The Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (Fitness to Practise and Disqualification) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012

Attendance of the public at hearings

41.—(1) Except as provided for in this regulation, hearings of the Statutory Committee must be held in public.

(2) Any hearing before the Statutory Committee relating to a health allegation, or an interim order hearing before the Statutory Committee, must be held in private, unless the Statutory Committee is satisfied—

(a) having given the parties (where present), and any third party from whom the Statutory Committee considers it appropriate to hear, an opportunity to make representations; and

(b) in the case of the hearing relating to a health allegation, having obtained the advice of the legal and clinical advisers,

that the public interest in holding the hearing in public outweighs the interest of the registered person concerned or the third party in maintaining their privacy.

(3) A hearing before the Statutory Committee other than a hearing referred to in paragraph (2) may be held wholly or partly in private if the Statutory Committee—

(a) has given the parties (where present), and any third party from whom the Statutory Committee considers it appropriate to hear, an opportunity to make representations; and

(b) is satisfied that the interest of the person concerned or the third party in maintaining their privacy outweighs the public interest in holding the hearing, or the part of the hearing, in public.

(4) The Statutory Committee may exclude from the whole or part of any hearing any person whose conduct, in its opinion, has disrupted or is likely to disrupt the proceedings.