Selection of juries

Section 8 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 should be amended. Attempts should be made to improve the representative nature of juries. The operation of disqualification procedures should be tightened and extended to those on bail. The ethnic mix of a jury should be open to adjustment. In complex fraud trials, judges should be permitted to explain the matters involved at the outset of the trial. Magistrates should have the final say in where offences triable ‘either way’ are heard.