https://insidehmcts.blog.gov.uk/from-summons-to-service-your-complete-guide-to-jury-duty-podcast-transcript/
From Summons to Service: Your Complete Guide to Jury Duty - podcast transcript
Aaron Wilson:
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Inside HMCTS with me, Aaron Wilson. It seems a bit strange to be wishing you all a Happy New Year in February, but this is officially our first episode of 2025.
This time around we’re going to be talking jury service, something that thousands and thousands of randomly selected people partake in every single year.
Many of you will have seen various court dramas on the TV involving juries, but what’s it actually like to be part of a jury, how are you selected, and how does the process work?
Today, I’m going to be joined by Deputy Director of Crime (Live Services) at HMCTS Craig Robb who has agreed to come and explain the ins and outs of serving and answer some of our most frequent questions.
So Craig, welcome to the podcast, thanks for agreeing to come on. Do you want to start with telling us what your day job is here at HMCTS?
Craig Robb:
My name is Craig Robb, and my day job is deputy director for crime, in HMCTS. So I kind of oversee the working of the Crown Court and the magistrates' courts.
Aaron Wilson:
Craig, so can you tell me what is jury service, what is the point of it, and how does it work?
Craig Robb:
Yep. Absolutely. It's a really important public duty. Anybody who stands trial, charged with criminal offence, is put on trial in a court, and those trials in the Crown Court are heard in front of a jury. You and normally 11 of your fellow peers listen to the evidence put before a court and decide on the basis of that evidence, on the guilt, or otherwise of the defendant.
Aaron Wilson:
Can everyone do jury service or are there any sorts of people that are ineligible to serve on a jury?
Craig Robb:
So, the point is anybody can be called that random to serve on a jury. There are certain limited exemptions. First of all, age, if you're under 18, so a child, or if you're over, 75 to 76 years and older, on the first day of your jury service, then you're ineligible.
You must have been resident in the UK, for a period of at least 5 years since the age 13, and you must be a registered elector, so you must appear on the electoral roll.
If you're detained for mental health reasons, if, you've ever been imprisoned for a certain period of time, etcetera, but the exceptions are relatively few. So basically, it's any person resident in the country.
Aaron Wilson:
And why is it such an important part of the justice system to have juries sitting on trials?
Craig Robb:
It goes back to Magna Carta and the fundamental right of anybody charged by the state with an offence being able to elect a trial by jury. There are some limitations to that.
So there are some lower level offences that are tried in the magistrate's courts by, essentially the same process, but it's not a panel of jurors like you get in a Crown Court, but a panel of lay justices which is kind of the same concept. But for the more serious offences, it's perceived as a basic right of anybody in the country if charged with an offence to stand and be tried by a panel of their peers.
Aaron Wilson:
I think a lot of people probably listening to this podcast will know someone who's done jury service but might not have been called themselves, who might be sort of sitting there wondering “why have I not been called?” – how does the jury selection process work, can you explain that a little bit?
Craig Robb:
Yeah. So, like I said, you have to be resident in the country to be called, for jury service, and the way they do it is the, they pick people at random from the electoral roll. It is as simple as that, and so some people may well get calls, you know, a few times. Some people may well not. I've been interested in working in the criminal justice system, working in the justice system for my whole life, and I've been quite miffed that I haven't, but, earlier, last year I was.
So random thing, I work in the court service and was called for jury service. It's luck of a draw.
Aaron Wilson:
When someone is called for jury service, what is the process for that? Because, obviously, I know you probably get summons in the post, what's the process after that?
Craig Robb:
Exactly right. Postman sticks the envelope through the door, you open it up, It says, you're being called for jury service at this court center, at this date. That normally comes through, at least a couple of months, my recollection is that it was, I don't know, three months or so, it was a good chunk of time before you have to serve, and you need to read the information that you've given and make a response. And it is as simple as that.
Once you go through that process, ultimately, unless there are reasons why you can't do it, you'll turn up and you'll do your jury service.
Aaron Wilson:
Lovely. You've touched on it just there about sort of deferrals and, and that sort of thing, but what happens if people can't serve on a jury? What happens there?
Craig Robb:
So there's a range of reasons. I mean, there are classes of people who, are not eligible to serve on a jury as we were talking about, and, and, if mistakenly you get called, then you can, write back and explain why you shouldn't. But more commonly, it's, people have got booked holidays. They've got other circumstances which make it extremely difficult for them to sit at the time that they've been requested to sit and serve as juror, and, there's a great degree of flexibility.
You can write back, give your reasons, explain the hardship or whatever reason there is to seek the deferral, and, ordinarily, the system looks at that pretty favourably.
If you've got a good reason, you put that reason, and you'll be listened to.
Aaron Wilson:
Lovely. And one of the questions we've had, sort of a quite common question, is if someone has a disability, can they still serve on the jury?
Craig Robb:
Yeah. Absolutely.
We've had blind jurors, we have had a deaf juror, anybody as long as they are not exempt has the right to serve on a jury and that's what we uphold.
