Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton, following Employment Tribunal judgment - thread #59

[nauticant]

Judgment was handed down on 8 December 2025:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6936ce28a6fc97b81e57436a/S_Peggie_v_Fife_Health_Board__Dr_Upton.pdf

Sandie Peggie, a nurse at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy (VH), brought claims in the employment tribunal against her employer; Fife Health Board (the Board) and another employee, Dr B Upton. Ms Peggie’s claims are of sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation. Dr Upton claims to be a transwoman, that is observed as male at birth but asserting a female gender identity.

The Employment Tribunal hearing started on Monday 3 February 2025 and was expected to last 2 weeks. However, after 2 weeks it was not complete and it adjourned part-heard. It resumed on 16 July and the last day of evidence was 29 July 2025. It resumed again over 1 to 2 September for closing submissions.

Following handing down of the judgment on 8 December 2025, on 11 December 2025, it was announced by Sandie Peggie and her legal team that they would be pursuing an appeal.

The hearing was live tweeted by x.com/tribunaltweets and there's additional information here: tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr-005 and tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr-bd6.

Links to previous threads #1 to #50 can be found in this thread: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379717-sandie-peggie-list-of-threads-covering-employment-tribunal-and-afterwards

Thread 51: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5402652-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-51 1 September 2025 to 2 September 2025
Thread 52: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5403218-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-52 2 September 2025 to 4 September 2025
Thread 53: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5404208-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-53 3 September 2025 to 1 October 2025
Thread 54: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5418690-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-54 28 September 2025 to 21 November 2025
Thread 55: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5447019-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-55 19 November 2025 to 8 December 2025
Thread 56: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5456749-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-56 8 December 2025 to 9 December 2025
Thread 57: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5457132-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-57 9 December 2025 to 11 December 2025
Thread 58: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5458443-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-58 11 December 2025 to 12 December 2025

As far as I remember it was never put to him during the hearing, or mentioned as a possibility by either council or any of the other witnesses. It has only come up in outside commentary, almost certainly by people confusing it with the Darlington case.

All part of the plan, as per Michael Foran

https://x.com/acadofideas/status/2000576403880755368?s=20

That article is so full of TRA gibberish that it immediately prompted me to check my Herald subscription. I originally signed up for 3 months for £1 but since that offer expired I have been paying £6.99/month but it's not worth it for crappy journalism like this so I have cancelled my subscription.

@nauticant bless her socks, did a thread just to catalogue the many, many Sandie Peggie threads

Sandie Peggie - List of threads covering Employment Tribunal and afterwards | Mumsnet https://share.google/65ZeY7QMKlRBWcpMV

I'm going to see if I can find a reference to Upton and his wife's plans regarding children. I don't think it's relevant. I don't think he was asked about it. However, I was just following with the threads so I freely admit I could be wrong.

He’s spot on.

That has kicked off a bit in one of the UK Reddit subs

There is a poster in the discussion beneath doing the whole 'transwomen have always had it worse we are the most abused group ever' thing and refusing to accept that women (actual female women) have had to put up with rather a lot throughout history.

He is. They want to undermine the code of practice so they can carry on flouting the law. If this objective fails, they know their only option is to lobby to have the Equality Act change, and they know this won't be easy.

Isn't this the story of Rose Henderson in the Darlington trial not Beth Upton? The whole "coming off hormones" bit is DEFINITELY Henderson not Upton. There's some conflation going on here I think

That was hard going (you did warn us!), and as full of holes as the judgment itself.

I think the fathering children thing is a red herring, in both cases, to be honest. Everyone should be allowed to have a family. I know the argument about it being a male thing to do, to impregnate a woman, but I don't really see the link between having a child and using the correct toilet.

I've been idly following the conversations going on on Reddit about the case. One post that did make me laugh referred to our side as "relying on the protected characteristic of being absolutely insufferable". I might get a t-shirt made....

I've reread thread 1, no mention of conceiving children. There was one broken link to Sex Matters, Upton's therapist's (Pollack) submission that was discounted by Judge Tinion. A couple of poster's called it, that it would go to appeal. One thing that really annoyed me, Kemp ruling on pronouns (albeit with vague caveats). Then criticising Sandie's side in his judgement for following his rules. I might continue with thread 2 later or tomorrow.

Its not just about toilets!!! Single Sex spaces extend to many more things and its frustrating to hear / read people narrow it down to 'we just want to pee'.

Trans identifying males claim to be entitled to such spaces because they are 'women', but if you are trying to impregnate your female partner, you can't do that unless you are a man - so it DOES matter as it tears apart their argument.

You can't have penetrative sex, impregnate your partner using your sperm then saunter into a women's changing room going all "I'm a laaaaady" like that Little Britain sketch.

They used to say that you could get pregnant from using a toilet seat a boy had used... There again, you couldn't get pregnant if you did it standing up. I remember having a talk from a very brisk midwife when I was about 14 about all the myths she'd heard from young mothers. She reckoned the best cure for casual sex was a baby with croup or teething. Or both.

I am going to campaign for that PC. We can self ID on that basis and get to torture absolutely everyone with impunity!

To be fair that’s the opening scene of Daddy Issues….they used the correct unisex toilet but shouldn’t really have been in there at the same time.😁

1000 people responded. 5% thought Kemp shouldn't be investigated. Some of those thought so because appealing would properly deal with it.

So they want something done ✔️

This is Scottish Legal News. If the Judicary ignore it how can they uphold faith in public institutions if the solicitors don't trust you.

In many respects a man trying to get his partner present is a red herring - he is still a man even if he doesn’t want to get his partner pregnant.

Who would you write to about the potential shortage of biological female nurses, doctors or any medical practitioners UK trained or recruited from abroad who have to change clothing at work if TW were allowed to use SSS carte blanche ? All those bright young females will choose a profession that upholds decency and privacy, sharing toilets is bad enough stripping off something entirely different and unacceptable . MF spot on as to how we are in the torrid situation.

Yes - this is what I mean.

That is not correct. The evidence at the tribunal is that, when SP's manager told her she couldn't do anything about Upton using the female changing room, SP said she would speak to Upton herself if she found him in the changing room again. Her manager did not respond to this. She did not tell SP that she mustn't speak to Upton, but nor did she tell her that she should.

I've been deliberately vague.

ETA The details of the attempted rape are in the public domain.

There are several hospitals in Fife, although the Vic - where Nurse Peggie and Dr Upton were both employed - is the main one for the area. (However, NHS Fife is in the process of closing some facilities, so future incidents would be more readily identifiable.)

I'm now fully retired.

I stand corrected, thank you. I should have checked, and not relied on my memory.

I remember something about Fife's antibullying policy suggested as a first step to speak to the 'bully'

https://workforce.nhs.scot/supporting-documents/guide/bullying-and-harassment-policy-guide-for-employee-complainants/

So Nurse Peggie behaved exactly as advised.