Alan Turing law
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"Alan Turing law" is an informal term for the portion of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 which serves to pardon men who were cautioned or convicted under obsolete laws criminalising homosexual acts. The provision is named after Alan Turing, the World War II codebreaker and computing pioneer, who was convicted of gross indecency in 1952. Turing received a royal pardon posthumously in 2013. The law applies to convictions in England and Wales (including military offences, which are tried under English law) and Northern Ireland; a similar law, the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Act 2018, was later passed by the Scottish Parliament.
Several proposals had been put forward for an Alan Turing law, and introducing such a law was government policy since 2015. To implement the pardon, the British Government announced on 20 October 2016 that it would support an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill that would provide a posthumous pardon, and provide a process whereby those still living could apply to have these offences disregarded. A rival bill to implement the Alan Turing law, in second reading at the time of the government announcement, was filibustered. The bill received royal assent on 31 January 2017, and the pardon was implemented that same day. The law provides pardons only for men convicted of acts that are no longer offences; those convicted under the same laws of offences that were still crimes on the date the law went into effect, such as cottaging, underage sex, or rape, were not pardoned.
Manchester Withington MP John Leech, often described as 'the architect' of the Alan Turing Law, led a high-profile campaign to pardon Turing and submitted several bills to parliament, leading to the eventual posthumous pardon.