Aaron Wilson:
And what about if people don't know anything about criminal law? Because obviously I know you're working within the sector, but if they're if they're worried about that, do they need to know anything before they go in there?
Craig Robb:
No. The point is you're not supposed to be a lawyer. If they if they needed criminal law experts, they'd fish from a different pool. We're asking when we call jurors for random people from civil society. You can have firemen, you can have, teachers, you can have ministers, there is no requirement for any particular knowledge. The jury will be given the information in the course of the trial that they need to sift away and come to a collective decision on you do not need to be a lawyer.
Aaron Wilson:
Obviously, some cases that jurors will sit on will be quite harrowing for them. What sort of support is in place for them should they need it following the trial?
Craig Robb:
Yeah, there are some really difficult cases across the court system, and in recognition of, of the trend, of cases getting more difficult, more sensitive, the Ministry of Justice has stood up a lot of additional support. In the gravest of cases, and there are, you know, the ones that will be on the news, there are some really harrowing circumstances that jurors are exposed to, and in those cases, there is some quite full on support, offered to jurors.
In the general types of cases, you might not need that, but there is a support wraparound for jurors. Jurors are given information about how to access further support if they need it, and actually looking at my own experience, jurors as a group can kind of provide each other a shoulder to lean on through the process. You rely on your fellow human beings as much as the official support that's offered.
Aaron Wilson:
And what happens with employers when you're called for jury service? I mean, obviously, you're here at HMCTS, how were you supported there, with attending jury service?
Craig Robb:
Well, so I was probably in the easiest position, because HMCTS, my employer, has a vested interest in allowing jurors to sit. In fact, in my own personal situation, the only thing that was, potentially problematic was the location that I did my jury service. Probably not appropriate for me to go to the local court that I work from quite a bit. So I was sent a bit further afield to a court that I wasn't familiar with. But, no generally there are, there's a legal requirement for employers to release employees where the reason is jury service and there are schemes to provide allowances to self-employed people who would be losing out on money from their business for the period sitting.
So, yes, there there's a lot of, guidance that's given depending on your circumstances. The flexibility is there.
Aaron Wilson:
I'm going to come on to allowances in a minute because we actually had a question come in about that. You've obviously been through the jury process yourself as well as what worked alongside that, but what was your experience like when you turned up the court? What happened when you arrived at court on the day?
Craig Robb:
So, like I said, it was an unfamiliar building. I'd been there before. I had to get used to queuing a little bit. There were, I mean, I was in a very large court, and I don't know how many new jurors were called on the Monday morning, but it was way in excess of 100, probably up to 200 people.
First of all, I went through a process to validate my identity. I had to show them some photo ID to show that I was who I said I was and, I was the correct person who'd been called.
We then, all of us, got through that registration process, got into a big room where we're given some induction training, given a basic overview of what the role of a jury is and what we might expect in the time that we were at the court, and then we all waited to be called to a case. And, you know, some of us waited a bit longer than others, some of us were called into a courtroom right at the beginning.
Aaron Wilson:
Okay and I think we sort of covered this one already, but what happens, I know you said it was a couple of months for you when you were selected and then you went to court, is that always the case? Does it tend to sort of move more quickly or can it be slower? What was the score with that?
Craig Robb:
It was a good chunk of time, and ordinarily, yes, they give you a fair chunk of notice, because you know, people have got busy pressured lives. If you try and write to someone and say, please come to court next week, that's not going be the best way of dealing with it.
Aaron Wilson:
And if you're called for jury service, are you guaranteed to sit on a jury?
Craig Robb:
No. I mean you'd probably be particularly unlucky if you didn't, but no actually.
So, the calling of a juror in the first instance is random, but then once you've got the pool of people waiting in the jury lounge there's then a randomization and, from that pool, a random selection is chosen to sit on each and every jury trial that starts and the court knows how many jurors it needs because they know how many courts, how many cases are going to be needing to come on. Sometimes, a case might settle at the doors of the court as the saying goes. A defendant who's pleaded not guilty until a trial has been arranged might, at the very last minute, plead guilty and so you don't need a trial and so that jury won't be necessary. So, there's a bunch of reasons why you might not get called, but generally most people who get called for jury service will sit on a trial, 1 or more trials.
Aaron Wilson:
Perfect. I'll just come in on to a couple of questions we actually had come in for this, and obviously someone really enjoyed themselves being a juror because they've asked, “can I be paid to be a full time juror?” Is that possible?
Craig Robb:
Well, so they can't, and it would rather take away the randomization, wouldn't it? So, no, that's not really the point, but it's great that people do enjoy it, and many people do.
I've heard a lot of people that do, sometimes people don't enjoy it, but the point is it really does have to be random, and that is the kind of bedrock of fairness that the system is built on. So, yes, sometimes people don't enjoy it, but actually more often than not I think people do enjoy the process and people respect the need to serve.
