Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people who are selected for jury service have full access to translation services if they do not understand English.

Persons summoned for jury service who would require any type of third party assistance within the deliberating room such as a language interpreter are discharged from jury service. The Juries Act 1974 provides for the judge to discharge a jury summons if there is doubt as to the capacity of the person summoned to act effectively as a juror on account of their insufficient understanding of English.