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Juries Act 1949

Consolidated Text As Enacted Cited authorities 24 Cited in Related
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Year1949


Juries Act , 1949

(12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 27

An Act to provide for the making of payments in respect of jury service in Great Britain, to abolish special juries in Great Britain except in commercial causes tried in London; to abolish the privilege of landed persons in relation to jury trial in Scotland; to empower the Parliament of Northern Ireland to make laws providing for the payment of jurors in His Majesty's High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland and the abolition of special juries in that Court; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[26th April 1949]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I England

Part I

England

Payments in respect of Jury Service

Payments in respect of Jury Service

S-1 Payments in respect of jury service.

1 Payments in respect of jury service.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, persons who serve as jurors shall be entitled to be paid, in accordance with prescribed scales and subject to any prescribed conditions,—

(a ) travelling and subsistence allowances; and

(b ) compensation for loss of earnings which they would otherwise have made or additional expense (other than expense on account of travelling or subsistence) to which they would not otherwise have been subject, being loss or expense necessarily suffered or incurred for the purpose of enabling them to serve as jurors:

Provided that the amount which may be paid to a person by virtue of paragraph (b ) of this subsection in respect of his services as a juror on any one day shall not exceed—

(i) where the period of time over which earnings are lost or additional expense is incurred is not more than four hours, the sum of ten shillings; or

(ii) where the said period of time is more than four hours, the sum of twenty shillings.

(2) For the purposes of this Part of this Act, a person who, in obedience to a summons to serve on a jury, attends for service as a juror, shall be deemed to serve as a juror notwithstanding that he is not subsequently sworn.

(3) A payment to which a person is entitled under this section is in this Part of this Act referred to as a ‘payment in respect of jury service’.

(4) In this section the expression ‘prescribed’ means prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury.

The power conferred by this subsection on the Secretary of State shall be exercisable by statutory instrument.

S-2 Person by whom the amount of a payment is to be ascertained.

2 Person by whom the amount of a payment is to be ascertained.

2. The amount due to a person by way of a payment in respect of jury service shall be ascertained by that one of the following persons who is appropriate to the case (in this Part of this Act referred to as ‘the appropriate officer’), that is to say,—

a ) in the case of service at the Royal Courts of Justice such officer of the Supreme Court as the Lord Chancellor may nominate for the purposes of this paragraph
b ) in the case of service at a court of assize (other than the Central Criminal Court or a court held by virtue of a special commission), the clerk of assize
c ) in the case of service at the Central Criminal Court, the clerk of the court
d ) in the case of service at a court held by virtue of a special commission of oyer and terminer and a special commission of gaol delivery or either of them, the clerk of the commission
e ) in the case of service at a court held by virtue of a special commission for the trial of matrimonial causes, the registrar of the district wherein the court is held;
f ) in the case of service at a court held by virtue of a special commission (other than a commission of oyer and terminer and a commission of gaol delivery or either of them or a commission for the trial of matrimonial causes) or of a general commission (other than a commission of assize, a commission of oyer and terminer and a commission of gaol delivery or any of them), such person as the Lord Chancellor may nominate for the purposes of this paragraph;
g ) in the case of service at the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Lancaster, the registrar of the district wherein the court sits;
h ) in the case of service at a court of quarter sessions, the clerk of the peace;
i ) in the case of service at a county court, the registrar of the court;
j ) in the case of service at the Mayor's and City of London Court, the registrar of the court;
k ) in the case of service at a court exercising local civil jurisdiction (other than any of the courts mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs), such officer of the court as the court may nominate for the purposes of this paragraph;
l ) in the case of service at a coroner's court, the coroner;
m ) in the case of any other service, the sheriff of the county, county of a city or county of a town from which the jury was summoned:

Provided that where, in a case falling within paragraph (m ) of this subsection, the jury was summoned from a franchise in circumstances in which the bailiff thereof is charged with the duty of summoning jurors, that bailiff shall be the appropriate officer.

S-3 Mode of making payments.

3 Mode of making payments.

(1) A payment in respect of jury service at the Royal Courts of Justice shall be made by the accounting officer of the Supreme Court out of moneys provided by Parliament.

(2) When the amount due to a person by way of a payment in respect of such jury service as is mentioned in paragraph (b ), (c ), (d ) or (h ) of the last foregoing section has been ascertained, the appropriate officer shall make out in favour of that person an order upon the appropriate local treasurer (as hereinafter defined) for payment of that amount, and the appropriate local treasurer shall, upon sight of the order, pay that amount out of the appropriate local fund (as hereinafter defined) to that person or his duly authorised agent.

(3) A payment in respect of such jury service as is mentioned in paragraph (e ) or (i ) of the last foregoing section shall be made by the appropriate officer out of moneys provided by Parliament.

(4) A payment in respect of such jury service as is mentioned in paragraph (f ) of the last foregoing section shall be made, in such manner as the Lord Chancellor may direct, out of moneys provided by Parliament.

(5) A payment in respect of such jury service as is mentioned in paragraph (g ) of the last foregoing section shall be made by the appropriate officer out of the Fee Fund Account.

(6) A payment in respect of such jury service as is mentioned in paragraph (j ) or (k ) of the last foregoing section shall be made by the appropriate officer at the expense of the authority responsible for defraying the cost of maintaining the court, and it shall be the duty of that authority to provide the appropriate officer with such money as is requisite to enable him to make any such payment.

(7) A payment in respect of such jury service as is mentioned in paragraph (l ) or (m ) of the last foregoing section shall be made by the appropriate officer.

S-4 Appropriate local treasurers and funds.

4 Appropriate local treasurers and funds.

4. For the purposes of this Part of this Act, the appropriate local treasurer and the appropriate local fund shall, subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, respectively be—

a ) in relation to a payment in respect of jury service at a court of assize held for a county or a division of a county, the treasurer of the administrative county by which the costs of the holding of that court are paid, and the county fund of that county;
b ) in relation to a payment in respect of jury service at a court of assize held for a borough (whether or not a county of a city or county of a town), the treasurer of the borough and the general rate fund of the borough;
c ) in relation to a payment in respect of jury service at the Central Criminal Court, the treasurer of the administrative county or the county borough wherein are situate the premises the address of which appears, in relation to the person to whom the payment is due, in the jurors book by reference to which he was summoned to serve, and the county fund of that county or the general rate fund of that borough, as the case may be;
d ) in relation to a payment in respect of jury service at a court of quarter sessions, the treasurer of the administrative county or the borough by which the costs of the holding of the court are paid and the county fund of that county or the general rate fund of that borough, as the case may be.
S-5 Reimbursement of local authorities of payments attributable to civil business at assizes.

5 Reimbursement of local authorities of payments attributable to civil business at assizes.

(1) So soon as may be after the conclusion of the business of a court of assize (other than the Central Criminal Court or a court held by virtue of a special commission) the clerk of assize shall send to the appropriate local treasurer a written notice specifying the amount determined by the said clerk to be the aggregate of such of the payments in respect of jury service at the court as are in his opinion attributable to the transaction thereat of business other than criminal business or, as the case may be, stating that no such payments are in his opinion so attributable.

(2) Where a notice sent to the appropriate local treasurer under the foregoing subsection specifies such an amount as is therein mentioned, that amount shall, upon production of the notice, be paid to the treasurer by the accounting officer of the Supreme Court out of moneys provided by Parliament and shall, when received by the treasurer, be paid by him into the appropriate local...

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