NHS Fife admits it 'broke law' with no single sex area

Watchdog orders trust to make immediate equality assessment

- By Ben Borland

NHS Fife has admitted breaking the law in allowing a biological male to use the female changing rooms without carrying out an equality impact assessment.

Nurse Sandie Peggie has taken the health board to an employment tribunal after she was suspended for objecting to transgender woman Dr Beth Upton's presence while she was changing on Christmas Eve in 2023.

A judge in Dundee will hear closing submissions next month before retiring to consider a verdict in a landmark case that will have far-reaching implications for women's rights across Scotland and the UK.

Now The Herald has revealed that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been engaging with NHS Fife over the missing equality impact assessment and ordered bosses to "carry one out immediately".

Baroness Kishwer Falkner, who chairs the EHRC, said: "The policies and practices of all Scottish health boards must comply with the Equality Act 2010.

"Earlier this year we asked NHS Fife to provide us with information on the provision of single-sex changing facilities for staff and the rights of different groups in the application of these policies. At that point NHS Fife confirmed that no equality impact assessment was available.

"Undertaking an equality impact assessment of relevant policies or practices, and publishing the results, are requirements of the PSED [Public Sectory Equality Duty] specific duties in Scotland. We believe NHS Fife failed to meet these requirements and told them to carry one out immediately.