A hearing is when the Inquiry Chair and the legal representatives of the core participants come together to make submissions on a particular point or when evidence is heard.
Hearings are judicial proceedings, and can last between just part of a day to weeks.
In a public inquiry, there are several types of hearings:
- Opening / Closing Statements
- Procedural (or Preliminary)
- Evidential
Sometimes these can be next to each other. For instance, at the start or end of evidential hearings there are often hearings for the presentation of opening or closing statements.
Hearings may be open to the public or closed, according to the Inquiry Chair’s decisions. In the Undercover Policing Inquiry, closed hearings have been usually reserved for former police officers who have anonymity over both their real and cover identities. Neither the public nor the non-state core participants are told when or where the closed hearings are taking place. Generally they are only learned of when transcripts and/or gists of their evidence are sometimes released).
The rules governing hearings are set down by the Inquiry Chair. Usually, they defer to common practice (often encoded in what is known as the Civil Procedure Rules), though the Chair has the power to deviate from that if necessary. For instance, in the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI), the Inquiry Chair explored aspects under the Conduct of Evidence Hearings topic and made various rulings in relation to that as well as drawn up a variety of protocols.