This regulation applies to any oral hearing to which these Regulations apply.

Reasonable notice (being not less than 10 days beginning with the day on which notice is given and ending on the day before the hearing of the case is to take place) of the time and place of any oral hearing before a Commissioner shall be given to the parties by the office of the Child Support Commissioners.

If any party to whom notice of an oral hearing has been given in accordance with these Regulations should fail to appear at the hearing, the Commissioner may, having regard to all the circumstances including any explanation offered for the absence, proceed with the case notwithstanding that party’s absence, or may give such directions with a view to the determination of the case as he thinks fit.

Any oral hearing before a Commissioner shall be in public except where the Commissioner for special reasons directs otherwise, in which case the hearing or any part thereof shall be in private.

Where a Commissioner holds an oral hearing the applicant or appellant and every respondent shall be entitled to be present and be heard.

Nothing in these Regulations shall prevent a member of the Council on Tribunals or of the Scottish Committee of the Council in his capacity as such from being present at an oral hearing before a Commissioner notwithstanding that the hearing is not in public.