Integrity
Judges must show integrity at all times and individual judges must respect the confidentiality of the bench.

Conflicts of Interest
A member of the Solo Piping Judges Association must not judge a pupil or relative at The Argyllshire Gathering, The Northern Meeting, The Scottish Piping Society of London Annual Competition, or any competition sponsored or graded by the CPA.

Association members must avoid judging pupils and relatives at other events. If an incident occurs where it is unavoidable to judge a pupil or relative, it is the members responsibility to inform competition organisers of any potential conflicts of interest before the competition starts.

The SPJA definition of:

• A Teacher: A teacher is a person who has provided one to one tuition, including exchange of recordings, within the previous twelve calendar month period. This would prohibit that person from judging any person that falls within that parameter in any discipline, protecting against bias, whither actual or perceived.  There need not be any financial exchange between the instructor and pupil for the relationship to be formed.
• A Pupil: A pupil is defined as having received one to one tuition from the Association member over the previous twelve months, including exchange of recordings.
• A relative: A relative is defined as husband/wife/partner, grandparent/parent/child, sibling, uncle/aunt, first cousin.

If judging a pupil or relative occurs, interest must be declared to fellow judges before the competition starts.  After the competition, the member needs to inform the Association Secretary of the incident.

Members need to avoid judging with non-SPJA adjudicators. This should be viewed as best practice. It is suggested that the member when invited to judge should verify that the other judges will also be members of the SPJA. If an incident occurs where it is unavoidable to judge with non-members, it is the member’s responsibility to inform competition organisers. After the competition, the member needs to inform the Association Secretary of the incident.

Willingness to Judge with others
All SPJA Judges should be willing to judge with any judge on any of the Association’s lists. Members must not seek preferential event allocations and must be prepared to judge any competition allocated by the organiser (subject to avoiding conflicts of interest above).

Feedback to Competitors
Judges should be willing to give comment on a performance when asked by a competitor. Critique sheets should be written for graded B, C, and junior competitions if supplied and requested by competition officials. At least one sheet from a joint bench should be written.