NHS Fife urged to concede Sandie Peggie case after Supreme Court ruling

NHS Fife has been urged to concede defeat in an employment tribunal centred on a transgender doctor using a female changing room.

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said a Supreme Court ruling meant the health board does not “have a leg to stand on”.

READ MORE: Supreme Court UK LIVE: Judges rule that 'sex' refers to biological sex in For Women Scotland gender case

NHS bosses said they would take time to “carefully consider the judgment and its implications”.

On Wednesday, judges in the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under the Equality Act.

Campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) brought a series of challenges – including to the UK’s highest court – over the definition of “woman” in Scottish legislation mandating 50 per cent female representation on public boards.

The row centred on whether trans women with gender recognition certificates should be regarded as female for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act, as argued by SNP ministers. Judges sided with FWS, which argued for the biological definition.

The ruling will have wide-ranging implications across Scotland, England and Wales.

READ MORE: Supreme Court sex definition will have huge impact and could revive SNP's gender reforms

Addressing the provision of single-sex services, it gave examples including domestic violence refuges, rape crisis centres, female-only hospital wards and changing rooms.

The ruling said: “Read fairly and in context, the provisions relating to single-sex services can only be interpreted by reference to biological sex.”

Nurse Sandie Peggie was suspended from her work at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in January last year after she objected to Dr Beth Upton, a trans woman, using the female changing room in the A&E department.

She has lodged a claim against the Fife health board and Dr Upton, citing the Equality Act, including sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation.

In a statement, NHS Fife said it “notes the clarity provided by today’s Supreme Court ruling regarding the legal definition of a woman”, adding: “We will now take time to carefully consider the judgment and its implications."

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Mr Fraser, the MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, said: “NHS Fife must now concede the Sandie Peggie case following this landmark court ruling. They basically don’t have a leg to stand on now.

“The judgment from the Supreme Court is a comprehensive, detailed and authoritative unanimous judgment from the country’s highest court which settles the law on the definition of a ‘woman.’

“It’s a devastating defeat for the SNP Government and their surrender to the trans activists. I’m sure many residents will want to know the cost of this legal case to taxpayers.”

Mr Fraser continued: “Can we now have an apology from John Swinney for spending our money defending the indefensible? And we should be told which Scottish ministers will now resign.

“It is now abundantly clear that any public body not respecting women’s spaces to biological females is acting unlawfully. How can NHS Fife possibly continue to waste public funds defending the Sandie Peggie case when their defeat is inevitable?

“Huge credit is due to the feisty women who pursued this case so vigorously – For Women Scotland – who were backed by lesbian groups, Alliance LGB and others, crowdfunding to taken on the taxpayer-funded Scottish Government. It is a stunning vindication of their stance.”