Which British prime minister apologized publicly for Turing's treatment in 2009?

Gordon Brown publicly apologized for Alan Turing’s treatment in 2009. Brown was the British prime minister who issued the government’s official statement after a public campaign drew attention to Turing’s prosecution and its consequences.

On 10 September 2009, Brown described the way Turing had been treated as “appalling” and expressed regret on behalf of the government. Turing had been prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, which were criminal offences in Britain at the time. He accepted hormone treatment, commonly described as chemical castration, instead of imprisonment.

The apology followed a petition initiated by programmer John Graham-Cumming. It was not the same as a pardon: the apology addressed the injustice of Turing’s treatment, while a separate campaign later sought legal exoneration. Queen Elizabeth II granted Turing a posthumous royal pardon in 2013.

Another common mix-up is associating the apology with David Cameron, who was prime minister when the pardon campaign reached a later stage. The 2009 public apology, however, came during Brown’s premiership and preceded the 2013 pardon by four years.