Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department will make an assessment on the potential to utilise the Government's Tell Us Once service to avoid the unnecessary issuing of jury notices to the recently deceased.

The jury summoning process has for decades relied on electoral registration data, provided to us by local authorities. This information is received on an annual basis, which means there can be (and are) instances where a death has occurred but has not yet been reflected in the data relied on for jury summoning. We recognise the distress this can cause to bereaved families and are exploring how this issue can be further addressed.

While there are currently no immediate or specific plans to use the Tell Us Once service for jury summoning purposes, we are considering a range of opportunities to improve the quality and timeliness of data used in the jury summoning process, including to reduce the likelihood of summonses being issued to deceased individuals.