A Conservative minister has scuppered the progress of a new law to pardon all gay and bisexual men in England and Wales historically convicted of sexual offences that are no longer criminal. Nicolson’s bill would have given an automatic pardon to men convicted under the obsolete laws relating to gross indecency with other men. Posthumous pardons law may see Oscar Wilde exonerated Read moreHowever, Sam Gyimah, a justice minister, ensured the bill could not go forward on Friday because he spoke for so long that it ran out of time. But out of the 65,000 men convicted under the abolished laws, about 15,000 are still alive and will have to go through an administrative process in order to obtain a pardon. Crispin Blunt, the Conservative former justice minister, also warned that the government’s proposals do not have the desired “symbolic effect”, while Nigel Adams, another Tory MP, labelled the behaviour of ministers as “a little bit slippery”.

Source: The Guardian October 21, 2016 14:42 UTC