Explainers

NHS Jury Service Pay & Leave Explained

FP FrontlinePay Editorial
Updated September 2026

Independent guidance — not affiliated with NHS England or DHSC

Short answer

There's no UK law that requires any employer, including the NHS, to pay your normal salary during jury service — the only guaranteed protections are your right to reasonable time off, and strong legal protection against being dismissed or penalised because you've been summoned. In practice, though, the great majority of NHS trusts do continue full pay during jury service, as a matter of their own special leave policy — a discretionary, locally set arrangement rather than a single guaranteed national contract clause. Where a trust pays you, it will typically ask you to claim the HMCTS loss-of-earnings allowance and hand it over or have it offset against your pay, while you keep travel and subsistence separately. Always confirm your own trust's actual policy rather than assuming either way.

HMCTS daily cap, first 10 days

£64.95

Maximum loss-of-earnings allowance per day of jury service over 4 hours (£32.47 for 4 hours or less), current rate.

HMCTS daily cap, from day 11

£129.91

The cap roughly doubles from the 11th working day of jury service, rising further for exceptionally long trials.

A jury summons landing on your doormat tends to trigger two immediate, practical worries: what happens to your pay, and what happens to your rota. Neither question has a single simple national answer, because — as with NHS bereavement and compassionate leave — the law provides a narrow statutory floor, and most of what actually happens to your pay is governed by your own trust's discretionary special leave policy layered on top of it. This page sets out both halves clearly, so you know what's actually guaranteed and what's a matter of local practice worth confirming for yourself.

Do NHS staff get paid during jury service?

Start with what the law actually guarantees, because it's narrower than most people assume. The Employment Rights Act 1996 gives employees a right to reasonable time off work for certain public duties, including jury service, but it does not require your employer to pay you for that time. Separately, and much more significantly for your job security, section 98B of the same Act makes it automatically unfair to dismiss someone because they've been summoned for, or have served on, a jury — with no minimum length of service needed to bring a claim, unlike most other unfair dismissal protection — and you're also protected from lesser forms of detriment connected to jury service, such as a blocked promotion or a deliberately worse rota.

What isn't covered by that statutory floor is your actual pay while you're out doing jury service. That gap is filled in two possible ways: either your employer chooses, as a matter of its own policy, to keep paying you as normal, or it doesn't, in which case you claim a loss-of-earnings allowance directly from the court instead.

Your employer continues full pay (the NHS norm)

You're paid as normal through payroll. Most NHS trusts then expect you to claim the HMCTS loss-of-earnings allowance yourself and hand it over, or have it offset against your pay — while keeping travel and subsistence separately. This is standard NHS practice, but set locally, not a universal legal requirement.

Your employer doesn't continue pay

You claim loss of earnings directly from HMCTS using the court's certificate, capped at a daily maximum regardless of your actual salary (see below). You keep the full allowance in this scenario, since there's no employer pay to offset it against.

How the HMCTS loss-of-earnings allowance actually works

His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) pays jurors a loss-of-earnings allowance intended to cover income lost through attending jury service, but it's a capped allowance, not a guaranteed like-for-like replacement of your actual salary. You receive whichever is lower: your actual, evidenced loss of earnings, or the applicable daily cap. Current rates are:

  • • Days 1–10: up to £64.95 a day for attendance of more than 4 hours, or £32.47 for 4 hours or less.
  • • Day 11 onward: the caps roughly double, to up to £129.91 and £64.95 respectively.
  • • Exceptionally long trials (over 200 days): the caps rise further, to up to £228.06 and £114.03.
  • • Travel and subsistence are claimed and paid separately from the loss-of-earnings allowance, and aren't affected by whether your employer continues your salary.

ℹCheck current rates before relying on an exact figure

HMCTS reviews these allowance rates periodically, so treat the figures above as the position at the time of writing rather than a permanently fixed number. The court will provide the relevant claim form (a certificate of loss of earnings) when you attend, and the current rates are published on gov.uk.

What NHS employers typically do in practice

This is where NHS-specific practice actually matters, because the statutory position above applies to every UK employer equally, but what NHS trusts generally choose to do goes further. Jury service is commonly treated under a trust's special leave (sometimes called "leave for civic and public duties") policy, alongside things like attending as a magistrate or certain other public duties. Under this kind of policy, the near-universal NHS pattern is:

1

You notify your manager and HR as soon as you receive a summons

Not the week before — as early as possible, so cover can be arranged and, if genuinely needed, a deferral request can be made to the court in good time.

2

Your trust confirms paid special leave under its policy

Most trusts continue your normal pay for the duration of jury service, rather than treating it as unpaid leave or requiring you to use annual leave.

3

You attend court and obtain a certificate of loss of earnings

The court provides a form (sometimes called a 5223 certificate) for your employer to complete, setting out your normal earnings for the period you attended.

4

You claim the HMCTS allowance and pass it to your trust, or it's offset

Because your employer has already paid you in full, most trust policies require you to claim the HMCTS loss-of-earnings allowance yourself and either hand over what you receive or have it deducted from what you'd otherwise be paid — you're not usually entitled to be paid twice for the same period. Travel and subsistence allowances are typically yours to keep regardless.

