Sitting in public and private
- An interim measure tribunal (IMT), or associates tribunal (AT) considering an interim measure, must sit in private unless the PA or AA requests for it to sit in public or the tribunal otherwise considers it’s appropriate to sit in public.
- When deciding whether it is appropriate to sit in public, the tribunal will have regard to:
- the interests of the person raising the concern
- the interests of any patient concerned
- whether a public hearing would be likely to adversely affect the health of the PA or AA, and
- all the circumstances of the case or matter to be determined.
- When revoking an interim measure, an AT may do so sitting in public.
- An AT hearing will be held in public unless:
- the tribunal decides or a case management direction has determined that the public should be excluded from the proceedings or any part of the proceedings because the circumstances of the case outweigh the public interest in holding the hearing in public, or
- the hearing is considering the physical or mental health of the PA or AA.
- When deciding if the public should be excluded because the circumstances of the case outweigh the public interest in holding the hearing in public, the AT will consider and weigh:
- the interests of the person raising the concern
- the interests of any patient concerned
- whether a public hearing would be likely to adversely affect the health of the PA or AA, and
- all of the circumstances of the case or matter to be determined.
- For hearings that would ordinarily take place in public, the parties may apply to the tribunal for some, or all, of the hearing to take place in private. Any such application should be notified to the MPTS Case Management team in advance, and parties will usually be directed to file a skeleton argument ahead of the hearing. This will allow the application to be considered by the tribunal as a preliminary application at the outset of the hearing.