,[14] who called it "utterly disgusting and ultimately just embarrassing"[15] that the conviction was upheld as long as it was. Turing himself was pardoned posthumously through the royal prerogative of mercy under David Cameron in 2013,[16][17] but contrary to the requests of some campaigners including Leech, the Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and the activist and journalist Peter Tatchell, his pardon was not immediately followed by pardons for anyone else convicted.[18][19] Leech submitted several motions and campaigned for half a decade as an MP for a more general pardon and continued to do so after losing his seat in the 2015 general election.[20]
Proposals
[edit]The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 proposed by David Cameron introduced the disregard procedure, under which men with an offence of "gross indecency between men" on their criminal record could petition to have these offences disregarded during criminal record checks by courts and employers, but fell short of an actual pardon.[7]
While in opposition, the Labour Party under Ed Miliband announced that it would introduce an Alan Turing law if elected at the 2015 general election.[21] The Conservative Party under Cameron subsequently announced the same policy.[7] When Theresa May became Prime Minister following the resignation of David Cameron, she also announced that her government would support the Alan Turing law.[22][23]
Rival bills
[edit]In June 2016, John Nicolson MP introduced a Private Member's Bill, the Sexual Offences (Pardons Etc.) Bill 2016–17, intended to implement the proposal.[24] In October 2016, the Conservative government announced that, instead of supporting the Private Member's Bill's original proposal for a blanket pardon for all, it would enact the proposed changes through an amendment to the forthcoming Policing and Crime Bill 2016. This amendment would provide a posthumous pardon for the dead, make it easier for living individuals to clear their names, and also provide an automatic formal pardon for living people who had had such offences removed from their record through the disregard process.[8][9][25] When Nicolson's bill was debated in Parliament on 21 October 2016, it was successfully filibustered by Conservative MP Sam Gyimah and failed to proceed.[26]
The two differed in the process for dealing with cases where the conviction was for an act that would still be considered an offence under current law. Both attempted to exclude these, but Nicolson's bill provided an automatic pardon while the government bill required the petitioner to go through the "disregard process" first. This would mean that the Home Office will investigate each case involving living people to ensure that the act that the petitioner was convicted of is no longer considered a criminal act, to avoid pardoning men convicted of underage sex or rape.[12] More controversially, this means that it would also not pardon men who were arrested in public toilets, as they would today be guilty of the offence of "sexual activity in a public lavatory".[27] The government claimed that without this check, men who were convicted of such an offence would be able to claim that they had been pardoned.[10] Nicolson disagreed and, backed by the LGBT campaign group Stonewall,[27] said that the government was attempting to "hijack" the law by announcing the amendment just prior to the second reading of his Private Member's Bill, and said that his bill already excluded cases where the offence was still considered a crime.[28] The Nicholson bill would not have been able to clear criminal records of men who still carried convictions. This would still have to be done through the disregard process, leading to possible cases in which it would not be clear whether or not a pardon had been granted, described by James Chalmers, Regius Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow, as a "Schrödinger's pardon".[29]
On 19 October 2016, Liberal Baron Sharkey, with government support, had added the core amendment to the agenda for the Policing and Crime Bill 2016.[30] The proposed pardon process, like the disregard process in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 as passed, applied only to England and Wales. Groups in Northern Ireland and Scotland campaigned for equivalent laws in their jurisdictions.[31][29] In the Lords committee stage debate on 9 November, Sharkey's amendment was accepted, while a proposal by Lord Lexden to extend the disregard and pardon processes to Northern Ireland was deferred by Baroness Williams, to see if the Northern Ireland Assembly would agree to the necessary legislative consent motion.[30] The assembly consented on 28 November, and Lexden's proposal was accepted at Lords report stage on 12 December, along with one from Michael Cashman extending the power of disregard and pardon to further offences.[30] The Commons agreed to the relevant Lords amendments on 10 January 2017[32] and the bill received royal assent on 31 January 2017 as the Policing and Crime Act 2017.[11]
