Hearings mean that witnesses can give evidence orally, as well as in a written form. They are an important part of the inquisitorial process, so the Chair can establish as complete an understanding of the facts as possible.
All hearings will be open to the public and media unless a Restriction Order is in place or a commemorative impact account is being delivered and the witness has asked for it to remain private. Private sessions do not diminish the importance of the evidence being provided nor do they undermine the Inquiry’s commitment to transparency. They reflect the Inquiry’s commitment to conducting this process with fairness, sensitivity, and care for all those engaging with the Inquiry.
More information on Restrictions Orders can be found here.
Not everyone who provides a witness statement to the Inquiry will need to then attend hearings to give evidence in person.
Those who are called will be told in good time, and support will be available to anyone attending at the Inquiry’s request.
The Inquiry held its first public hearings from 9 September 2024, with further public hearings in November 2024. Those hearings included opening statements to the Inquiry and impact evidence where the Chair heard from people directly affected by the issues under investigation.
The Inquiry’s next public hearings will take place from 28 April to 15 May 2025. The hearings will be held in public in London and will be live streamed. It will therefore be possible to watch the hearings either in person or remotely. Further details can be found here.
The Inquiry’s hearings for 2025 and 2026 will be held at Arundel House, near Temple Underground Station in London.
It will not be necessary to attend hearings to view what is taking place. Hearings will be filmed and a live feed will be available for those wishing to follow proceedings. A secure link will also be made available to core participants and their legal representatives.
Yes. Unless specified, all hearings will be open to the public to attend. Depending on their location, the Inquiry may require prior registration for reasons of capacity.
The Inquiry is committed to treating people fairly and will make reasonable adjustments where necessary.
If you have been asked to attend a hearing by the Inquiry, please do let us know if you have any disabilities or additional needs. This could be a physical or mental health issue, a learning disability or neurodiversity or another condition that may prevent you from participating fully. We will work with you as best we can to ensure that reasonable adjustments are made.
A reasonable adjustment is any action that helps to reduce the effect of a disability or difficulty that places an individual, in this instance who is engaging with the Inquiry, at a substantial disadvantage. Examples include providing information in a different format, or the use of regular breaks. These can be agreed in consultation with the Inquiry team.
Special measures are linked to the way in which a witness will give evidence at a hearing and will usually require a formal application to be made. Examples of Special Measures may be that a witness provides evidence behind a screen, or via video-link.
More information on how to make an application for special measures can be found here.
The Inquiry will create a collection of witness statements and documents which are relevant to the April hearings. These will be made available to Core Participants and their legal representatives at least 4 weeks before the start of the hearing.
Once a document has been mentioned by someone within the public hearings, it will be published on the Inquiry website.
The April hearings will focus on the systemic issues which led to the establishment of the Inquiry. Evidence will be sought from several organisations, including healthcare providers, such as EPUT.
The Inquiry will not hear from bereaved families or those with lived experience within the April hearings. Further details as to the receipt of that evidence will be published in the near future.
The Inquiry will be approaching organisations for evidence for the April hearing, including healthcare providers, such as EPUT.
Details of the individuals and organisations who have been asked to given evidence in April will be included within the collection of witness statements and documents circulated to Core Participants and their legal representatives before the hearing.
In order to maintain its independence, the Inquiry does not intend to ask anyone to provide formal written submissions on which individuals or organisations they think the Inquiry should seek evidence from.
However, if any Core Participant or legal representative wishes to share their views as to which individuals/organisations you consider may be appropriate to approach for a Rule 9 request for evidence (alternatively whether there are any key areas or topics which you consider relevant for Rule9s) please contact the Inquiry in order that we can discuss this further.
For further details on Rule 9 evidence requests, please see here.
Statutory inquiries have a process around questions which may be asked of a witness at a hearing.
Usually, only Counsel to the Inquiry or the Chair will ask a witness questions.
However, it is possible for the legal representatives of Core Participants and witnesses to request certain questions are asked, under Rule 10 of the Inquiry Rules.
Rule 10 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 allows the legal representative of a Core Participant or a witness to ask the Chair if a witness at hearing can be questioned on particular matters which they feel is important.
The Inquiry will publish a protocol on Rule 10 at least four weeks before each hearing.
The Inquiry intends to publish online seminars on the background details about the mental health landscape over the period that the Inquiry is investigating.
These seminars will take the form of presentations, with a speaker providing information about key topics, accompanied by slides or other infographics.
The seminars will be available through the Inquiry website and can be watched at any time, once they have been made available.
The Inquiry plans to publish seminars relating to the wider mental health landscape in advance of the April hearings. These will be available to view on the Inquiry website. We will update our website as soon as we have a date for these to be shared, but these are expected no later than 2 weeks before the hearings.
