Frequently asked questions

A public inquiry is a process which is set up by government (in this case the Scottish Government) to investigate specified matters of public concern. Though set up by government, public inquiries are independent of government. They are overseen by a Chair, often a judge (as in this Inquiry) or former judge who ultimately writes a report, setting out the findings of the inquiry. 

Scottish public inquiries like this one are established under and run according to the Inquiries Act 2005 and Inquiries (Scotland) Rules 2007.

This Inquiry will investigate matters related to the actions of neurosurgeon Mr Eljamel, who worked for NHS Tayside between 1995 and 2014. It was set up to investigate these matters due to significant concerns about harm caused to some of his patients, dissatisfaction with investigations undertaken into why that harm occurred and the possibility that more could have been done to prevent it.

Court proceedings seek to resolve legal questions between opposing parties and are adversarial in nature. Public inquiries look into the matters listed in their Terms of Reference in the public interest and are inquisitorial. Public inquiries investigate what happened and some public inquiries like this one can make recommendations about what should be done to prevent similar events taking place in the future.

The law does not allow public inquiries to make findings of criminal or civil liability, though a public inquiry can make findings from which breaches of the criminal or civil law could be inferred. Public inquiries like this one cannot award compensation. The responsibility for that lies with courts or tribunals.

An inquiry's Terms of Reference are very important. They set out what an inquiry will investigate. An inquiry cannot make findings about any matters which are not in its Terms of Reference. The Terms of Reference for this Inquiry were set by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care who announced them in the Scottish Parliament on 25 February 2025. They were fixed by the Cabinet Secretary following a public consultation exercise undertaken by the Chair of the Inquiry. They are published on this website and can be found here.

The Inquiry was announced on 7th September 2023 by the then Health Secretary Michael Matheson. That initiated the process of setting up the Inquiry, which included the appointment of the Chair, Lord Weir, in February 2024, and the recruitment of key members of staff to run the Inquiry. The Inquiry began its investigative work when it was formally launched on 3rd April 2025. We will fulfil our Terms of Reference and publish a report or reports as soon as possible. Before then we will gather and examine evidence, hold public hearings and draft a report or reports which may include recommendations for the future. At the time of the set-up of the Inquiry it is not possible to say how long the Inquiry will take but the Chair is committed to working at pace to fulfil the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference.

We plan to begin public hearings in 2025. Updates on when these hearings will take place will be published on the Inquiry’s website as soon as this information becomes available. The public hearings will take place in central Edinburgh. We will live stream public hearings on the internet so that anyone with an interest in our work can follow them wherever they are.

We are adopting a trauma-informed approach. We will consider very carefully and put in place systems to support witnesses to avoid trauma and distress.

Members of the public will be able to apply to attend public hearings in-person. Full details of how to do this will be published on this website.

Where an individual, group or organisation has a significant interest in the subject-matter, work or outcome of the Inquiry, the Chair may designate them as a Core Participant.  The process and criteria for core participant designation are set out in the Inquiry’s Core Participant Protocol. How we intend to involve core participants in the work of the Inquiry is also set out in the Protocol.

Subject to the possibility of some Core Participants being granted anonymity by the Chair of the Inquiry, a list of Core Participants will be added to this website after they have been designated.

Regular updates on the Inquiry's progress will be published on this website. Public hearings will be live streamed and the recordings of those hearings will be added to the Inquiry’s Youtube channel which you will be able to access from this website.

We will provide updates on the cost of the Inquiry every three months on this website. 

No. Public inquiries like this one do not come under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

The Independent Clinical Review (“ICR”), led by Professor Stephen Wigmore will work alongside and co-operate with the Inquiry. The ICR will allow former patients of Mr Eljamel (or their relative/ representative) to have a personalised review of the relevant former patient’s case undertaken by an independent expert neurosurgeon. The Inquiry will seek to rely on the clinical findings of the ICR contained in these expert reviews. Evidence of what happened in individual cases and what went wrong is important material for the Inquiry to consider.  The Inquiry and the ICR will agree a Memorandum of Understanding setting out how the two processes will work together. This will be published on this website in due course.

Details of how to contact the Inquiry are set out in the “Contact” section of this website. If you consider that you would like to apply to be a Core Participant you can find out how to apply and the criteria you need to satisfy to become a Core Participant in the Core Participant Protocol on this website.

If anyone believes they have information which may be relevant to the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference, contact should be made by email to legal@eljamelinquiry.scot. A member of the Inquiry team can discuss with you how the Inquiry might receive that information. Please do not send the Inquiry any documents before discussing with a member of the Inquiry team.