Aaron Wilson:
Again, this is probably from someone who's really enjoyed being a juror, is there a time frame that you can be recalled again for a second term to serve? Is there a time limit that needs to pass before you can be recalled again, or is it sort of…
Craig Robb:
This shows that I'm rusty on my facts. I think it's you can't be or sometimes if you sit on a particularly long trial or there are particularly harrowing circumstances, the judge can discharge you from ever having to sit on a jury again, and often you'll see cases like that reported on the news that often say the judge has said, jurors are excused from all future service. But I think the rule is, where that doesn't happen is you can't be recalled, within 2 years. And if you are, then you've got an absolute right to write back to the (Jury Central) Summoning Bureau and say no.
Aaron Wilson:
Perfect. There's a question around security when you come to court, if they're there every day, are they still expected to go through security, but just could you sort of clarify what checks that they'll face when they come to the court, please?
Craig Robb:
This is a really important thing actually because when anybody gets inside a criminal court, they'll see that actually you get into the building and you're, very close to members of the judiciary, to the professions, to the jury sat in a box.
And so the safety and security of the of the building is basically premised on a pretty tight ring around the perimeter. You don't get weapons, you don't get anything into the building and therefore there's a check going through the, normally single entrance of a building. Security will do a search on entry, make sure that there isn't anything there shouldn't be and then once you're inside, there's a pretty high confidence that the environment you're in is safe, and the process works. Our, incidents are very, very few.
I think our safety and security record is pretty good, but we have to have that process there at the start and if we didn't, we couldn't assure the safety of people in our buildings.
Aaron Wilson:
So there's another one here about, I think this is assuming that you're sort of sitting around for a while and not being called immediately. Can I bring my laptop to court to work and can what else can I bring with you? Can I bring food and can I bring drinks as well?
Craig Robb:
So you absolutely can. I took my laptop, day 2 of my experience as a juror. I was sat in the jury lounge for almost the entire day, and it was on my birthday, had no jury trial action, I was called actually into a courtroom at the end but, yeah, I sat in the juror lounge. I busied myself with my laptop. Lots of other jurors do that. Lots of other jurors take personal devices, take books, magazines. You can absolutely take your own food, but ordinarily, there are facilities there. The court that I did my jury service at was a fantastic canteen actually and laid on meals at lunchtime. You can go off-site, though, at lunchtime so long as the judge hasn't told you not to. It’s quite important to listen to the judge, so there's a huge degree of flexibility there.
Aaron Wilson:
This came up a little bit earlier when we were talking about sort of what jurors are entitled to, but what allowances do jurors get, while they’re serving?
Craig Robb:
Yeah, so I mean, all of this is online, so anybody can go and check the detail and if you're ever called for jury service, you'll get sent the information, and sometimes it will depend on your particular circumstances. But the basic thing is that, if you're employed or you got childcare responsibilities, you can claim up to a certain limit.
If you suffer financial losses the daily rates is up to £64.95 a day, unless you sit for longer periods, in which case it's higher. There's a food and drink allowance, it basically covers the food and drink that you get provided at the court, or you can take your own in or whatever.
I didn't have any loss of salary. I continued being paid, and lots of employers do that, some don't.
If you're self-employed, obviously, it's more complicated. The only thing I had to claim for was travel, and I attended by train, so I got my train ticket. Like I said, all of the information's available and if you have any questions, you can send them to the court and they'll help you through it.
Aaron Wilson:
And if you need sort of additional support when you come to court, as a juror, do you just get in touch with the court beforehand? Is that how that works? So say you have access needs or something like that?
Craig Robb:
Yeah, absolutely. The contact details for the court are all there. I mean, the information pack they send through is quite, quite full, so you know the facilities and the accessibility of the court. But if you've got any questions, contact details are there and that's who you speak to.
Aaron Wilson:
And a personal question for you because obviously you've served on a jury and seen the other side of it as well. What would you say to someone who's about to go and serve on the jury? What would be your one bit of advice you could give to them?
Craig Robb:
I mean go do it. I thought it was a fantastic experience, one of the most eye opening, and I mean, it was challenging, but it was overall a fantastic experience, and one that I'm actually quite proud of. Don't go in with anxiety. This is not kind of everything on your shoulders. You are part of a cohort of jurors both in the lounge and then when you get into a jury room. The judges, I think, are absolutely brilliant. They will guide you.
If you've got any questions through any of the process, you ask the judge, the judge deals with it. Don't go in with anxiety, I think is the is the is the tip.
Aaron Wilson:
Brilliant, well Craig thank you so much for coming on to the podcast and sharing so many helpful insights about jury service and the selection process and for taking some of the common questions we’ve regularly been asked.
For those listening, now is your chance to get involved with the podcast, if you have a burning question about the justice system that you’re not sure about please do get in touch with us.
There’s a number of different ways you can do that including emailing us at HMCTS.Communications@justice.gov.uk, by leaving a comment on our podcast episode blog page or by sending us a message on our X, Facebook or LinkedIn accounts.
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Thank you again to everyone who’s tuned in today and keep an eye out for the next episode coming very soon.