The Turing law provisions came into force immediately in England and Wales,[33] and on 28 June 2018 in Northern Ireland.[34] The provisions were not extended to Scotland because the Scottish government was planning a similar measure,[30] which became the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Act 2018.[35]
Reaction
[edit]The announcement was broadly welcomed, but some quarters said it did not go far enough. The campaigner George Montague said that he would refuse a pardon, as a pardon suggested that he was guilty of a crime, and instead asked for a government apology.[12] Peter Tatchell welcomed the law but noted "a few omissions. It does not explicitly allow for the pardoning of men convicted of soliciting and procuring homosexual relations under the 1956 and 1967 Sexual Offences Acts. Nor does it pardon those people, including some lesbians, convicted for same-sex kissing and cuddling under laws such as the Public Order Act 1986, the common law offence of outraging public decency, the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860, ... and other diverse statutes".[36][37]
Matt Houlbrook, Professor of Cultural History at the University of Birmingham, said that the announcement was of both "symbolic and practical importance" to gay men still living with the offences on their criminal record, but noted that using Alan Turing as a figurehead retroactively gave him an identity as a "gay martyr" that he never sought in life.[27][38] James Chalmers, Regius Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow, noted that the disregard process had already provided an effective pardon, and neither implementation of the Alan Turing law would be able to pardon people who had committed acts that, although technically still criminal, are not usually prosecuted (such as sex between a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old or sex in certain public places).[29]
As of January 2017[update], some 49,000 men had been posthumously pardoned under the terms of the Policing and Crime Act 2017.[39]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Policing and Crime Act 2017; Part 9, Chapter 1, Sections 164 to 172: Pardons for certain abolished offences etc". legislation.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
- ^ Alderson, Reevel (15 October 2019). "Pardon for gay men convicted under abolished laws". BBC News. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
In England and Wales, where homosexual acts between consenting adults was permitted after 1967, there is similar legislation – dubbed the 'Turing law' after the World War Two code-breaker Alan Turing who was pardoned posthumously in 2013 for his conviction of gross indecency.
- ^ Scottish Parliament. Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Act 2018 as amended (see also enacted form), from legislation.gov.uk. Unlike the law for the rest of the UK this only applies to sexual activity between men, but it is nonetheless complete since sexual activity between women was never criminal in Scotland.
- ^ Al-Othman, Hannah (29 June 2016). "MP proposes new law to pardon historic convictions for homosexuality". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
- ^ Littauer, Dan (24 September 2016). "Scots MP introduces Turing Law to quash anti-gay convictions". KaleidoScot. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
- ^ Devlin, Kate (29 June 2016). "SNP MP launches bid to pardon those charged under homophobic laws no longer on statute book". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
- ^ a b c "Cameron Pledges Pardons for 'Outdated' U.K. Gay-Sex Convictions". Bloomberg. 14 April 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ a b Craig, Jon (19 October 2016). "Men to be pardoned for abolished sex offences". Sky News. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ a b Cowburn, Ashley (19 October 2016). "Government to pardon thousands of gay men under 'Alan Turing Law'". The Independent. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ a b John, Tara (21 October 2016). "Why a British Bill That Would Pardon Men Convicted of Overturned Gay Sex Law Was Filibustered". Time. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
- ^ a b "Policing and Crime Act". gov.uk. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d "'Alan Turing law': Thousands of gay men to be pardoned". BBC News. 20 October 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ "John Leech secures historic deal with Government on 'Alan Turing Law'". Out News Global. 20 October 2016. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
- ^ "John Leech secures historic deal with Government on 'Alan Turing Law'". Out News Global. 20 October 2016. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ "MP calls for pardon for computer pioneer Alan Turing". BBC News. 1 February 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ Swinford, Steven (23 December 2013). "Alan Turing granted Royal pardon by the Queen". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013.
- ^ Wright, Oliver (23 December 2013). "Alan Turing gets his royal pardon for 'gross indecency' – 61 years after he poisoned himself". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 23 December 2013.
