Focus on
Queer love and friendship: 1920s Fitzroy Square
Though surveillance documents, we can learn about vibrant gatherings in the 1920s, the people involved and the passionate, intimate letters that survive.
Series
Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution: Records
Catalogue reference: HO 345
What's it about?
HO 345
Transcripts of evidence, minutes of meetings, the report, and other papers of the Committee appointed by the Home Secretary to consider the law and practice relating to homosexual offences and prostitution. HO 345/1 is a copy of the published report.
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- HO 345
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Title (The name of the record)
- Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution: Records
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1954-1957
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Description (What the record is about)
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Transcripts of evidence, minutes of meetings, the report, and other papers of the Committee appointed by the Home Secretary to consider the law and practice relating to homosexual offences and prostitution.
HO 345/1 is a copy of the published report.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
- Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, 1954-1957
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 20 file(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Open
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Crime
- Sex and gender
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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The committee was appointed by the Home Secretary on 24 August 1954, under the chairmanship of Sir John Wolfenden. The terms of reference were 'to consider (a) the law and practice relating to homosexual offences and the treatment of persons convicted of such offences by the courts and (b) the law and practice relating to offences against the criminal law in connection with prostitution and solicitation for immoral purposes, and to report what changes, if any, are (in the committee's opinion) desirable.'
The Wolfenden Report was published on 4 September 1957 (Cmnd 247). It proposed that there 'must remain a realm of private morality and immorality which is, in brief and crude terms, not the law's business' and recommended that sexual activity between two consenting adult men should no longer be a criminal offence. However, on 29 June 1960, the House of Commons voted against a motion endorsing the committee's recommendations.
A decade after the report was published, its recommendations relating to gay and bisexual men were implemented by the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which legalised consexual sexual activity in private between men aged over 21.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C9209/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
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Within the department: HO
Records created or inherited by the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related...
You are currently looking at the series: HO 345
Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution: Records
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