5

You return to your normal rota

Once jury service ends, you resume your normal working pattern — see below for what happens if it runs on for an extended period first.

⚠This is genuinely trust-specific — always check your own policy

Continued full pay during jury service is extremely common NHS practice, but it is set by each trust's own local special leave policy, not written into a single guaranteed national NHS Terms and Conditions clause the way, say, statutory annual leave is. Confirm your own trust's specific policy — including whether you're expected to reclaim and hand over the HMCTS allowance — with HR before you attend, rather than assuming full pay continues automatically.

If jury service runs longer than expected

Most jury service is expected to last around 10 working days, and the daily HMCTS caps described above are specifically structured to increase from day 11 onward, reflecting the reality that some trials run well beyond the standard period. If you've been selected for a case expected to run long, you'll generally be told in advance, giving you and your manager more lead time to plan cover. Importantly, once a trial has actually started, a juror generally can't simply withdraw partway through because it's become inconvenient — the court's process, not your employer's rota needs, determines how long your service actually runs. If an extended period of jury service is causing serious financial difficulty (for example, if your trust doesn't continue full pay and the HMCTS cap falls well short of your actual earnings) or serious rostering difficulty, raise it directly with your manager, HR, and — if you're a union member — your representative, rather than assuming nothing can be done once you're already sitting on a jury.

Interactions with shift patterns and rotas

Jury service doesn't fit neatly around NHS shift patterns, and it's realistic to expect it to remove you from your normal rota entirely for its duration rather than being something you can schedule around evenings or days off, since court sitting times are fixed and can vary day to day once you're empanelled. Tell your rota coordinator or manager as soon as you receive a summons — the earlier a gap is known about, the easier it is to arrange cover, particularly on rotas with statutory minimum staffing levels or clinical safety implications. If you're a resident doctor or another trainee on a rotational training post, notify your postgraduate dean or training programme director too: absences beyond a certain threshold (commonly cited as around 14 days within a rolling 12-month period) can trigger a training progression review, entirely separate from anything to do with pay.

What to actually do when you get a jury summons

  • ✓ Tell your manager and HR as soon as you receive the summons, not close to the attendance date.
  • ✓ Ask HR specifically for your trust's special leave or civic duties policy, and confirm in writing whether full pay will continue.
  • ✓ If a genuine, serious scheduling conflict exists, ask your manager to support a deferral request to the court as early as possible — the court decides this, not your employer.
  • ✓ Keep the certificate of loss of earnings (form 5223) the court gives you, and check with your trust whether you need to claim the HMCTS allowance and hand it over, or whether you keep it because your employer isn't continuing your pay.
  • ✓ If you're a doctor or other trainee on a rotational post, separately notify your postgraduate dean or training programme director.
  • ✓ If jury service runs on longer than expected, or you experience any negative treatment at work connected to it, raise it with your union representative promptly.

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✓Why you can rely on this page

  • ✓ Grounded in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (including the specific section 98B protection against dismissal for jury service) and current HMCTS loss-of-earnings allowance rates, not general assumption.
  • ✓ Clearly separates the narrow statutory floor (unpaid time off, strong dismissal protection) from the much more generous, but genuinely discretionary, NHS norm of continuing full pay under local special leave policy.
  • ✓ States the current HMCTS daily caps with the day-11 and 200-day thresholds, while flagging that these rates are reviewed periodically and should be checked on gov.uk before relying on an exact figure.
  • ✓ Written to flag the specific, separate notification needed for doctors and other trainees on rotational posts, rather than treating every NHS role identically.
  • ✓ Reviewed as HMCTS allowance rates and NHS special leave practice change, last checked September 2026.

Related guides

NHS Bereavement Leave Explained

The same statutory-floor-plus-discretionary-trust-policy pattern, for a different kind of special leave.

NHS Working Time Regulations

Your legal minimums on hours and rest — useful background on how statutory employment rights and NHS-specific policy interact.

NHS Rotation Patterns Explained

How different shift patterns work — relevant to understanding why jury service disrupts a rota the way it does.

NHS Staff Representation Explained

Who to contact if a jury service absence isn't being handled fairly.

Agenda for Change Explained

The wider pay and terms framework NHS special leave policies sit alongside.

