Leading scientist joins calls for Covid convictions amnesty

A leading scientist has backed calls for a Covid fines “amnesty” as he warned that criminalising the public must be avoided in future pandemics.

Karl Friston, a neurology professor at UCL and a member of the independent Sage (scientific advisory group for emergencies) panel of experts during the pandemic, said the slate should be wiped clean for the 29,000 people landed with criminal convictions during Covid.

“It was clear that Covid was a public health crisis. As such, wiping the slate clean would be a proper acknowledgement that a public health crisis calls for public health responses that elude politicisation or criminalisation,” said Prof Friston, a consultant for special advisers to the Cabinet Office in the pandemic.

“I imagine that the Cabinet Office is a little embarrassed by this particular legacy of the coronavirus crisis. 

“Turning citizens, under its duty of care, into criminals is, hopefully, something that can be avoided in future pandemics.”

Prof Friston, scientific director at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, is the second senior scientific figure during Covid to call for such an amnesty.

In an interview with The Telegraph last week, Sir John Bell, the leading scientist who served as Boris Johnson’s Covid testing tsar, said it was not right that people had a criminal conviction “simply because they met six people instead of four”.

Sir John and Prof Friston were responding to the calls by charities and former Cabinet ministers, including Sir Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, to wipe people’s slates clean for offences such as attending gatherings, leaving home during lockdowns and failing to wear face coverings.

Could hamper job prospects

Unlike politicians such as Rishi Sunak who were handed fixed penalty notices and paid them off, more than 29,000 members of the public received criminal convictions after being found guilty by courts because they contested the fines or failed to pay them.

These could hamper their job prospects as police can pass on the details to potential employers if they are deemed “relevant” for criminal background checks for sensitive jobs such as teaching, social work and policing where applicants deal with vulnerable people or children.

People are also required to declare Covid convictions when applying for visas to visit countries such as the US and Canada. Both countries reserve the right to permanently ban anyone who fails to reveal a conviction.

Three former Cabinet ministers – Sir Robert, Sir David Davis and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg – and a former supreme court judge Lord Sumption as well as charities have called for the slate to be wiped clean for people landed with criminal convictions for Covid breaches.

At the weekend, Lord Blunkett backed a Covid fines amnesty on the grounds of “equity” after politicians escaped criminal convictions but members of the public did not.

“I cannot see any justification for people who were clearly nailed for breaching the rules in the highest levels of government not getting a criminal conviction but people who were foolish and within their own communities being penalised more,” he said.