NHS AI tools could be repurposed to support jurors, committee told

Artificial intelligence software already being used by the NHS could be repurposed to help provide support for jurors, Her Honour Judge Kaly Kaul KC has told peers.

The judge, who made it clear to the House of Lords that she was appearing on behalf of the GMB’s judicial branch, gave evidence to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee’s ongoing inquiry into support for jurors.

She said: ‘I think we should use more of AI. I think we should repurpose the NHS self-help AI tools, repurpose them for juries, make them secure, have a juror page which they can enter using a juror number, because every juror has a number.

‘Start with AI telling them a little bit about jury service then after the case that would be the beginning place for them to start accessing support, then there might be a helpline and there might be counselling as well for those who need it. I think we could do a lot more than we are doing and it would not necessarily cost that much to do it.’

Questioned by Baroness Bertin who said something like that may mean ‘it would not be random, you may get the wrong people going to the wrong trials for the wrong reasons’, Kaul was firm.

She said: ‘It does not really work like that. On the whole, if I have given a warning 10 times in 10 trials, only one person in 10 will come and say to me, “I do not think I should do this trial, something happened to me in my childhood, I do not think I should do it”.’

Asked about her own practice in giving a warning to potential jurors if a case is likely to be distressing or include distressing imagery, Kaul said best practice was shared. Part of the Judicial College’s access to justice course was about ‘dealing with jurors, dealing with emotional jurors, how much they are paid, how much money they are losing if they are self-employed, being sensitive to their needs, being aware of their needs’.

Lord Empey asked Kaul about jurors being prevented from discussing their deliberations and if a therapeutic or research exemption should be imposed on the current blanket ban.

Kaul told committee members that ‘best’ research ‘can only be done’ if jurors are able to talk about deliberations so that findings can then be used to ‘teach us how to improve…or let us know what the problems are that we can deal with’. Discussing aspects of deliberations for therapeutic reasons is ‘something which a number of judges have raised, and members of staff’.

‘They think this automatic bar of being able to discuss something that happened in deliberations should not be there if the person who is giving the counselling is properly accredited, properly trained and understands the sensitivity and security,’ she added.

Kama Melly KC, vice-chair of the Criminal Bar Association, who also gave evidence alongside Philip Stott, co-chair of the Bar Council's  legal services committee, said jurors are told to contact their GP or the Samaritans if they need further support. ‘I think it is that really that [that] perhaps needs some further consideration of some more specialist services rather than the generic Samaritan phoneline,’ she added.