Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of NHS staff who have been called for jury service during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will exempt NHS staff from jury service during the covid-19 outbreak.

In line with the Juries Act 1974, jurors are summoned randomly by the Jury Central Summoning Bureau (JCSB) using the Electoral Voting Registers. The registers are a list of everyone who has registered themselves as eligible to vote which are supplied to HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) by every Local Authority each year. At the point of being called for jury service a person’s occupation is not known. It is therefore not possible to estimate how many NHS staff have been called for jury service since the COVID-19 outbreak.

At this time, the Government does not expect frontline emergency services staff, including those in the NHS, to be serving on juries.

Anyone in these groups, or any Key Worker working in education, the food supply chain or in any other frontline role who is summoned for jury service should contact the JCSB. While by law we cannot automatically defer jurors, HMCTS has issued guidance to help staff deal sympathetically with all requests from the public who wish to be released or deferred from jury service as a result of COVID-19. This also includes jurors who are in self-isolation, household isolation or those who are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Each application for deferral/excusal is considered on its own merit, that is both fair to the individual and consistent with the needs of the court in providing a representative jury.

We have published further details here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-courts-and-tribunals-planning-and-preparation#jury-trials-and-jury-service