No living applicants have received pardons for convictions under former anti-gay laws in Northern Ireland since the scheme was introduced in 2018.

According to BBC News NI, only three people have applied to have their convictions disregarded in the past eight years, none of whom met the necessary criteria.

The Northern Ireland Assembly approved the scheme in 2016, and it came into effect in 2018. It allows people convicted under anti-gay laws in Northern Ireland to apply to have their convictions removed from official records.

To qualify, the offence must have involved consensual sexual activity with someone aged 17 or older and must no longer be considered a crime. Those who have since died are automatically granted a posthumous pardon.

Sexual activity between men was illegal in Northern Ireland until 1982, when a landmark human rights case brought by campaigner Jeffrey Dudgeon helped bring about decriminalisation.

Scott Cuthbertson, Chief Executive of LGBTQ+ charity The Rainbow Project, told BBC News NI that he was not surprised by the low number of applications. However, he said the scheme still plays an important role in recognising the injustice faced by gay and bisexual men under the former laws.

“There’s the message it sends that what happened prior to 1982 was wrong and shouldn’t have happened and that the people who were convicted under legislation at that point deserve not to have that stain on their record,” he said.

Cuthbertson encouraged anyone with an eligible conviction to consider applying, even if revisiting their past might be difficult.

Jeffrey Dudgeon also said he had expected few applications, given how much time had passed since decriminalisation. He suggested that many of those affected had since died or might not want to revisit their experiences.

Professor Tom Hulme, a historian at Queen’s University Belfast, pointed out that many convictions involving gay and bisexual men fall outside the scheme’s criteria. He explained that laws relating to sexual activity in public places were used disproportionately against gay and bisexual men, including after decriminalisation in 1982. Since some of these offences remain illegal today, they are not covered by the current scheme.

The Northern Ireland Department of Justice has confirmed that a review of the scheme is underway, with proposals for possible reforms expected to be presented to ministers after the next Assembly elections.

Elsewhere across the UK, similar schemes have received more applications. In Scotland, 16 applications have been granted since 2019, while England and Wales expanded their scheme in 2023 to allow more people to apply.