Scottish ministers to promote law for gay sex conviction pardons

Men convicted for same-sex sexual activity on the basis of discriminatory criminal laws will receive a full pardon under legislation to be brought before the Scottish Parliament, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice has announced.

Replying to a question by Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, Michael Matheson told the Parliament that all those who have convictions will be pardoned, if the convictions relate to same-sex sexual activity that is now lawful.

Separately, Scottish Government officials have been engaging with Police Scotland over the summer to identify the most effective way of ensuring that convictions imposed in the past for consensual sex between men no longer appear on a person’s criminal record. The Scottish Government will engage with key organisations on arrangements to enable people to have convictions disregarded from centrally held records.

Mr Matheson said: "It is shocking to consider that consensual sex between men was only decriminalised in Scotland in 1980 and the age of consent for same-sex sexual activity was not equalised for sexual activity between men and women until 2001.

“Such laws clearly have no place in a modern and inclusive Scotland. However, there are people with criminal convictions for same-sex sexual activity that is now lawful and we must right this wrong.

“We will introduce an automatic formal pardon for those convicted under these discriminatory laws so they know they are absolved fully. We want to address the injustice that people experienced simply because of their sexual orientation in circumstances that are now legal and this is one way of achieving this."

He added: “Information on these convictions is held on Police Scotland records and we have engaged with Police Scotland to seek views on steps that could be taken to right these historic wrongs.

“I have instructed my officials, working in partnership with Police Scotland, to determine the practical steps required to establish a scheme to allow men convicted for actions that are now legal to seek to have those convictions disregarded. Where an offence is disregarded a person will be treated as not having been convicted of that offence and so it would not appear on, for example, disclosure checks.

“I know Parliament will want to work together to resolve these important issues.”

A Private Member's bill at Westminster to achieve a similar result was stalled last week when the UK Government announced it would bring forward its own proposals, details of which are awaited.