THE Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has today announced details of the first phase of its hearings, which will begin on Wednesday, May 31 at Rosebery House in Edinburgh.

Hearings will be organised into separate phases.

Phase 1 hearings will commence on Wednesday, May 31.

Thereafter, they will take place on four days each week and are expected to last for about seven weeks.

The second stage of Phase 1 hearings will resume in autumn 2017.

This first phase will hear evidence from: expert witnesses, the Scottish Government, faith based organisations, large care providers and survivor groups.

Their evidence given at hearings will supplement written statements taken from witnesses in advance and documents which have been recovered by the Inquiry team during the course of investigations.

In February, The Reporter told how a former boarding school in Dumbarton was to be included as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into child abuse.

Keil School is one of six boarding schools that will be put under the microscope during the four-year inquiry into possible historical child abuse.

In its heyday Keil School was an independent secondary school with boarding and day classes for around 200 pupils.

It was an all-boys school up until 1978, when it became co-educational.

The Inquiry has also published an application form for ‘leave to appear’ at the oral hearings on its website.

Leave to appear is the process by which people who want to actively participate in hearings request the Chair’s permission to do so.

Participation can include being able to provide questions for the Inquiry Counsel to ask witnesses and/or being able to ask questions of witnesses directly.

The deadline for people who wish to be involved in the first phase of oral hearings to apply for leave to appear is Tuesday, April 18.

Applications must be submitted to the Inquiry via email or post by this date.

Applicants must show that they have a direct or substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the hearings to be given leave to appear.

The Inquiry will continue to take statements from survivors in private sessions and from a range of other witnesses, and is undertaking investigations into a large number of institutions.

All evidence gathered will be carefully considered and decisions will then be made on what evidence is to be presented at a hearing.

The first phase of hearings will take place in Edinburgh at the Inquiry’s hearing venue, situated on the 3rd floor of Rosebery House, 9 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 5EZ.

Details of future phases will be announced in due course.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the oral hearings, however, seating capacity is limited for health and safety reasons.

There is no reserved seating in the public area and it is not necessary to notify the Inquiry of attendance in advance.

The hearings venue will open to the public at 9.30am each day of hearings, ahead of a 10am start.

Further information about public access can be found on the Inquiry’s website.

For those not able to attend oral hearings, a word-for-word transcript will be available at the end of each hearing day through the Inquiry website, www.childabuseinquiry.scot