Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton, following Employment Tribunal judgment - thread #61

[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 #60 can be found in this thread: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379717-sandie-peggie-list-of-threads-covering-employment-tribunal-and-afterwards

Thread 60: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5461133-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-60 16 December 2025 to 8 January 2026

Poor Aussies.

Clearly happy times for Scotland's patients and staff though. Phew.

😆

I can see why he's absented himself though. He really did get himself into a mess.

As I've said before, with him having left the organisation and even the country, if the appeal results in a decision for the ET to be reheard from new, this could be tactically advantageous.

Port Mcquarie, known for its penal colony.

I hear.

I’m waiting for the “he threw us under the bus then fled the country” theme.

can he be made to come back or join remotely if the ET is reheard?
Do any legal bods know?

Not a legal bod, but no, he can't be compelled to appear either in person or remotely. But if he's not there to refute points put to him then the court is very unlikely to find in his favour on any contested point of fact.

I believe even the simple act of turning up to say "that's not true" to the other side gives the bench the ability to agree with you. If you're not there to say it (and he's a defendant, remember) then that's not good.

I thought that the appeal will only be on points of law made up ChatGPT output. For example because Upton was never put back on the stand and asked about the phone evidence/contemporaneous notes, that he had not refuted the idea that he faked the digital evidence. Therefore that evidence stands without Upton having further chance to comment. So none of the witnesses have to attend as it should just be the advocates arguing it out… have I got this right?

That's true as far as the EAT is concerned. But there has been speculation that they might order that the original ET case might be sent back to be re-heard by a new ET.

There are so many points that have a potential for appeal it is hard to know where to start.

The most obvious ones are those judgements handed down that were incompatible with the law, as asserted by the SC ruling. In particular that the idea that some TIMS can be allowed in to female spaces, which was further reviewed and dismissed at the GLP. Judicial review. Which is also a higher court than an EAT.

IANAL but it seems to me that Ben will be looking at it strategically, what are the technical points of law that can easily be turned over at appeal and will bring the whole case home so to speak.

Nit picking about the obvious inconsistencies in how the case was managed is probably not the way to go.

The EAT can refer the case back down for re hearing or issue a fresh judgement based on on technicalities. It is anybody’s guess.

As the hearing is in Scotland it is not beyond the realms of possibility that this case would end up in a higher court. Which would be the Court of Sessions, still in Scotland.

Following that the UK Supreme Court.

Hence Ben Cooper the big guns.

Forgot to say you would not normally see a barrister of his stature at an ETA.

If the Appeal has been lodged when might we hear about next steps?

Hearings in the EAT are typically 6-9 months after the appeal has been lodged. I'm not sure if that holds in Scotland but, if it does, the EAT should be later this year.

I understand her case against the RCN is scheduled for a 7 day hearing starting on 23rd September.

She’s extraordinary brave. Good for her.

I saw SP in the flesh on Thursday at the gathering outside the Supreme Court to mark a year since the FWS judgment. She is tiny but looked well and cheerful. It was very moving to see her and Jennifer Melle and the Darlington Nurses all standing together. I talked briefly to the Darlington Nurses and they all said they couldn't imagine the pressure and stress of bringing a case on your own.

It was like a Who's Who of terfery - so good to see so many of the heroines of the last few years.

Its so lovely to hear this - I wanted to go but needless to say that was the only day Iast week that I had something on that I couldn't reschedule

I went to the gathering as well. I lurked in the background mainly, just wanted to show support for those amazing women who have gone through so much.

I wonder if the good folk of Port Macquarie know they have a duplicitous liar among them - and do his colleagues know he’ll make up ‘patient issues’ if he doesn’t like the cut of their jib?

Interestingly the Australian medical register unlike the UK equivalent gives details of the doctor's employment e.g. speciality & employer.

18/04/2026, 13:35 Registration Details
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency - Register of practitioners

Dr Elisabeth Ruth Annikki Upton
Medical Practitioner
Provisional

Employer: Mid North Coast Local Health District
Position: Unaccredited Trainee - Emergency Medicine

Approved Site(s):
Port Macquarie Base Hospital - NSW
Kempsey District Hospital - NSW

Personal details
Sex Female
Languages (in addition to English)
Qualifications Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of
Surgery, University of Dundee Medical
School, United Kingdom, 2021

www.ahpra.gov.au/Registration/Registers-of-Practitioners.aspx

Sex female????!!!

Fucking liar.

He doesn't have a GRC.

Well it’s something to see how captured they are that a man who is biologically sexed male, in a heterosexual marriage, married as a man to a woman without any gender recognition certificate can be put on a MEDICAL REGISTER as sex female.

In other news black is white. I am an alien. 👽 And dysphoria isn’t treated by affirmation.

Sex female????!!!
Fucking liar.
He doesn't have a GRC.

They have had sex self-id in Australia since 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_rights_in_Australia#:~:text=including%20postage%20costs.-,Passports,no%20medical%20intervention%20is%20required.

I was surprised there wasn't a counterprotest, were you? There was one rather forlorn-looking rainbow flag type person hanging around when I arrived, but they didn't stick around long.

I spotted Helen Joyce, Maya F, Fiona Mac, Emma Hilton, Mr Menno, Serena Worley of the Cambridge Women's Society and several more familiar faces that I can't put names to. I made my excuses and left when a chap from GB News tried to interview me!

He doesn't have a GRC.

We know he couldn't have a GRC when he had the confrontation with Sandie Peggie on Xmas Eve 2023 because he didn't have the requisite "living in your affirmed gender for at least 2 years" but he may have applied for a GRC subsequently.