The Select Committee held two hearings to gather evidence from the Attorney-General and from Beattie himself, on 7 and 8 December 1955, and then met again on 13 and 15 December to deliberate and agree a report. The Attorney-General explained the operation of the law and contended that membership of the National Insurance Tribunals was disqualifying; however on investigating the County Agricultural Committees he advised that there was no issue. Beattie told the committee that his place of business was only 500 yards from the Court House where the National Insurance tribunals met and that meetings lasted "no longer than an hour and a half or two hours" so that he was unable to claim for subsistence, as well as being disqualified from receiving money as an employer. He had never attended the tribunal relating to industrial injuries as it had never met and might not even have been constituted, and since his appointment he had not been paid anything in respect of the tribunals he had attended; his last attendance was before his election.