Middle class jury dodgers warned

David Blunkett will today demand an end to "the middle class cop out of jury service" where professionals use the excuse of work commitments to avoid hearing trials.

The Home Secretary will use a speech this afternoon to signal his intention to scrap exemptions for professions like lawyers, the clergy, doctors and nurses. His remarks follow Lord Justice Auld's review of the criminal courts, published earlier this month.

They come after a Home Office study which showed that of 50,000 people summoned for jury service during one two-month period, only one-third were available for duty and half of those were allowed to defer until a later date.

Mr Blunkett, speaking at the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, is expected to say: "The jury needs to be representative to be strong. That is why it is vital that it represents as wide a cross-section of society as possible and the middle class cop out of jury service should be eliminated."