Jury Service UK: Eligibility, Disqualification, Pay and What to Expect

At a glance

• Who qualifies: registered parliamentary or local government elector, aged 18 or over but under 76, ordinarily resident in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for at least 5 years since age 13, and not disqualified — Juries Act 1974, s.1(1).
• Upper age limit is 75, not 70: raised by the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, s.68, in force from 1 December 2016. You can serve up to your 76th birthday.
• Disqualified for life: anyone ever sentenced to life imprisonment or detention, imprisonment/detention for public protection, or a term of 5 years or more — Schedule 1, Part 2, para.6.
• Disqualified for 10 years: anyone who, in the last 10 years, served part of a custodial sentence, had a suspended sentence, or had certain community orders made — Schedule 1, Part 2, para.7. Anyone on bail in criminal proceedings is disqualified while on bail — para.5.
• Deferral vs excusal: the summoning officer may defer your service once, to a date within roughly 12 months, for good reason (s.9A), or excuse you from the summons altogether for good reason (s.9). Both carry a right of appeal to the court.
• Failing to attend without reasonable cause: a criminal offence under s.20 — a fine up to level 3 on the standard scale, or dealt with as contempt of court in the face of the court.
• Researching the case or disclosing deliberations: specific criminal offences under ss.20A–20D, inserted by the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 — this covers online research and social media, not just conversations.
• Verdicts: unanimous first; a majority verdict (10 of 11–12, or 9 of 10) is only available after at least 2 hours' deliberation under s.17. A 9-member jury (the legal minimum under s.16) must reach a unanimous verdict.
• Your job is protected: dismissing you for jury service is automatically unfair under Employment Rights Act 1996, s.98B, from day one of employment — but there is no separate legal duty on your employer to keep paying your wages.

Who has to do jury service

Jury service is a legal obligation, not a voluntary role. Section 1 of the Juries Act 1974 sets out who is "qualified" — and therefore liable — to serve as a juror in the Crown Court, the High Court and the county court. You qualify if you are:

• registered as a parliamentary or local government elector, and aged eighteen or over but under seventy-six;
• ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for any period of at least five years since your thirteenth birthday; and
• not disqualified for jury service (see below).

The upper age limit is a common point of confusion, because it has moved twice in living memory. It was raised from 65 to 70 by earlier legislation, and then from 70 to 75 by section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which substituted "aged eighteen or over but under seventy six" into section 1(1)(a). That change came fully into force on 1 December 2016, so anyone under 76 today is potentially in scope, subject to the disqualification rules.

Names are selected at random from the electoral register by the Jury Central Summoning Bureau — jury service is not something you can volunteer for, and it is not linked to citizenship status in the way some people assume; long-term residency is what matters for the residency limb, alongside electoral registration.

This guide covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have broadly similar but separately legislated jury systems.

Who cannot serve: disqualification and mental capacity

Schedule 1 to the Juries Act 1974 sets out who is disqualified, independently of age or residency. The categories fall into two groups with very different consequences.

| Ground | Disqualification period | Source | |---|---|---| | Sentenced to life imprisonment/detention, detention or imprisonment for public protection, an extended sentence, or a term of 5 years or more | For life | Schedule 1, Part 2, para.6 | | Served any part of a custodial sentence, had a suspended sentence, or had certain community orders made, within the last 10 years | 10 years from the relevant date | Schedule 1, Part 2, para.7 | | Convicted, in the last 10 years, of an offence relating to jury or Court Martial misconduct (e.g. under s.20A–20D of this Act) | 10 years | Schedule 1, Part 2, para.6A | | On bail in criminal proceedings | For the duration of the bail | Schedule 1, Part 2, para.5 |

Separately, Schedule 1, Part 1 disqualifies a person who is, at the relevant time, liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983, resident in hospital on account of mental disorder as defined by that Act, subject to guardianship or a community treatment order under it, or who lacks capacity within the meaning of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to serve as a juror. This part of Schedule 1 was substantially rewritten by the Mental Health (Discrimination) Act 2013, which removed a much broader historic exclusion and replaced it with these narrower, capacity-based tests.

Knowingly serving on a jury while disqualified under Part 2 of Schedule 1 is itself a criminal offence under s.20(5)(d) of the Act, punishable by a fine of up to level 5 on the standard scale — higher than the fine for simply failing to attend.

Deferral and excusal: what's the difference

People often use "deferral" and "excusal" interchangeably, but the Juries Act 1974 treats them as two distinct powers, both exercised by the summoning officer (with a right of appeal to the court).

• Deferral (s.9A) postpones the date of your attendance. If you show good reason — a pre-booked holiday, medical treatment, an exam, a wedding — the officer may vary the days on which you are summoned to attend, typically to a date within around 12 months. This power can generally only be used once per summons, so it is worth choosing a date you are confident will work.
• Excusal (s.9) releases you from that summons altogether. Certain categories (members of the forces and others) have a qualified entitlement to excusal under Part III of Schedule 1, but for most people excusal is discretionary: the summoning officer must be satisfied there is "good reason" — commonly a serious ongoing illness, a caring responsibility that genuinely cannot be rearranged, or having served on a jury very recently. Official guidance for summoning officers on how deferral and excusal applications should be handled is published by the Ministry of Justice.

Deferral is generally considered first, since it keeps you within the pool of people liable to serve rather than removing the obligation. If you ignore the summons rather than applying for either, you risk prosecution under s.20 (below).

