My Lords, it is about three minutes to the witching hour and I am absolutely delighted to be able to respond on behalf of the Government to these amendments. I and the Government are committed to enabling those with historical convictions for decriminalised homosexual conduct to apply to have their convictions disregarded. To answer the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, in discussion with the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, Professor Paul Johnson and my noble friend Lord Lexden, we felt that this was the neatest way to do it, as opposed to any other way. We have been actively exploring
whether further offences can be brought within the scope of the scheme, to enable more people, both civilians and ex-service personnel, to benefit from it.
I really want at this point to pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Lexden and to the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, who is my noble friend, and to Professor Paul Johnson at the University of York for his expertise on this issue. I am very grateful for the conversations we have had on these amendments and similar amendments to the Armed Forces Bill. I am also grateful to the noble Lords for reiterating their commitment during Committee to work with the Home Office and the MoD on the best way forward for achieving our joint desire to redress this historic injustice.
We accept that the current scheme may be too narrow, as it is essentially confined to convictions for the now-repealed offences of buggery and gross indecency between men, but, as noble Lords have indicated, other now-repealed offences were also used to unfairly target gay men and women simply because of their sexuality. In further righting these historic wrongs, we need to ensure that any disregards in respect of additional offences meet the established legal criteria to ensure that necessary safeguards are upheld—this is something we have agreed and that the noble Lord, Lord Cashman. has outlined tonight. The disregard scheme was deliberately and carefully designed in a way that ensures that the Home Office does not inadvertently disregard convictions or cautions for behaviours which are still illegal today or which involved other illegal behaviours, such as underage or non-consensual sex or sexual activity in a public toilet, which is still an offence under Section 71 of the Sexual Offences Act.
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Currently, the disregards scheme includes only offences that have been repealed or abolished in common law. This ensures that only offences for behaviours which have been decriminalised by Parliament will be disregarded. This is important because the removal of convictions and cautions from official records is a serious matter and therefore appropriate safeguards must be in place. I welcome the fact that the noble Lords supporting these amendments accept this very important qualification. The Home Office is ready to consider extending the scope of the scheme to include a wider set of offences and work is under way across government to this end, thanks to Professor Johnson and others.
I know that the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, and my noble friend Lord Lexden are impatient for this work to be completed. I am very impatient—we started this five years ago—and, in a nutshell, I do not want to let this legislative opportunity pass. If the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, would be content to withdraw his amendment today, I can assure him that the Government will give sympathetic consideration to the case that he and others have made ahead of the next stage.