Social research services

Tender description

The Scottish Government has appointed a Service Provider to undertake jury research. In the Programme for Government, the Scottish Government stated that we would commission ‘jury research to consider the dynamics of decision-making by juries, including the current jury majority and 3 verdict system, helping to inform future proposals for the reform of the criminal justice system’. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice has decided that the research should focus on the recommendations made by Lord Bonomy in his Post-corroboration Safeguards Report with 2 additional topics. The proposed research methodology will be a mixed-method approach using case simulation and literature review(s). The research will not involve actual or live criminal court cases and as such will not observe real jurors currently sitting on actual cases or ask questions of jurors about their past experience(s) of jury duty.