- ^ Tatchell, Peter G. (24 December 2013). "Alan Turing: Was He Murdered By the Security Services?". The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
- ^ Dixon, Hayley (24 December 2013). "Alan Turing pardon should apply to all homosexuals, say campaigners". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ Abbit, Beth (20 October 2016). "Thousands of people convicted for homosexual acts to be posthumously pardoned under 'Alan Turing Law'". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ Matthew Holehouse (3 March 2015). "Ed Miliband proposes 'Turing's Law' to 'pardon' convicted gay men". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ "Government 'committed' to Alan Turing gay pardon law". BBC News. 22 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ Cowburn, Ashley (21 September 2016). "Theresa May committed to introducing the 'Alan Turing Law'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ "Sexual Offences (Pardons Etc.) Bill 2016–17 – UK Parliament". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
- ^ Bianca Britton (21 October 2016). "Thousands of gay men in UK to be pardoned for now-abolished sex offenses". Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ "'Turing Bill' for gay pardons fails in Parliament". BBC News. 21 October 2016.
- ^ a b c Sewell Chan (20 October 2016). "Thousands of Men to Be Pardoned for Gay Sex, Once a Crime in Britain". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ "UK government accused of trying to 'hijack' plans for 'Turing's law'". Evening Telegraph. 21 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ a b c James Chalmers (24 October 2016). "Schrödinger's pardon: the difficulties of the Turing Bill". Democratic Audit. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Lipscombe, Sally (6 January 2017). "Pardons for homosexuality offences". Policing and Crime Bill - Lords Amendments (PDF). House of Commons Library Briefing Papers. Vol. 7789. London: House of Commons Library. pp. 23–27.
- ^ "'Alan Turing law': Call for gay and bisexual men in NI to receive pardons". BBC News. 20 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ (The relevant Lords amendments were numbers 124 to 132.[30]) "Policing and Crime Bill: Consideration of Lords amendments". Hansard. UK Parliament. 10 January 2017. col 287. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
Lords amendments 2 to 23, 25 to 95, 97 to 133, 135, 143 to 158, 160 to 301, 303, 304 and 306 agreed to.
- ^ "Policing and Crime Act 2017, section 183 (5)(b)". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
- ^ "The Policing and Crime Act 2017 (Commencement No.2) Order (Northern Ireland) 2018 s. 2". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
- ^ Alderson, Reevel (15 October 2019). "Pardon for gay men convicted under abolished laws". Retrieved 15 October 2019.
- ^ Tatchell was commenting before the bill's passage, and also listed "the Army, Navy and Air Force Acts", which were ultimately included in the pardon scheme [2017 Act s. 164 subsecs (4)-(9)].
- ^ Tatchell, Peter (31 January 2017). "Gay pardons for up to 100,000 men welcomed". petertatchell.net. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
- ^ Matt Houlbrook (8 August 2013). "Pardoning Alan Turing might be good politics, but it's certainly bad history". Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ "Thousands of gay men pardoned for past convictions". BBC News. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
Alan Turing law
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
The Alan Turing law, a colloquial name for provisions in the United Kingdom's Policing and Crime Act 2017, automatically pardons deceased men convicted under now-repealed statutes that criminalized consensual sexual acts between adult males, such as gross indecency under the Labouchere Amendment of 1885 and buggery offenses prior to their partial decriminalization in 1967.[1][2] The law also enables living individuals convicted of such offenses to apply for a disregard of the conviction from their criminal records and a corresponding pardon, addressing historical prosecutions that targeted homosexual conduct deemed illegal at the time.[1][2] Named after Alan Turing, the mathematician and codebreaker convicted of gross indecency in 1952—who underwent chemical castration as an alternative to imprisonment and died by suicide in 1954 before receiving a royal pardon in 2013—the legislation sought to rectify injustices from an era when such acts were prosecutable despite lacking harm to others.[3][1] In 2022, amendments via the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act expanded eligibility to encompass a broader range of abolished same-sex offenses, though critics noted ongoing limitations in scope and application, particularly for non-consensual or public convictions that remained ineligible.[4][5]
Historical Legal Framework
Criminalization of Homosexual Acts in the UK
