Sturgeon to make Government apology for gay convictions

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is to apologise on behalf of the Scottish Government to gay men convicted for acts that would be legal today.

Ms Sturgeon will make the move in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 7 November, as a bill to grant an automatic pardon to those affected is introduced.

Sex between gay men – but not between women – was a criminal offence in Scotland prior to 1981, but the age of consent remained higher for gays until 2001. The apology and bill will relate to anyone convicted as a result of these penal provisions.

The bill, part of the Scottish Government's programme for the current parliamentary year, will grant an automatic pardon and allow the removal of such convictions from criminal records.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The bill will right a historic wrong and give justice to those who found themselves unjustly criminalised simply because of who they loved."

The bill will go further than the equivalent provisions for England & Wales in the Policing and Crime Act, which does not confer automatic pardons but, which granting posthumous pardons, provides that those who are living can be pardoned after the Secretary of State agrees the conduct is no longer criminal.

Tim Hopkins, director of the Equality Network, commented: "The apology is important because it shows that it was the discriminatory laws that were wrong, and not the consensual relationships that were made criminal by those laws."

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has called for Scotland to go further and offer compensation to those who were prosecuted, as has been done in some countries including Germany.