The Darlington nurses have urged ministers to stop ‘dragging their heels’ over national guidance on single–sex spaces.
In a landmark tribunal decision, a judge ruled NHS bosses had ‘violated the dignity’ of the eight female nurses, who won their legal challenge against a transgender woman being allowed to use their changing room.
The explosive ruling ripped apart County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust’s trans policy, with the trust being accused of breaching the nurses’ human rights.
It also piled pressure on equalities minister Bridget Phillipson to speed up the introduction of guidance on single–sex spaces to the NHS across England. The nurses had alleged they were discriminated against and harassed by managers for raising concerns about sharing the changing area with a biological male.
The employment tribunal judge agreed, ruling that forcing them to share a changing room with Rose Henderson, who identifies as a woman, created a ‘hostile, humiliating and degrading environment’ for them.
Nurse Bethany Hutchison said: ‘They’re [the Government] clearly dragging their feet and they need to pick up the pace. This is not a difficult thing to work out. It’s pretty simple, and I think this ruling has shown that.’
She added: ‘This is a victory for common sense and for every woman who simply wants to feel safe at work.
‘Women deserve access to single–sex spaces without fear or intimidation. Forcing us to undress in front of a man was not only degrading but dangerous.
‘Today’s ruling sends a clear message: the NHS cannot ignore women’s rights in the name of ideology.’
The trust was also criticised for ‘not taking seriously and declining to address the [nurses’] concerns’ when they were first raised in 2023. When the nurses complained they were told they should undergo ‘equality’ and ‘kindness’ training and ‘broaden their minds’.
Judge Seamus Sweeney ruled that Henderson did not directly victimise or harass the women but that ‘in no way diminishes these very real and genuine perceptions of the claimants, all of whom were fearful of the risks at the very least, to their dignity, bodily integrity and privacy’.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) submitted a new code of practice to the Government in September after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled last year that a woman should be defined by biological sex under equalities law. It is yet to be approved.
Ms Phillipson has been accused of delaying the guidance which could ban transgender women from female–only areas in the workplace and public spaces.
Giving evidence to the tribunal, nurse Karen Danson said that in September 2023 she encountered Henderson in the changing rooms wearing nursing scrubs on the upper half and tight boxer shorts with holes in them on the lower half.
She said Henderson ‘had facial hair’ and there was ‘nothing to suggest [they] were anything other than a man’.
Akua Reindorf, who until last year was a commissioner at the EHRC, told The Times that the Government was inventing ‘procedural hurdles’ to delay the guidance and avoid a political row over sex and gender.
Conservative MP Rebecca Paul, a member of the Commons women and equalities committee, told the Daily Mail the Government needed to ‘get a handle’ on the issue and ‘stand up to trans activists within the Labour Party’.
The nurses had been backed by prominent campaigners, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling.
Commenting on their tribunal victory, she said: ‘Women have the right not to undress in front of men at work. Congratulations, you heroines.’
The trust said: ‘We are taking time to review the judgment carefully and will comment further once we have had the opportunity to consider it in full.’
The Government’s Office for Equality and Opportunity, which is tasked with issuing guidance on same–sex spaces, and NHS England did not respond to a request for comment.
