She's in the clear and the trans-addled NHS is in the dock (Free to read)

After exonerating Sandie Peggie NHS Fife can't keep defending the indefensible in the employment tribunal

In a sensational development in this landmark gender dispute, NHS Fife this morning cleared nurse Sandie Peggie of gross misconduct after she objected to sharing a changing room with trans doctor Beth Upton at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, on Christmas Eve 2023.

So why is the health board continuing to defend its conduct in the separate employment tribunal case that resumed today?

Surely it has admitted that it was wrong to have suspended Peggie 18 months ago for misgendering Dr Upton and allegedly endangering patient care. Would it not make sense to accept defeat and apologise to this nurse of thirty years, who has been subjected to a year and a half of harassment, threats, and financial loss?

Well, first of all, NHS Fife hasn’t actually cleared her of inappropriate conduct, only that there is “insufficient evidence” to prove gross misconduct. In classic bureaucrat-speak, it says that “while no formal sanctions have been imposed, the panel concluded that a facilitated reflective practice discussion would be appropriate.” No one knows what that gobbledegook means, but it suggests the board believes she may still be in need of some re-education—perhaps conducted by the twenty-something equalities officer who condemned her in the first place.

As far as the employment tribunal is concerned, Fife Health Board will presumably argue that it has now done everything by the book and cannot be accused of unlawful harassment and discrimination, which are the specific charges laid against them and Dr Upton by nurse Peggie. The tribunal will now spend the next eleven days considering these allegations, having already heard ten full days of evidence.

The Peggie case has become the most high-profile and contested employment tribunal in Scottish history, and has evolved into a UK-wide gender battleground. The outcome could lead to the collapse of the LGBTQ+ dogma which asserts that trans women are women (not men who have chosen to identify as women), and which has become embedded in the public sector.

The NHS seems determined to defend this quasi-religious belief at all costs. After being ticked off by the Information Commissioner for unnecessary secrecy, NHS Fife revealed last week that north of £220,000 has already been spent on this tribunal—and the legal taxi meter is still running. Indeed, the same legal team that conducted the review of Sandie Peggie’s alleged gross misconduct is also defending NHS Fife and Dr Upton in the employment tribunal. Make sense of that if you can. Finding a leg to stand on may prove challenging.

Peggie is claiming that NHS Fife acted in breach of the 2010 Equality Act, which she says defends her right to believe that sex is real (yes, really), and also allows transgender persons to be excluded from single-sex spaces provided there is a legitimate reason. She objected to the presence of male-bodied Dr Upton being present while she dealt in the changing room with excessive menstrual flow.

However, Fife Health Board censured Peggie for this after a complaint was made by Dr Upton, who claimed to be the victim of a hate crime because of Peggie’s conduct. The board appeared to agree, following the advice of an inexperienced equalities officer, Isla Bumba, that trans persons had a legal right to access changing rooms that “align with their gender identity.” They do not. But Sandie Peggie was suspended nevertheless.

In April, the Supreme Court ruled that, under the 2010 Equality Act, the terms "woman" and "sex" "refer to a biological woman and biological sex." There is therefore no legal right for a male-bodied trans woman to access women’s changing rooms, despite Dr Upton’s belief that he is not a “biological” man. Even before the Supreme Court ruling, NHS Fife was on dodgy ground. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 specify that there should be separate, lockable toilets for men and women.

It may seem beyond belief that the board is still trying to argue that it had a lawful basis for suspending Peggie, threatening her livelihood and causing her great stress. As always in these cases, the process is the punishment. That cannot be wished away simply because Fife Health Board now claims that it followed the rules. She should never have been suspended in the first place.

This case has wider resonance than the unjust treatment of a gender-critical nurse. It has revealed the extent to which the entire NHS has been captured by a quasi religious dogma. The youthful equalities officer, Isla Bumba—who predictably has an “LGBT ally” tag in her email signature—told the tribunal today that her ruling, that Upton had a legal right to enter a women’s changing room, was based on consultation with the “equality leads network” in the NHS. She found that other health boards were allowing transgender staff and patients to use the toilets of their choice. This appears to be the basis of her advice that it was “discriminatory” to object to the presence of a trans woman in a women’s changing room.

The gospel according to Stonewall has been adopted, willy nilly, across the public sector in Scotland for over a decade. Public bodies like the NHS and the Scottish Prison Service have been basing their policies on the biological absurdity that humans can change sex. Not only were male sex offenders being placed in women’s prisons—until recently, the NHS in Scotland was handing out puberty blockers to children and trying to erase the very term “woman” in favour of phrases like “people with cervixes.” Trade unions failed to support Peggie because they too adhere to the belief along with most of the left.

It is too soon to say that the Peggie case will restore common sense to public policy. But it has certainly been a landmark case and, along with the Supreme Court judgement, will now allow those public sector employees who’ve kept quiet fearing HR wrath to become more vocal. As for NHS Fife, it clearly based its judgement on false legal advice. It should surely now stop digging. It must now apologise for its conduct, review its equalities advice, and offer reasonable compensation to Sandie Peggie for the distress and repetitional damage it caused her.