Citizen's Jury

Citizen's Juries are a decision-making or decision-advising tool modelled on the idea of a criminal jury. They are used to involve members of the public in a structured way about an issue of local or national concern and can be used to make or inform decisions about strategic planning or service prioritisation.

Advantages

High profile example of public involvement and can be used to generate wider public debate about an issue.
Gives decision-makers an idea about what informed members of the public might regard as realistic solutions

Disadvantages

Citizen’s Juries can be an expensive process - particularly if you need to are pay full expenses including lost wages
They only involve a small number of people
Can be difficult to 'reject' the Jury's recommendations

When to use

When you have a live contentious issue
When you have a range of options that you need to 'test' with a wider audience.

The jury consists of 12-16 members of the public who participate as jury members. They hear evidence over a few days about proposals and make a judgement based on the evidence given. The format might be:

Day 1 General information about the issue

Day 2 and 3 expert presentations (witnesses) on different approaches to the issue.

Day 4 Jury deliberates about its recommendations.

There has been a resurgence in interest in using citizen's juries since Gordon Brown took power but there are concerns about their inappropriate use as this recent article from the Observer details.