Darlington NHS trust must ‘comply’ with trans Supreme Court ruling, says government

Darlington Memorial Hospital, where nurses have been embroiled in a legal battle over a transgender colleague, must “comply” with a court ruling which defined the legal definition of a woman as being based on biology.

Last week, the UK Supreme Court delivered its decision in a landmark case brought against the Scottish government by gender-critical group For Women Scotland. The judges decided the legal definition of a woman excluded transgender women, and the protected characteristic of “sex” under the terms of the 2010 Equality Act, referred to biology.

“The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex,” judge Lord Patrick Hodge said in an oral summary of the case. The ruling is likely to have wide-ranging implications for the trans and non-binary community, as well as for public bodies and organisations which will be required to update their polices on single-sex spaces.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has already warned that the NHS will be “pursued” if policies on single-sex spaces are not changed to reflect the court’s verdict, with chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner saying the equalities watchdog “will now be asking them when they will be updating their advice”.

Prior to the court’s ruling, several nurses at County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust began legal action, complaining that transgender colleague Rose Henderson was being allowed to use women’s changing facilities at Darlington Memorial.

The nurses claimed this breached their right to a private life under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights and also amounted to sexual harassment and victimisation. They will be supported by the Christian Legal Centre at an employment tribunal in October.

In the wake of the court judgement, a spokesperson for the Department for Health said: “We are clear that this is the law, and we expect all public service bodies, including hospitals like Darlington Memorial, to comply.

“The ruling has provided much-needed confidence and clarity for the NHS to adapt its policies, as it reviews its ‘delivering same-sex accommodation’ guidance, to ensure that same-sex spaces are always protected. We are in contact with the NHS and expect them to work quickly.”

Bethany Hutchison, one of the nurses involved in the legal dispute, and the president of the Darlington Nursing Union, expressed delight at the outcome of the court case “and the clarity it brings to the Equality Act”.

She went on to say: “We now need swift and clear action from [health secretary] Wes Streeting and the NHS to implement the Supreme Court’s ruling,” The Northern Echo reported.

“Frontline nurses, like ourselves, have been dealing with this for too long and should not have had to take the action and risks that we have. Stonewall-inspired policies that have allowed men to access women’s changing rooms in the NHS need to be urgently overhauled, and women like ourselves who have been discriminated against, as result of these policies, need full justice.”

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