Hearing venue

Subject to ongoing public health guidance, hearings will take place at the Inquiry’s hearing venue at Mint House, 20 West Register St in Edinburgh and will involve a combination of evidence from witnesses in person and remote evidence by video-link. Witness schedules will be published on the Inquiry website the week before the hearing is due to take place.  

In line with the Scottish Government’s easing of COVID restrictions, we are able to permit members of the public to attend these hearings.

Measures are in place in line with Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland guidance to help keep people safe. These measures include the requirement to wear a face covering while in Mint House, unless you are exempt under Scottish Government guidance. Once seated in the Hearing Room, you can remove your face covering if you wish. Seating has been arranged so as to meet physical distancing requirements. This means that the number of seats available is limited. Seating is allocated on a first come, first served basis.

We consider it to be very important that we take all the steps we can to reduce the risks of spreading infection.

All those attending the Hearings venue will be asked to provide their name and telephone number. The information provided will be collected and held solely for the purpose of sharing with the NHS Test and Protect Service, if requested. It will be retained for no longer than 21 days. Please see our Privacy Notice for additional  information on how we process this information - Privacy Notice — Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

For those unable to attend hearings, transcripts of evidence will be published on the Inquiry website at www.childabuseinquiry.scot.

 

Lateral Flow Testing

“From 26 April the Scottish Government have made twice-weekly lateral flow testing available to everyone in Scotland – in order to help identify asymptomatic COVID cases and improve the overall public health response. Tests are available to order online and to collect at COVID test centres (further information on how to access and use these tests is available on the Scottish Government website Regular rapid testing for everyone - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)). These tests provide an additional tool to establish if a person has COVID-19 but is not displaying any symptoms and you may wish to consider before attending hearings.