An NHS hospital’s guidance would allow men identifying as women to use female changing rooms, despite warnings that the policy breaks the law.
Officials from the Royal College of Nursing have written to senior administrators at the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, warning that Darlington Memorial Hospital was breaching 33-year-old workplace legislation requiring single-sex changing facilities.
The row is the latest development in a legal battle that includes five female nurses – Bethany Hutchinson, Lisa Lockey, Annice Grundy, Tracey Hooper and Joanne Bradbury.
Legal proceedings began after the women claimed to have blown the whistle on a transgender colleague’s “intimidating” behaviour.
An NHS hospital’s guidance would allow men identifying as women to use female changing rooms, despite warnings that the policy breaks the law
After the nurses publicised their claim, the trust, which is one of the largest in the country geographically, allegedly provided a “temporary” office for changing into uniforms.
The move was branded as “dehumanising” and “humiliating” by the women as it had no lockers and opened onto a public corridor.
In the last week of March, officials at the Royal College of Nursing wrote to a director at the trust, stating it was in breach of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
The college highlighted that these regulations required “the provision of single-sex changing facilities for men and women”, with the only exception being “single lockable rooms (not cubicles)”.
Officials from the Royal College of Nursing have written to senior administrators at the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, warning that Darlington Memorial Hospital was breaching 33-year-old workplace legislation requiring single-sex changing facilities
The letter 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 claim that three days after the letter was sent, the trust director republished its “transitioning in the workplace policy” without any changes to the guidance, which allegedly allows biological men to use female staff changing rooms.
The row between the nursing body and the trust has emerged weeks after April’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that said the term “woman” referred to biological sex for the purposes of equality legislation.
The ruling has been interpreted as clarifying that men who identify as female do not qualify as women for single-sex spaces or employment protections, even if they possess a gender recognition certificate.
The row between the nursing body and the trust has emerged weeks after April’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that said the term ‘woman’ referred to biological sex for equality legislation
PA
The EHRC has since issued guidance stating access to single-sex spaces must be based on biological sex.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting the Darlington nurses, said that in light of the Supreme Court ruling, “single-sex changing rooms are not a matter of ideology but of law, safeguarding and common sense”.
She called on NHS trusts to revise policies that have “prioritised gender identity over biological reality often at the expense of female staff and patients”.
GB News has reached out to the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust for comment.
