At its meeting on 19 December 2017, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the delegated powers provisions in the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1 ("the Bill").ⁱThe Bill is available here.

The Scottish Government has provided the Parliament with a memorandum on the delegated powers provisions in the Bill.ⁱThe Delegated Powers Memorandum is available here.

The Bill was introduced by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Michael Matheson MSP, on 6 November 2017. The lead committee for the Bill is the Equalities and Human Rights Committee.

As outlined in the Financial Memorandum, the Bill aims to correct an historical wrong, in terms of how certain criminal laws in the past were used to discriminate against same-sex sexual activity, where the same activity if undertaken between people of different sexes was not criminalised.

The Bill aims to ensure that people convicted under those historical laws will receive a pardon, and will separately be able to apply to the Scottish Ministers to seek to have such criminal conviction information removed (disregarded) from specific sets of official central records, if certain criteria are met. Both the pardon and the "disregard" will apply where the same activity would now be lawful.

The Committee considered each of the delegated powers in the Bill. The Committee determined that it did not need to draw the attention of the Parliament to the delegated powers in the following provisions:

• Section 10(3), (4) and (5): Removal of disregarded convictions from official records

• Section 15: Ancillary provision

• Section 17: Commencement