Disregard process for convictions for decriminalised sexual offences (consensual gay sex)
Updated 17 November 2022
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statistics-on-the-disregard-and-pardon-for-historical-gay-sexual-convictions/statistics-on-disregards-and-pardons-for-historical-gay-sexual-convictions
Under provisions in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, men with historical convictions for consensual gay sex may apply to the Home Office to have their convictions disregarded (i.e., deleted, or where not possible, annotated) and pardoned.
The offences covered by the legislation are offences under Section 12 (buggery) and Section 13 (gross indecency) of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, as well as the equivalent military service offences and corresponding offences under earlier legislation. Where eligible, previous cautions, warnings and reprimands for the same offences can be considered.
The conditions for a disregard are that the activity giving rise to the offence must have been consensual, with a person of 16 or over, and any activity now would not be an offence under section 71 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (sexual activity in a public lavatory).
The statistics regarding applications for consideration received by the Home Office to date, (i.e., from October 2012 to October 2022) are as follows:
- total number of applicants: 522
- total number of convictions considered: 785 (note: some applicants have more than one conviction)
Number of convictions eligible
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Section 12 (buggery) SOA 1956 | 23 |
| Section 13 (gross indecency) SOA 1956 | 173 |
| Equivalent military offences | 12 |
| Older legislation | 0 |
| Total | 208 |
Number of convictions not eligible
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Sexual activity in a public lavatory | 103 |
| Non-consensual | 20 |
| Other party under 16 years | 9 |
| No Police/Court records found; no records to disregard | 33 |
| Offences outside the scope of legislation | 402 |
| Other | 1 |
| Total | 568 |
Convictions awaiting a decision/in progress
Total: 8
Appeals
No appeals have been granted.
Please note: 7 cases have been identified as being incorrectly coded in previous iterations of this publication. This error has since been addressed and will account for the reduction in the figures reported for ‘s.12 (buggery) SOA 1956’ or ‘s.13 (gross indecency) SOA 1956’ and the increase in ‘equivalent military offences’.