Scots much more likely to be called for jury service, BBC finds

People in Scotland have a 95% chance of being cited for jury service at least once in their lifetime, much higher than in England & Wales, according to a BBC report.

Asked by Radio 4's More or Less programme to calculate the probability of an eligible person being asked to serve on a jury, Deirdre Toher, a statistics lecturer at the University of the West of England, put the probability at 95% across the 53 years of typical eligibility from age 18 to age 70 inclusive. About 40% will be aasked more than once.

Her calculations were based on figures obtained from the Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service.

However the probability of actually being selected to serve on a jury is about 30%.

In England & Wales, by comparison, Ministry of Justice figures suggest that there is about a 35% chance of being summoned for jury service over the course of a lifetime, with about half of those cited actually spending time in court.