Update on Portfolio 4 and Portfolio 2 hearings

The Inquiry will now hold its preliminary hearings for Portfolio 4 (education and certification) and Portfolio 2 (business and welfare) on Thursday 19 September 2024 rather than over two days, as was originally envisaged. The preliminary hearings, which will be held at the Inquiry’s premises at Waverley Gate, 2-4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, will begin at 10am and finish in the early afternoon.

The scheduling of impact hearings remains unchanged. On 5 November 2024, the Inquiry will begin its hearings on the impacts relating to the delivery of education and certification. When these hearings have finished, it will then hold hearings on the impacts relating to finance, business and welfare. The Inquiry anticipates the hearings will end by 20 December 2024, subject to scheduling of witnesses.

Both the preliminary hearings and impact hearings will be broadcast on the Inquiry’s YouTube channel.

The Inquiry will publish its summaries of evidence for both portfolios in 2025, which will form a narrative record. To ensure the narrative records are as comprehensive as possible, they will contain a summary of the evidence from witnesses at the Portfolio 4 and Portfolio 2 impact hearings, as well as relevant evidence obtained under Section 21 orders, Rule 8 notices, written witness statements and roundtable discussions. 

The Inquiry will publish a narrative record of its health and social care impact hearings (Portfolio 3) in Spring 2025. This will be followed by narrative records for Portfolio 4 and Portfolio 2.

Core participants with leave to appear at the Portfolio 4 and Portfolio 2 hearings will receive extracts of the respective narrative records and may be invited to comment on them. Such comments will be considered by the Inquiry before the narrative records are finalised and published on the Inquiry website.

The Chair has issued a direction in respect of Opening Statements for the Portfolio 4 and Portfolio 2 hearings. The Chair directs that core participants will not be invited to make opening statements either in written or oral form. The Direction can be found on the Notices section of our website.