The criminalization of homosexual acts in England originated with the Buggery Act of 1533, enacted under Henry VIII, which defined buggery—encompassing anal intercourse between men or with animals—as a felony punishable by death, transferring prosecution from ecclesiastical to secular courts.[6][7] This statute marked the first explicit secular legislation against such acts in English law, with the first execution occurring in 1540.[7] The law was briefly repealed in 1553 during Mary I's reign but reenacted in 1557 under Elizabeth I, remaining a capital offense for centuries.[8] Punishments evolved in the 19th century as the death penalty for buggery was phased out. The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 abolished capital punishment for sodomy, substituting imprisonment for a minimum of ten years up to life, reflecting a shift from execution—last carried out for such offenses in 1835—to penal servitude.[9][8] The scope broadened significantly with the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, whose Section 11—known as the Labouchere Amendment—criminalized any "gross indecency" between men, regardless of penetration, with penalties up to two years' hard labor; this provision targeted acts previously unprosecutable under buggery statutes and facilitated convictions like that of Oscar Wilde in 1895.[10][10] These laws applied across the United Kingdom, though enforcement varied by jurisdiction, with England and Wales seeing the most prosecutions; between 1806 and 1967, thousands of men faced charges under sodomy or indecency provisions, often resulting in imprisonment, chemical castration, or social ruin.[11] The framework persisted into the mid-20th century, underpinning convictions such as Alan Turing's in 1952 for gross indecency, until partial decriminalization via the Sexual Offences Act 1967 for private acts between consenting adult men in England and Wales.[10][11]Alan Turing's Conviction and Individual Pardon
In February 1952, Alan Turing reported a burglary at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, which prompted police investigation into his sexual relationship with Arnold Murray, an 19-year-old acquaintance.[12] Turing and Murray were charged with gross indecency under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, which criminalized certain homosexual acts between men.[13] On 31 March 1952, at Manchester Crown Court, Turing pleaded guilty to the charge; he was convicted and sentenced to 12 months' probation and required to undergo organo-therapy, involving injections of synthetic estrogen as an alternative to imprisonment, a treatment widely known as chemical castration.[13] The conviction resulted in Turing losing his security clearance, barring him from classified work, and contributed to severe physical and psychological effects, including gynecomastia and depression.[14] Turing died by suicide on 7 June 1954, at age 41, from cyanide poisoning, ruled as such by the coroner despite some debate over accidental death.[15] On 10 September 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a public apology on behalf of the British government, describing the treatment of Turing as "horrifying" and "inhumane," prompted by a petition from computer historian John Graham-Cumming.[16] Brown's statement acknowledged Turing's wartime contributions to codebreaking at Bletchley Park and lamented the persecution he faced due to his homosexuality.[17] On 24 December 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted Turing a posthumous royal pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy for his 1952 conviction, announced by the Ministry of Justice.[18] This pardon, the first of its kind for historical homosexual offenses, quashed the conviction without requiring a pardon application and was extended in principle to others similarly convicted, though statutory mechanisms followed later.[18] The action recognized Turing's exceptional contributions to computing and Allied victory in World War II while addressing the injustice of laws enforcing discrimination against homosexuals.[19] Unlike blanket disregards under subsequent legislation, Turing's pardon was an individual exercise of executive mercy, not altering criminal records automatically for all affected parties at the time.[20]Legislative Development
Pre-2017 Campaigns and Proposals
Following Alan Turing's posthumous royal pardon on December 23, 2013, for his 1952 conviction of gross indecency under the Sexual Offences Act 1885, advocacy groups and politicians began pressing for broader redress for men convicted of similar historical offenses that would not be crimes today.[21] This pardon, granted by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of ministers, highlighted the injustice of past prosecutions but applied only to Turing, prompting calls to extend equivalent relief to the estimated 49,000 other men convicted under repealed anti-homosexual statutes between 1885 and 1967.[22] In March 2015, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband pledged that a future Labour government would enact "Turing's Law" to allow families and partners of deceased gay men to apply for posthumous quashing of convictions for consensual acts now legal, framing it as rectification for prosecutions under gross indecency and related laws.[23] [24] This proposal built on the 2012 Protection of Freedoms Act, which had enabled living individuals to apply for "disregards" removing certain convictions from criminal records, but excluded the deceased and stopped short of pardons.