Discuss the impact of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 on who can be required to attend for jury service (11)

Prior to the criminal justice act 2003 (CJA 2003), the Juries Act 1974 set out eligibility and disqualification criteria for jurors. It also gave people in certain professions the right o opt out of jury duty. The CJA implemented many of the recommendations in the Auld Report 2001 - most notably it removed some groups of people from disqualifications and abolished the right to opt out of jury duty for certin professions. 

The CJA states that those ages 18-70 registered on the electoral register and a resident of the UK for atleast 5 years since the age of 13 would be eligible for jury duty in the UK. The act aso outlines the disqualifications which inclue persons on bail, those with serious criminal convictions as well as the mentally disordered persons. 

Prior to the CJA, 5 categories of persons were inegligble for jury service which were; the judiciary, those involved in the administration of justice such as polie officers and solicitors, the clergy, people with mental ill health and people on bail. 

As a result of CJA, everybody summoned for jury duty except full time members of hte armed forces, those over 65, those that have served jury duty in the last 2 years, MPs and certain members of the medical profession and those with religous beliefs that may be incompatible will be expected to serve as…