What happens when you respond to the summons

1. Reply within 7 days. GOV.UK requires a reply to a jury summons within 7 days of receiving it — online or by post — confirming you can attend, or asking to change the date, be excused, or receive reasonable adjustments. Ignoring the summons risks prosecution under s.20 of the Act.
2. Tell your employer and sort out logistics. Give your workplace written notice once dates are confirmed. Work out childcare, travel and parking, and keep your summons letter and photo ID (such as a passport or driving licence) safe for your first day.
3. Arrive at court and complete check-in. Leave time for security screening, where bags are scanned and phone use may be restricted in some areas. Court staff direct you to the jury assembly room, and an induction video usually explains courtroom layout and expectations.
4. Get sworn in for a trial. When a trial is ready, a panel of potential jurors is called and twelve are selected at random to form the jury (or the applicable number for the case). Each juror takes an oath or affirmation to try the case faithfully on the evidence.
5. Hear the case and reach a verdict. You listen to opening statements, evidence, cross-examination and closing arguments; the judge sums up the law before the jury retires to deliberate in private, aiming for a unanimous verdict where possible.

Reaching a verdict: unanimous and majority verdicts

The starting position is that a jury's verdict must be unanimous. Where that is not achievable, section 17 of the Juries Act 1974 allows the Crown Court to accept a majority verdict, but only within strict limits:

• if there are 11 or 12 jurors, at least 10 must agree;
• if there are 10 jurors, at least 9 must agree;
• the court cannot accept a majority verdict of guilty unless the foreman has stated in open court the numbers who agreed and dissented; and
• the court cannot accept any majority verdict at all until the jury has had at least 2 hours for deliberation (in practice, judges routinely allow considerably longer, calibrated to the complexity of the case, before even inviting a majority direction).

Under section 16, if a juror dies or is discharged mid-trial the trial can continue provided the jury does not fall below 9 members. Critically, section 17 has no majority provision for a jury of 9 — so if the jury has been reduced to that legal minimum, the verdict must be unanimous; there is no fallback majority option. Where even a majority cannot be reached, the jury is discharged as "hung", and the prosecution decides whether to seek a retrial before a fresh jury.

Rules jurors must follow: research, social media and deliberations

The rules on what jurors can and cannot do during a trial were significantly tightened by the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which inserted a cluster of new offences — sections 20A to 20D — into the Juries Act 1974, aimed squarely at the internet age:

• Section 20A — it is an offence for a juror to research the case during the trial period, meaning seeking information they know or ought reasonably to know may be relevant to the case, subject to limited exceptions.
• Section 20B — it is an offence to share such research with other jurors.
• Section 20C — it is an offence to engage in other conduct from which it may reasonably be concluded the juror intends to decide the case otherwise than on the evidence presented in court.
• Section 20D — it is an offence to disclose the jury's deliberations (what was said, opinions expressed, arguments advanced or votes cast), subject to narrow exceptions.

In practice this means: no searching for the defendant, the case, or related news online; no discussing the case on social media; and no discussing the jury's deliberations with anyone, including family, even after the trial has ended, beyond the narrow statutory exceptions. These are criminal offences in their own right, separate from the general offence of serving while disqualified, and separate from any historic reliance on general contempt of court principles.

Pay, expenses and your job

There is no provision in the Juries Act 1974, or elsewhere, requiring your employer to continue paying your normal wages while you are on jury service — many employers do so as a matter of policy, but it is not a legal entitlement. Instead, the court itself pays an allowance intended to cover loss of earnings (or loss of benefits, for the self-employed or not working), travel and subsistence — the current rates, caps and claim process are set out on GOV.UK and change from time to time, so always check the current figures rather than relying on an old print-out. Your employer normally needs to complete a certificate of loss of earnings so you can claim.

What the law does firmly protect is your job itself. Under section 98B of the Employment Rights Act 1996, dismissing an employee because they have been summoned for jury service, or because they were absent attending it, is automatically unfair dismissal. Unusually, this protection applies from your first day of employment — jury service dismissal is one of the specific exceptions to the normal continuous-service qualifying period, set out in section 108. The only exception is narrow: the employer must show your absence was likely to cause substantial injury to the business, that they told you so, and that you then unreasonably refused or failed to apply for deferral or excusal.

What to do if you've received a jury summons

1. Read the summons carefully and note the reply deadline. You have 7 days to respond online or by post.
2. Check the disqualification rules against your own circumstances, particularly if you have any relevant criminal history or are currently on bail — Schedule 1 sets out exactly what counts.
3. Decide whether you need deferral or excusal, and apply promptly with your reasons, rather than simply not replying.
4. Tell your employer in writing as soon as dates are confirmed, and be aware of your rights under s.98B if there is any friction about time off.
5. Confirm what allowance you can claim for loss of earnings, travel and subsistence via GOV.UK, and get your employer's certificate of loss of earnings ready if you need it.
6. Keep the rules on research and disclosure in mind from day one of the trial — including after it has finished — given the specific offences under ss.20A–20D.
7. Take advice early if anything about your situation is unusual — for example a disability requiring adjustments, a safety concern, or a dispute with your employer about time off.

This guide provides general information about jury service in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The law described was accurate as at August 2026 and is subject to change — always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the most current position.

Last reviewed: August 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: August 2027 or on legislative change.