[25] Miliband's commitment emphasized overturning records rather than automatic pardons, amid criticism from activists like Peter Tatchell who argued for comprehensive coverage of all defunct homophobic laws.[26] Concurrent campaigns, led by figures including former Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, sought pardons for up to 100,000 men convicted under four historical statutes criminalizing consensual adult male homosexuality, expanding beyond pre-1967 offenses.[27] [28] However, these efforts faced delays in 2015 due to government concerns that blanket pardons might inadvertently cover non-consensual acts, such as those involving minors under the then-applicable age of consent for heterosexual acts (21 until 1967), potentially benefiting individuals whose offenses remained serious today.[28] Hughes and allies argued for targeted exemptions, but Whitehall officials prioritized distinguishing victimless convictions from those involving exploitation.[28] By 2016, Liberal Democrat peer Lord Sharkey introduced the Sexual Offences (Pardons Etc) Bill in the House of Lords, aiming to grant posthumous pardons for abolished same-sex offenses while excluding cases with minors or non-consent, directly referencing Turing's case as precedent.[29] Though the bill did not advance to enactment before the 2017 legislation, it influenced subsequent amendments and underscored ongoing parliamentary momentum for statutory pardons over case-by-case royal ones, with Sharkey emphasizing the moral imperative to address convictions for acts decriminalized in 1967.[30]Rival Bills and Parliamentary Debates
In October 2016, Scottish National Party MP John Nicolson introduced the Sexual Offences (Pardons Etc) Bill as a private member's bill during the 2016-17 parliamentary session, aiming to provide automatic pardons to living men convicted of certain historical offenses related to consensual same-sex activity that had since been decriminalized.[31] The bill sought to expand beyond the existing disregard scheme established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which allowed removal of convictions from criminal records but did not grant pardons, by offering unconditional absolution for qualifying cases without requiring individual applications or reviews.[32] Nicolson, supported by advocacy group Stonewall, framed the legislation as essential for rectifying longstanding injustices, explicitly invoking Alan Turing's 1952 conviction under the same laws as a symbol of state persecution.[33] The bill's second reading occurred on 21 October 2016 in the House of Commons, where Nicolson emphasized the moral imperative for swift pardons, arguing that case-by-case processes perpetuated stigma and that historical convictions often lacked evidence of non-consent.[34] Justice Minister Sam Gyimah, representing the Conservative government, countered that blanket pardons risked exonerating individuals whose offenses—such as those involving minors under 16 or lacking consent—would still constitute crimes under modern law, potentially undermining public safety and legal integrity.[34] Opponents, including some MPs employing extended speeches, highlighted evidentiary challenges in historical records and the need for safeguards to distinguish consensual acts from exploitative ones, leading to the bill being talked out without progressing to further stages.[31][35] Anticipating the debate's outcome, the government unveiled its rival proposal on 20 October 2016, dubbed "Turing's Law," which rejected automatic pardons for living persons in favor of an expanded disregard process followed by statutory pardons, coupled with blanket posthumous pardons for the deceased.[36] Under this framework, living applicants would submit evidence to the Home Office for conviction removal, qualifying for pardon only if the offense involved no minors or coercion; posthumous cases would receive automatic absolution without review.[36] Gyimah described the measure as a balanced redress for "people convicted of historical sexual offences who would be innocent of any crime today," while explicitly differentiating it from Nicolson's approach to avoid "pardoning those who had committed acts that are still crimes."[36] This government initiative was incorporated as an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill, advancing through Parliament and receiving royal assent on 31 January 2017, effectively supplanting the private bill's broader ambitions.[37] Critics, including some LGBTQ+ advocates, contended that the disregard requirement imposed unnecessary burdens on survivors, rendering the scheme less accessible than a universal pardon.[38]Core Provisions and Enactment
The 2017 Policing and Crime Act
