Exclusive:Hundreds of thousands of Scots 'excluded' from jury service due to 'bonkers' system woes
Scottish Government cuts forced plans for new system to be put on hold
Hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland are being denied the chance of serving on a jury due to problems with the current “outdated” system used by the nation’s courts service, which is compounding the widespread problems faced by the criminal justice system.
Issues with the functionality of the system used by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) to look up postcodes means that approximately 400,000 potential jurors are not able to be cited at a time when courts across the nation are continuing to reckon with extensive trial backlogs.
The problems which prevent so many Scots from fulfilling a key civic duty is among a litany of failings with the current decades-old system, which the SCTS says is also resulting in the loss of court sitting days due to the “inefficiencies” of ballot calls.
Plans for a new “effective and modern” system were paused last year as a result of Scottish Government funding cuts, but the SCTS said the work is now under way to ensure those people currently locked out of the system can potentially serve on juries.
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In Scotland, jurors’ names continue to be selected at random electronically from information supplied from the electoral registers, with around 700,000 members of the public receiving a jury citation every year. But the constraints of the existing SCTS system means many people living in new-build properties are not part of the selection pool.
‘Element of exclusion’
In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, David Fraser, executive director of court operations at the SCTS, pointed to the “shortcomings” of a system that underpinned a “cornerstone of the criminal justice system,” and stressed the importance of ensuring everyone eligible to serve on a jury can do so.
While the random selection process means many Scots have never been cited for jury duty, Mr Fraser said it was not always simply down to chance. “It’s basically new housing developments which can’t be allocated to our system due to the constraints we have,” he said. “There’s definitely an element of exclusion, because if those people have an address which cannot be ingested into our system, they are excluded. That’s what we’re trying to avoid, and make sure everyone has an opportunity to serve.”
Without the attendance of jurors, solemn criminal business could not proceed in Scottish courts. Statistics prepared by the SCTS shows that a sizable minority of people do not respond to citations; out of more than 1,173,000 citations issued across 2021 and 2022, around 509,000 received no response.
Amid wider issues with the existing SCTS software, significant time is required for the manual “cleaning and updating” of the jury system on both a monthly and annual basis, with the repetitive work described as “highly labour intensive,” according to the organisation.
An equality impact assessment report for a new system also notes how at present, the way excusal requests are managed exerts “considerable” demands on the time and resources of staff, with the process used by jurors to submit attendance records and expense claims deemed “inefficient” and lacking user-friendliness.
Plans to replace ‘outdated’ system
The SCTS was ready to push ahead with the plans for a new digital jury content management system as long ago as October 2023, going so far as to seek out potential suppliers to design and develop the end-to-end system.
The procurement notice stated that the existing in-house system was “outdated” and specified potential improvements, including the ability to send citations via email and group text services to replace the pre-ballot telephone call system, and the use of scanners at courts to record daily attendances.
The SCTS held an in-person Q&A event with potential suppliers in Edinburgh in February 2024, and planned to publish full tender documents that May, but the project encountered delays before the SCTS advised suppliers it had placed the project on “long term pause,” telling them in September that Scottish Government funding cuts had affected its budgetary plans.
Mr Fraser told Scotland on Sunday that since then, the SCTS had been successful in applying for a public sector reform funding package from the Scottish Government, which he said had given it “the opportunity, the commitment, and the reassurance that we can push ahead and deliver this project.”
‘Totally bonkers’ that new build residents are being excluded
But Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary, Liam Kerr, said people would be “dismayed” at how the government “dragged its heels” over the court system reforms.
He said: “The haphazard process of juror selection is a big cause for concern. Jury trials are fundamental to our justice system and it’s unacceptable that a huge bank of potential jurors are being overlooked.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson, Liam McArthur, said: “I think to most reasonable onlookers it will seem totally bonkers that if you live in a new build development you're effectively excluded from jury duty because the computer system can’t handle your address.
"It seems the SCTS would like to move with the times but a lack of funding is holding them back. Helping them to overcome hurdles like this needs to be right at the top of the justice secretary's in-tray. Scotland needs a true 21st century court system.”
It is understood the development and implementation of the new system will cost around £1 million, but it is hoped it will deliver savings in the region of £230,000 per annum.
Mr Fraser said it would also transform the way potential jurors interact with the SCTS, which is for many people, the only interaction they will ever have with Scotland’s criminal justice system.
He explained: “At the moment, potential jurors get a citation six weeks before the date of a trial, and are asked to call a jury helpline the evening before to see if they are needed the following day or not. In this modern age, I think a lot of our potential jurors find it hard to believe that we are still operating with our current system.
“The service improvements we will deliver mean the public will see a very modern platform they can interact with and which delivers the service they expect.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The citation and selection of jurors is an operational matter for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. Despite extremely challenging financial circumstances, the Scottish Government has continued to increase the SCTS operational budget annually, with an additional £11.5m in resource funding provided this year.”