Can any tell me about jury vetting in England?

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I hope jury vetting is the right term – I mean the bit when you're actually at the court and they're selecting new juries, rather than the background check they do in advance.

What happens? Who has a say in whether or not you get picked? And what influences their decision?

Any insights very welcome, from people who've done jury duty or, of course, anyone involved in the system!

(I'm asking as a potential juror, not because I'm awaiting trial.)

I have done jury duty.

You are excused from that trial if you know the defendant or have links with them.

Other than that from what I remember it's just numbers 1-12 with two alternates.

UK, or at least England/Wales does not permit any form of jury selection as happens in some jurisdictions over the pond.

You're selected at random from the electoral register and allocated to a trial. Other than knowledge of defendant or witnesses that's it.

There’s no selection or vetting. You can apply to recuse yourself for reasons like ill health or childcare (ie unrelated to the particular trial) and must tell the court if you know anyone involved in the trial so you can be removed from that trial. That’s it.

This. The E&W system is specifically set up to avoid any sort of jury vetting. They check for conflicts of interest (no relatives of any witnesses on either side for example) but nothing else.

I think they literally draw names from a hat from the jury pool for each jury.

For longer trials, they will check people are available - no pre-booked holidays etc.

You can also be excused if eg you have a prebooked holiday which clashes with the trial.

Your name will be called, and you will have the opportunity to say why you can’t do something. If they “run out” of jurors (ie they don’t have 12 from the initial group of people taken from the jury room) then they will probably cycle back through and reconsider people who had given an excuse for not being able to do it. This happened to me - the judge said that she would effectively put people in a “maybe” pile, apart from one young man who had a major professional exam scheduled for during the trial - she put him into the “no” pile. Fortunately they were able to select the full jury so we didn’t have to go round again. But in theory it’s totally random and you have to do it.

Do you have a specific concern? When you get to the court, there should be a member of staff in charge of the jurors - you can ask to speak to them before the trial allocation part.

If you have a condition such as IBS that means you have to take frequent toilet breaks, is that accommodated - do they pause the trial for you? Asking in case I ever get called.

There is no vetting. You do it unless you have a very good reason why you can’t. They’re quite strict.

You would ask for a recusal on health grounds beforehand.

I’d be quite interested in doing jury service. Never been called though…DH on the other hand has been called twice!

Thanks so much! This is helpful.

I was curious as I’ve seen people say things like wear a bow tie and you will (or won’t?) be selected… but the official things made it sound random and didn’t mention anything about either side getting a say. Which is definitely the consensus here.

@NorthantsNewbie Not a specific concern, more curious about what happens (am trying not to expect to find myself in an episode of LA Law)

It’s funny there’s no mechanism for volunteering. Or maybe there is!

The jurors are selected from the electoral register. These days it's an automated process but in the past the jury summoning office would have a bit of fun with people's surnames...

I was called once in 1983 at which time, because I worked for what is now the MoJ I was barred from serving.

That no longer applies and as you can be called up to age 76 they've another 11 years to grab me.

If volunteering were possible, you wouldn’t get a cross-section of society. You’d only get people who have the time and interest i.e. retired people of a certain demographic.

They select a panel from the available jurors, which is more than they will need, then pull 12 names at random from the people on the panel. Panel is random selection too.

Before jury selection the jury are told the identity of the defendant and the identities of any witnesses. If you know anyone you will be excluded. Sometimes there will be other exclusions, eg if it is a teacher on trial they will ask if you have any connection with the school, or a business could be included or whatever.

The defendant has the right to object to jurors and can appeal to the judge, but this never happens. I suppose it is if they know someone who hasn’t declared a connection or whatever. I don’t think they’d get very far with ‘I don’t like his bow tie’.

The obvious one is if you know someone involved in the case then you will be excused.
At the Jury Service I did we were given a list of names and if we had any connection with anyone on that list - from knowing them personally or even just living in the same street - then you couldn't do it
Also for the specific case I was on anyone who worked with the police or had close family members who worked with the police were out.
It will depend on what the case is about sometimes.

Ive been getting your spot. I’ve been called up 8 times, but one was a mistake after they called me up just after being granted a 5 year discharge for sitting in on a horrible trial. Honestly, I don’t know what I’m doing to get called up so much.

8 times! Wow!
Maybe you should start buying lottery tickets.

I was called for jury service once. I was selected but had to be stood down as I knew the defendant (He had previously assaulted a member of my family). I had to hang around the courthouse for a few days after that but wasn't selected again.

I've recently done jury duty in Scotland which has a lot of differences legally, but this bit is the same.

They called a pool of 20 of us into a room, 15 for the main jury and 5 substitutes. He then said that a ballot had been conducted and he would call out names in order for juror No1, No2 and so on. After that, the court officer read out the basics of the case including the name of the accused, the name of the main witness and some of the addresses involved. He asked us to declare whether we knew any of the places or people involved. None of the main 15 declared anything, so the 5 substitutes were sent away.

We stayed in our numbered positions throught the trial, there were numbered seats in the jury box and in the jury room.

You are given a number and stand randomly in a line. The judge then calls out numbers he draws randomly and you are then the jury.

I've been called twice
Actually enjoyed the process

Yes, if you’re asking specifically about what determines a jury’s makeup out of the pool of peoole called for jury duty that week, it’s entirely random. The only thing that would mean you were dropped from a jury once selected is if you declare a connection to anyone involved in the trial which might cause a bias.

When I was called in 2021, no juries were formed at all that whole week, which apparently isn’t unusual — the accused changed their plea to guilty in all cases.

I was actually looking forward to it, and was disappointed that no juries were formed, but last year my brother was called for a very upsetting trial, which he found difficult and traumatising.

I sat on a rape case. We were offered the option to stand down from that case (but go back into the pool to be selected for other trials) if we felt we were unable to cope with the upcoming evidence (ie. we were being subtly asked if we had been a victim of rape and would find it too traumatic). It was handled with great sensitivity and each person was asked in private.

Other than that, it was exactly as PP have said.