The Policing and Crime Act 2017, which received royal assent on 31 January 2017, incorporated provisions expanding the scheme for disregarding and pardoning convictions related to historical homosexual offences, commonly known as Turing's Law.[39][40] These measures amended Chapter 5 of Part 5 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 to cover a wider array of abolished offences, including those under sections 12 and 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 (buggery and indecency between men) and section 61 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (buggery), provided the acts involved consenting adults and would not constitute offences under modern law. The Act established an automatic statutory pardon for deceased individuals convicted of or cautioned for these specified offences, effective from the date of commencement on 31 January 2017, without requiring an application. For living individuals, it introduced a discretionary disregard process administered by the Secretary of State (in England and Wales) or the Department of Justice (in Northern Ireland), whereby eligible convictions or cautions are removed from criminal records and treated as spent for most purposes, including enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks, upon successful application confirming the act's consensual nature between parties over the age of 16.[41][42] These provisions applied initially to England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with Scotland addressed separately under devolved powers, and extended the prior limited disregard scheme—which had applied only to gross indecency under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885—to encompass all consensual same-sex activities criminalized solely due to the gender of the participants.[43] The disregard does not erase the historical record entirely but filters it from standard criminal record checks, while the pardon affirms that the convicted individual's actions should now be viewed as lawful. Implementation commenced immediately upon royal assent, with guidance issued by the Ministry of Justice to police and applicants on eligibility verification.Distinctions Between Pardons and Disregards
A disregard under the scheme established by sections 164 to 166 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 enables living individuals convicted in England and Wales of certain abolished offenses related to consensual same-sex sexual activity—such as those under section 12 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 or section 61 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861—to apply for removal of the conviction or caution from official records, including the Police National Computer and court archives.[41][44] Successful applications result in the offense being treated as spent immediately and non-disclosable in standard criminal record checks, effectively erasing its legal and practical consequences for employment, travel, and other disclosures, provided the other party was aged 16 or over and the conduct would not be criminal today.[44] Applications require submission of identity-verified forms to the Home Office, with processing involving verification against central records; as of June 2023, eligibility extends to additional historical offenses via amendments in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.[44][45] In contrast, a pardon under the same sections provides formal executive forgiveness for the offense without requiring an application for living recipients, as it is automatically granted upon a successful disregard, symbolizing official acknowledgment of the conviction's injustice rooted in now-repealed laws.[44] Unlike a disregard, a pardon does not amend or delete records; it leaves the conviction intact in historical archives unless paired with a disregard, serving primarily a moral and reputational rehabilitation function rather than practical record clearance.[44] For deceased individuals who died before or within 12 months after the relevant offense abolition (or scheme commencement, whichever later), posthumous pardons are issued automatically if disregard criteria are met, extending to service personnel under historical military laws but excluding prior pardons or cases involving non-consensual acts.[41] The core distinction lies in remedial scope and mechanism: disregards target evidentiary and disclosure impacts for the living through proactive erasure, addressing ongoing stigma and barriers, while pardons offer retrospective clemency applicable to both living and dead but without record modification, reflecting a policy balance between symbolic justice and administrative feasibility.[44][41] This dual approach, enacted on 31 January 2018, avoids blanket record alterations for posthumous cases where no living beneficiary exists, while ensuring living applicants receive comprehensive relief.Expansions and Related Measures
The 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 expanded the statutory scheme for disregards and pardons of historical convictions for same-sex sexual activity, originally enacted under the Policing and Crime Act 2017, by broadening eligibility beyond men to include women and other genders previously overlooked due to uneven historical enforcement.[46][47] Sections 194 and 195 of the Act amended the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 to cover convictions or cautions for any abolished offense where the underlying conduct involved consensual sexual activity between persons of the same sex, provided the other party was aged 16 or over and the activity would not constitute an offense under current law.