# The Supreme Court Rules 2024, Rule 30: Hearing in open court


(1) Every contested appeal shall be heard in open court except where it is necessary in the interests of justice or in the public interest to sit in private for all or part of an appeal hearing.
(2) Where the Court considers it necessary for a party and that party’s representative to be excluded from a hearing or part of a hearing in order to secure that information is not disclosed contrary to the public interest, the Court must conduct the hearing, or that part of it from which the party and the representative are excluded, in private but the Court may exclude a party and any representative only if a person who has been appointed as a special advocate to represent the interests of that party is present when the party and the representative are excluded.
(3) Where the Court decides it is necessary for the Court to sit in private, it shall announce its reasons for so doing publicly before the hearing begins.
(4) Hearings shall be conducted in accordance with—
(a) the relevant practice direction; and
(b) any directions given by the Court and directions given by the Court may limit oral submissions to a specified duration.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/949/rule/30 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/supreme-court-rules-2024/rule-30
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.