Frequently asked questions

Am I legally entitled to be paid by my NHS employer while doing jury service? +
No — and this genuinely surprises people, because in practice most NHS staff are paid, just not because the law strictly requires it. UK law (the Employment Rights Act 1996) gives you a right to reasonable paid time off for certain public duties, but jury service specifically isn't guaranteed pay from your employer under that right — what the law firmly does guarantee is that your employer must let you attend, and that dismissing you or penalising you because of jury service is automatically unfair, with no minimum length of service needed to claim. Whether your salary continues during your actual jury service is a matter of your employer's own policy, not a separate standalone legal entitlement.
So does my NHS trust actually pay me, or do I need to claim from the court? +
In practice, the great majority of NHS trusts continue your normal pay through their own special leave (or 'leave for civic duties') policy, treating jury service similarly to how they treat other forms of paid public-duty leave. Where a trust does this, it commonly then asks you to claim the loss-of-earnings allowance from HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) yourself, using the certificate the court provides, and either hand that amount over to the trust or have it offset against your pay — while you keep any separate travel and subsistence allowance HMCTS pays. This is standard, common NHS practice, but it is set by each trust's own local special leave policy rather than being written into a single, universal national contract clause, so always check your own trust's actual policy rather than assuming full pay continues automatically.
If my trust doesn't continue my full pay, how much can I actually claim from HMCTS? +
HMCTS pays a loss-of-earnings allowance that is capped daily, not a full replacement of your actual salary if you earn above the cap. For the first 10 working days of jury service, the maximum is currently £64.95 a day for attendance of more than four hours (or £32.47 for four hours or less). From day 11 onward, the caps roughly double to £129.91 and £64.95 respectively, rising again for exceptionally long trials running beyond 200 days. You're paid the lower of your actual evidenced loss of earnings or the applicable cap — so a relatively high earner with no employer pay continuing during jury service can be significantly out of pocket. These rates are reviewed periodically, so check the current figures on gov.uk before relying on an exact number.
Can my manager refuse to let me go, or ask me to defer it? +
Your manager cannot simply refuse to release you — the right to attend jury service when summoned is a genuine legal obligation on you as a citizen, and penalising or pressuring you not to attend risks a serious legal problem for the trust. What can happen is that if your absence would have a serious effect on patient safety or service delivery, your manager can support you in applying to the court for a deferral to a more convenient date (deferral is decided by the court, not unilaterally by your employer) — but this has to be a genuine, well-evidenced request, and simply being short-staffed on a specific date isn't automatically sufficient. Raise a genuine scheduling conflict with your manager as early as possible after receiving your summons, so there's time to either arrange cover or submit a deferral request to the court before your attendance date.
What happens if jury service runs on much longer than expected — a long trial, for example? +
Standard jury service in England and Wales is usually expected to last around 10 working days, but a small proportion of cases — serious or complex trials — can run for weeks or, rarely, months, and you'll usually be told in advance if you've been selected for a case expected to run long. Your employer's obligation to release you continues for the duration of a trial you've already started, since a juror generally can't simply walk away partway through, and the HMCTS loss-of-earnings caps increase for service beyond the first 10 days specifically because of this. If a long trial is genuinely causing serious difficulty — financially or for patient safety cover — raise it with your manager and, if you're a union member, your representative, rather than assuming nothing can be done once you're empanelled.
How does jury service interact with my shift pattern or rota? +
In practice, being summoned for jury service effectively takes you off your normal rota for its duration, and your team needs to plan cover accordingly — jury service isn't something you can typically fit around night shifts or an on-call rota, since court sitting hours are fixed and unpredictable day to day. Tell your rota coordinator or manager as soon as you receive a summons, not just close to the date, since replanning a rota — particularly for roles with statutory minimum staffing levels — takes lead time. If you're a resident doctor or other trainee on a rotational post, you'll also generally need to notify your postgraduate dean or training programme director, since absences beyond a certain threshold (commonly around 14 days in a rolling 12-month period) can trigger a training review, independent of anything to do with pay.
Does jury service count against my annual leave, or do I need to book it separately? +
No — properly handled, jury service should be treated as its own category of special leave, entirely separate from your annual leave entitlement, not something you have to use holiday to cover. If a manager suggests you should book annual leave to attend jury service instead of using special leave, that's worth querying directly against your trust's actual special leave policy, since it isn't standard or fair practice, and your union representative can help if it isn't resolved through a straightforward conversation.
Can I be dismissed or treated badly at work because of jury service? +
No — and the legal protection here is genuinely strong. Dismissing someone because they've been summoned for, or have served on, a jury is automatically unfair dismissal under section 98B of the Employment Rights Act 1996, with no minimum length of service required to bring a claim, unlike most ordinary unfair dismissal protection. You're also protected from any lesser detriment connected to jury service — for example, being denied a bonus, blocked from a promotion, or given a worse shift pattern specifically because you attended. If you believe you've been treated badly at work because of jury service, that's a serious matter worth raising with your union representative promptly.
Does this work differently for bank or agency staff compared with substantively employed NHS staff? +
The core legal protections against dismissal and detriment for jury service apply regardless of your employment status, but the practical, discretionary side — whether you continue to be paid during jury service itself — is far less certain for bank, agency, or casual staff, since continued pay during jury service in the NHS is generally a feature of a substantive employer's special leave policy rather than a universal right. If you're on a bank or agency contract and called for jury service, check your specific engagement's terms, and don't assume the same treatment as a directly, substantively employed colleague on the same ward applies to you automatically.

This page is general information about how jury service pay and leave typically work for NHS staff, as FrontlinePay understands the Employment Rights Act 1996, current HMCTS guidance, and common NHS trust special leave practice, correct to the best of our knowledge as of September 2026. Continued pay during jury service is set by local trust policy and genuinely varies. This is not legal or HR advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for your own trust's special leave policy, HMCTS guidance, or advice from your trade union about your specific situation. FrontlinePay is an independent site and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, HMCTS, any NHS trust, or NHS England.

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