[48][49] This addressed gaps in the prior framework, which had focused primarily on male-specific offenses like buggery and gross indecency between men under sections 12 and 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, by incorporating lesser-prosecuted acts such as those under section 32 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 (solicitation by men) or analogous provisions applied to same-sex conduct more broadly.[5][47] Upon successful application for a disregard, the Act provides for an automatic statutory pardon for living applicants, treating the conviction as spent and removing it from criminal records for most purposes, while posthumous pardons apply to deceased individuals whose convictions qualify.[46][45] The Home Office began processing expanded applications from 13 June 2023, following secondary legislation activation, enabling retrospective erasure of records for offenses rooted in now-repealed discriminatory laws without requiring proof of non-consent or other exemptions previously needed.[49] Exclusions persist for cases involving minors under 16, non-consensual acts, or public-order elements that remain criminal today, ensuring the scheme targets only conduct decriminalized on equality grounds.[47] The Act received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, integrating these reforms into a wider legislative package on policing and sentencing, with the disregard provisions applying to England and Wales while prompting parallel considerations in devolved jurisdictions. This extension rectified the male-centric focus of earlier pardons, reflecting empirical data on under-prosecution of female same-sex offenses—such as rare applications of indecency laws to women—while maintaining evidentiary thresholds verified through police records and statutory criteria.[46][5]Extensions to Other Jurisdictions
The Isle of Man, a Crown Dependency, enacted legislation in 2022 providing automatic posthumous pardons for individuals convicted of historical homosexual offences that are no longer criminal, effective from 29 June 2022, covering acts such as buggery and gross indecency prior to decriminalisation in 1992.[50][51] This measure applied retrospectively to both living and deceased persons, aligning with the UK's disregard and pardon framework but implemented through local authority via the An Act of Tynwald to provide for the disregard of certain convictions and cautions and for connected purposes, passed in February 2022.[52] Jersey, another Crown Dependency, has considered but not yet enacted equivalent provisions as of May 2024, with the Home Affairs Minister announcing plans to review introducing a pardon scheme for convictions related to consensual homosexual acts before decriminalisation in 1982.[53] Guernsey, the third principal Crown Dependency, has not implemented a disregard or pardon scheme for such historical convictions, despite calls in 2016 for alignment with UK measures.[54] British Overseas Territories, which retain autonomy over domestic criminal legislation, have not uniformly extended the UK's 2017 disregard and pardon provisions under the Policing and Crime Act; no territory-specific implementations mirroring the Turing law were enacted by 2025, though some territories like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands decriminalised homosexuality independently in the 2010s without retrospective pardon mechanisms.[55] The Act's extension clauses, such as section 156, apply primarily to financial sanctions and procedural matters, not the core pardon and disregard elements for historical sexual offences.[56]Implementation and Empirical Impact
Statistics on Pardons and Disregards
As of October 2022, the disregard scheme for historical convictions related to consensual same-sex sexual activity had processed 522 applications encompassing 785 convictions since its inception in October 2012, granting disregards for 208 convictions while rejecting 568 on grounds such as offenses falling outside the statutory scope (402 cases), activities in public lavatories (103 cases), non-consensual acts (20 cases), or involvement of minors under 16 (9 cases).[57] Eight convictions remained in progress, with no appeals successful. Successful disregards included 173 under section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 for gross indecency, 23 under section 12 for buggery, and 12 for equivalent military offenses.[57] Following expansions under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 to include women, broader offenses, and military convictions effective June 13, 2023, application volumes remained low. For the year ending March 2024, 36 applications covered 53 convictions, yielding 22 disregards and deeming 31 ineligible; the subsequent year ending March 2025 saw 36 applications for 70 convictions, with 18 disregards granted and 31 ineligible.[49] These figures reflect ongoing limited engagement despite initial estimates of up to 15,000 living individuals eligible for relief upon the 2017 law's enactment.[58]| Period | Applications | Convictions Considered | Disregards Granted | Ineligible/Rejected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2012–Oct 2022 | 522 | 785 | 208 | 568 (plus 8 in progress)[57] |
| Year ending Mar 2024 | 36 | 53 | 22 | 31[49] |
| Year ending Mar 2025 | 36 | 70 | 18 | 31[49] |