Pardons to be given to all people convicted for homosexuality
Being gay was a crime in the UK until 1982
Any person convicted of homosexuality will be acquitted of their crime 'to right the wrongs of the past', the Home Secretary has announced.
If someone was convicted for an offence relating to consensual same-sex sexual activity under now-abolished laws, they will now be able to apply for a pardon from the government.
Those who were convicted but have since died can also be pardoned posthumously.
In order to apply for the pardon, certain criteria must be met, including the requirement that anyone else must have been at least 16 years old when the offence took place.
Priti Patel announced the changes as part of an extension of the government's Disregards and Pardons Scheme.
Currently, only nine offences are included on the list, mostly covering 'repealed offences of ... gross indecency between men'.
One of the repealed offences related to mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, who helped to break the Enigma code during World War II. Turing was officially pardoned in 2013.
Under previous laws, gay men could be put in prison for engaging in consensual same-sex sexual activity, or would be offered chemical castration. Female homosexuality was never illegal in the UK.
Homosexuality would gradually be decriminalised across the country from 1967 in England and Wales. Northern Ireland was the last country of the UK to legalise being gay, in 1982.
Speaking about the expansion of the list, the Home Secretary welcomed the opportunity to right the wrongs of previous governments.
"It is only right that where offences have been abolished, convictions for consensual activity between same-sex partners should be disregarded too," she said.
"I hope that expanding the pardons and disregards scheme will go some way to righting the wrongs of the past and to reassuring members of the LGBT community that Britain is one of the safest places in the world to call home."