Hearings

Hearings

Find details on previous, scheduled and future hearings, along with associated transcripts and hearing bundle indices.

Written opening and closing statements and associated materials can also be found on this page.

  • For information on the evidence disclosure process, please see the ‘Evidence’ page.
  • For a list of all evidence published by the Inquiry to date, please see the ‘Published evidence’ page.

SECTIONS

About
List
Transcripts
Indices
Openings & closings
Venues
Schedule

About opening statements and evidence hearings

The Inquiry will consider the undercover policing activities of officers and managers and those affected by deployments in Tranches ordered chronologically.

Previous hearings

The Inquiry split hearings for Tranche 1 into three phases. The Inquiry’s opening statement hearings and Tranche 1 (Phase 1) evidence hearings took place from Monday 2 November 2020 to Thursday 19 November 2020.  In the Tranche 1 (Phase 1) evidence hearings, the Inquiry heard from undercover officers and non-state witnesses about the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) – which was initially called the Special Operations Squad – between July 1968 and the end of 1972 approximately. Further information can be found in the ‘November 2020: hearings round-up’ article.

The Tranche 1 (Phase 2) hearings took place from 21 April to 13 May 2021. In this phase, the Inquiry heard evidence from undercover officers and non-state witnesses about SDS undercover policing operations that started between 1970 and 1979. Further information can be found in the ‘April-May 2021: hearings round-up‘ article.

The Tranche 1 (Phase 3) hearings took place from 9 May to 20 May 2022. In this phase, the Inquiry primarily heard from SDS managers (1968-1982). Further information can be found in the ‘May 2022: hearings round-up’ article.

The Tranche 1 oral closing submissions took place from 20 February to 22 February 2023. Further information on the submissions on each day can be found in the Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 pages.

Recordings, transcripts and other associated publications can be found on the respective hearing day pages. Links to each of these pages can be found in the ‘List of hearings’ section below.

The Inquiry published an interim report for Tranche 1 on 29 June 2023.

Planned and future hearings

The Inquiry intends to start its Tranche 2 evidence hearings from 1 July 2024. The Inquiry is not expecting to have the long gaps between hearings that have been necessary for Tranche 1.

Dates for future tranches will be announced in due course.

Schedule

In the normal course of events, a witness called to give evidence at open hearings will be expected to provide their evidence in public, in full view of those attending.

However, witnesses can request special measures to protect restricted identities or information, of because of their health or location. Special measures could include counselling, a hearing loop or giving evidence via a video-link.

On 7 April 2020, the Chairman issued a statement (PDF, 50.94 KB) in response to special measures applications invited from former undercover officers who will give evidence in Tranche 1, which covers those active in the Special Demonstration Squad between 1968 and 1982. Further background can be found in the accompanying press notice.

List of hearings

All previous and scheduled hearings are listed in the table below. Click on the title of a hearing to find further details, the schedule and associated publications.

After you select a filter option, the table below will automatically update.

Filters

Transcripts

Hearing bundle indices

Following the end of each evidence hearing day, the Inquiry publishes a hearing bundle index containing a list of all evidential materials that are associated with the day’s witnesses and have been published on the Inquiry website. These indices are organised by witness. As multiple witnesses may be associated with a single document, some documents may be included in multiple lists and indices.

Additionally, the Inquiry provides indices for general evidential documents that are published during opening statement hearings. These indices are organised under categories such as “SDS Annual Reports and Associated Documents”.

Hearing bundles indices for preliminary hearings are also available in the table below.

Opening and closing statements

Written opening and closing statements and associated materials that the Inquiry has published can be found in the table below.

Buildings

Venues

The venue for future open hearings that are able to happen in-person will be confirmed in due course.

Read more about the hearing arrangements in the Inquiry’s hearings protocol (PDF, 157 KB) (published December 2019).

Buildings

To date, all open preliminary hearings have been held at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Those attending any preliminary hearings at the Royal Courts of Justice should note that security checks are conducted and the following restrictions currently apply:

  • Camera and recording equipment are strictly prohibited and should not be brought into the Royal Courts of Justice.
  • Mobile phones and Blackberry devices must be switched off or switched to ‘silent’.
  • Telephone calls are not permitted in the hearing rooms when the Inquiry is in session. Telephone calls may be made in the hearing rooms during breaks in proceedings but must conclude before the hearing resumes. To make calls during the hearing attendees must leave the hearing room.
  • Text-based media is allowed in the Inquiry hearing rooms and public areas of the Royal Courts of Justice. However, they must not cause a disturbance or distraction to proceedings and are subject to the Chairman’s right to remove that privilege if he believes it is harming the administration of justice; further, by order (PDF, 650.61 KB) , no transmission of any statement made during the course of a hearing may be made until a period of 60 seconds has elapsed after the statement is made.
  • Laptops may be used in the Inquiry hearing rooms and public areas if they do not disturb others but they may not be used to make live recordings of proceedings. Laptops must be battery-powered as power sockets are not available.
  • Personal entertainment devices such as MP3 players and iPods may not be used in either hearing room when the Inquiry hearing is in session.
  • The Inquiry Secretariat reserves the right to eject (and if necessary to review the accreditation of) individuals who fail to comply with these conditions.
  • Parking is not available within the Royal Courts of Justice and parking outside the court is extremely limited.