The ICAS membership approved a Rule change in October 2009 which permitted the Discipline Tribunal to hold all disciplinary hearings in public.
Discipline Tribunal website
The Institute has been awaiting Privy Council approval for the Rule change and this was granted at the end of October 2010.
This means that all future hearings before the Discipline Tribunal will be held as open hearings and the public and press will be able to attend and listen to the proceedings.However, both the member who is subject to a hearing and the Institute will be able to apply to the Tribunal requesting that the public and press be excluded from the hearing, or part of it, in circumstances permitted under Article 6 of the Convention on Human Rights.
This would include situations where the member’s health or wellbeing was being discussed or there was a risk that confidential client information might be released. The first open hearings before the Tribunal are likely to take place in January next year.
The Institute is developing a Discipline Tribunal website which will provide information for both members who are the subject of a complaint and for members of the public who might be called as witnesses.The website will also contain details of when and where the Tribunal will be sitting.
However in advance of a hearing, the Institute will not publish the names of members appearing before the Tribunal or the details of the charges against them.The Discipline Tribunal’s decisions will be published on the website, along with an Annual Report from the Tribunal.