An NHS hospital in Darlington has been warned that its policy of allowing men who identify as women to use female changing rooms breaks the law.
The Royal College of Nursing warned County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust that Darlington Memorial Hospital was in breach of Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, which require the provision of single-sex changing facilities for men and women.
A group of nurses began legal action in May 2024 to force their employer to provide adequate single sex facilities after complaining of having to share space with a transgender colleague.
In response, the trust has put in place a “temporary” office for changing into uniforms, but the nurses say this is inadequate as it has no lockers. It also opens onto a public corridor, which they felt made it “humiliating”.
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The RCN has highlighted that the 1992 regulations required “the provision of single-sex changing facilities for men and women – the only exception being where the provision is of single lockable rooms (not cubicles)”.
The letter, sent on 27 March, added that “the regulations also appear to have been overlooked by other organisations”, and stated that the college “expects the trust to comply with these statutory provisions and provide single-sex changing rooms without delay”.
However, campaigners representing the women claimed this week that three days after the letter was sent, the trust director re-published its “transitioning in the workplace policy”, without any changes to the guidance. This, they say, permits a biological man to change in the female staff changing rooms.
On 16 April, the Supreme Court ruled that the term “woman” referred to biological sex for the purposes of equality legislation. This has been interpreted as finding that men who identify as female do not qualify as women for the purposes of using single-sex spaces – even if they possess a gender recognition certificate. The judgment is likely to face a challenge at the European Court of Human Rights.
Darlington nurse and president of the Darlington Nursing Union, Bethany Hutchison, said: “We appreciate the letter from the Royal College of Nursing, but it has been a month now and there has been no sign of any action, quite the opposite in fact.
“We recognise how captured the NHS has been by extreme Stonewall policies, but unfortunately the law is the law. There can be no excuses for any further dragging of feet.
“NHS trusts cannot ignore the Supreme Court and clear direction from the Royal College of Nursing in the name of an extreme and discredited ideology.”
The nurses said they were told by the trust to be more inclusive and to “broaden their mindset”.
The trust has not so far responded publicly to the RCN’s letter.
In April, employment Judge Robertson presiding over the case in Newcastle said the Trust had “failed”, that its actions were “wrong” and had “subordinated [tribunal proceedings] to an independent investigation.” The case has been adjourned until October after the Trust asked for more time to assess its internal investigation.
Earlier this week, Sandie Peggie, the nurse at the centre of another case concerning single-sex spaces against NHS Fife and trans doctor Beth Upton, said she was “determined to continue with her legal claim in an effort to obtain accountability for the way she has been treated by Fife health board”.
Her case resumes in July. Yesterday, it emerged that NHS Fife had failed in its bid to restrict access to a livestream of proceedings and ban access to Tribunal Tweets, a citizen journalist group who live-tweet details of cases.
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