Rule 33: the Tribunal Procedure (First-tierTribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013/1169: Public and private hearings

(1) Subject to the following paragraphs, all hearings must be held in public.

(2) The Tribunal may give a direction that a hearing, or part of it, is to be held in private.

(3) Where a hearing, or part of it, is to be held in private, the Tribunal may determine who is permitted to attend the hearing or part of it.

(4) The Tribunal may admit persons to a hearing under paragraph (3) on such terms and conditions as it considers appropriate.

(5) The Tribunal may give a direction excluding from any hearing, or part of it—

(a) any person whose conduct the Tribunal considers is disrupting or is likely to disrupt the hearing;

(b) any person whose presence the Tribunal considers is likely to prevent another person from giving evidence or making submissions freely;

(c) any person who the Tribunal considers should be excluded in order to give effect to the requirement at rule 17(8) (prevention of disclosure or publication of documents and information); or

(d) any person where the purpose of the hearing would be defeated by the attendance of that person.

(6) The Tribunal may give a direction excluding a witness from a hearing until that witness gives evidence.

“In the determination of his civil rights and obligation … everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. Judgment shall be pronounced publicly but the press and public may be excluded from all or part of the trial in the interest of morals, public order or national security in a democratic society, where the interests of juveniles or the protection of the private life of the parties so require, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice.”

So reads article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and in accordance with that article, hearings in the Tribunal are presumed to be in public, unless the circumstances prohibit.

Perhaps the subrule most of us are most likely to invite the Tribunal to exercise is the final one: the power to exclude a witness from a hearing until that witness gives evidence, in order to ensure that the evidence of the witness-in-waiting is not influenced by the evidence by witnesses preceding him or her.