New-build residents excluded from jury service due to outdated court IT system

Jurors are selected at random from a national address database, but senior court officials admit the system cannot process postcodes for new housing estates. As a result, about 400,000 potential jurors are effectively barred from service.

Opposition parties branded the situation “unacceptable” and an “affront to democracy”, saying it denied thousands the chance to sit on juries. Inefficiencies in the current system mean officials receive no reply to almost half of jury citations, compounding delays at a time when courts are struggling with a heavy backlog of trials.

Although a new “effective and modern” system was due to be introduced last year, work was halted after Scottish government funding cuts. Preparatory steps have only recently resumed.

David Fraser, executive director of court operations at the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), said he wanted to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to sit on a jury, describing it as the “cornerstone of the criminal justice system”.

“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.”

The SCTS had planned to begin work on a new digital jury management system in October 2023, warning that its existing in-house platform was “outdated”. But the £1 million project was placed on “long-term pause” last September because of budget pressures.

Liam McArthur, the Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, 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.”

A Scottish government spokeswoman said the selection of jurors was a matter for the SCTS. She added: “Despite extremely challenging financial circumstances, the Scottish government has continued to increase the SCTS operational budget annually, with an additional £11.5 million in resource funding provided this year.”