The MHK who was health minister at the time of the Covid pandemic says government should consider pardoning those convicted of breaching restrictions during the health emergency.

Douglas North MHK David Ashford restated his call for a possible amnesty in Tynwald last week.

Between March 2020 and July 2021, no fewer than 94 people were convicted of breaching Covid rules. Of these 72 were given immediate custodial sentences, five received suspended sentences, eight were fined and nine were conditionally discharged.

Speaking during a debate on Council of Ministers’ response to the independent Covid review, Mr Ashford told members that people convicted of breaches carried the ‘burden of criminality for the rest of their lives’.

He said: ‘One of the things I've been considering recently is those that were criminally prosecuted for breaches and jailed over the Covid period, and the longer term effects this has had on their lives.

‘There were those who recklessly endangered orders.

‘But equally, there were those whose breaches may well have been inadvertent, or due to a lack of understanding of the requirements, conditions which did keep adapting and changing as the needs of the pandemic has gone on.

‘So ignorance is never an excuse under the law.

‘But recently I’ve come to reflect on whether it is right for many of those people to carry the burden of criminality for what could be the rest of their lives, and the impact that can have on them, for instance, missing out on employment opportunities because of having a criminal conviction, failing background checks from key positions or positions of responsibility and even being barred from entering certain countries because they have a criminal conviction.

‘The Covid period was a unique time where the freedoms we all take for granted, had to be paused for the protection of our wider community.

‘But is it right that those convicted of committing offences that in normal times would not have been an offence should carry that burden with them going forward?

‘This is something I must confess has only recently come to the front of my mind. And I by no means have the answers to this complex area. But I think it's something that needs to be considered and assessed.’

Among the defendants who were imprisoned during the pandemic were a group of welders who were due to undertake maintenance work on the Manx Electric Railway. They were required to self-isolate but went to Tesco instead of going straight to their accommodation. They were sentenced to two weeks in jail. In England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, breaches of pandemic regulations were punishable only by way of a fixed penalty notice - an on-the-spot of fine of about £100 in the first instance.

But in the Isle of Man, breaches of emergency regulations could carry a maximum sentence of three months’ custody and a fine of up to £10,000, or be dealt with by a fixed penalty notice up to £250.

Last month, former UK justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland made a call for an amnesty for those who were received a criminal conviction for breaching Covid rules across.

He said the 29,383 people fined by the courts should have their ‘slates wiped clean’.