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

@SqueakyDinosaur I didn't notice the Cambridge Women's Society, but I did see all the others you mentioned, Janet Murray, Sandie Peggie and her husband, the Darlington nurses, Jennifer Melle and a few more, but I'm useless with names.
I thought there might be a few protestors but I didn't see any, or GB News, thankfully.
I stayed until about midday - it had taken me a little while to realise that Big Ben was stuck on 12 and not showing the actual time.

And Joanna Cherry was there, of course.

That he'd ignore a patients wishes for single sex treatment and (allegedly) falsify claims of patient neglect to try including tampering with digital files, and falsifying notes to do so........I mean, all you can say it, good luck to anyone who ends up working with him in Australia. Surely the pile of complaints that were listed with the GMC (who said they couldn't do anything while a case was ongoing) must count for something? Or I'm assuming they would never be revealed to a potential employer overseas? Who knows, but if I was a patient or a colleague, I'd want to know the integrity of people I was working with, especially when they lack it.

It must have been amazing, but I do wish we could find a better name for us than trans exclusionary radical feminists because we're not excluding them. We simply want them to keep the law. Words have power, so I'd like someone cleverer to come up with a new definition of the acronym that we could own. It needs to be punchy, confident and I can't think of one!

What about Law Abiding Radical Feminists? LARFs for short? And we certainly do have a laugh compared to the opposite side of miserable liars.

Conspicuously Law Abiding Women - CLAWs.

It doesn't work for those of us with a Fife accent. :(

Upton will have had to get a certificate of good standing from the GMC to give the Australian GMC equivalent. Unfortunately I don't think that the GMC will do anything with the complaints about him. There is no official transcript of his evidence so it would be very difficult for them to prosecute.

And presumably it isn’t the existence of complaints they need to disclose but any finding against him. Or should complaints be disclosed?

Terf has long stood for tired of explaining reality to fantasists - or fuckwits if you are feeling less polite.

But it isn't kind to needy males, and that, as we all know, is a woman's sole purpose for living

I see The Times has picked up on Dr Beth now working in Australia.

www.thetimes.com/article/b15d8024-fe04-4fd8-b1bc-f5a8ba2b2c04?shareToken=9f47a74a909f6d5c9e4a110828952662

They're fast and loose with the pronouns in that article, aren't they.

The regulation agency defines a female as someone whose “biological sex is that of a female” and whose gender identity or gender expression is that of a female.

Well I don't fit that definition, nor do many women on here, I suspect. Looks like Australia has literally genocided us😱

There seems to have been picked up by some people in Australia. No idea how widely it's known there yet but in these internet days its pretty hard to put your past behind you.

An interview with Sandie in The Courier today:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/5476837/sandie-peggie-nhs-fife-tribunal-questions-racist-messages/

Archive: https://archive.ph/jvRTO

Thank you.
What a wonderful, straightforward and honest woman she is.

That’s wonderful, what an amazing brave woman Sandie Peggie is.

It’s clear from Sandie’s own words that she’s not a political person, just an average woman like any of us. One who loves her friends and family very much and was lucky enough to have a job that she enjoyed and is good at, and it’s a job that not many people would have the constitution for, working nights in A&E. Imagine what she’s seen over the years, the death, violence, abuse and literal shit that she will have helped to clean up. It’s infuriating that there are so many people who get paid so much more money than Sandie to fuck about telling people to wear rainbow lanyards and making sure a special man could get changed where he felt like. If Upton had not been in that changing room that night, Sandie would no doubt have simply cleaned herself up, put on some clean scrubs and got back out there, despite the likelihood that she was feeling drained and unwell in the aftermath of a perimenopausal flood. I know when I had the same problem, I became anaemic and I would have felt exhausted at the very idea of working nights as a nurse.

So for her to stand her ground and say no and then pursue her case in the face of such opposition is extraordinary. The bafflement she feels at the position she’s found herself in is unmistakable in this article, and while I wish she’d been able to carry on in her job, I’m so grateful that she did say no, because it will ultimately benefit so many women and girls.

Had a flyer through the door the other day.

The lead candidate for the Fife and Mid-Scotland Alliance for Scotland list vote is Eva Comrie - gender crit.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5506357-tribunal-discussion-thread-supporting-fayerc-in-case-against-nhs-england-part-2?reply=152294413

Will this case help Sandie Peggie in her appeal?

Not directly, no. It is a tribunal decision, so not binding on the EAT. However, it is clear which way the wind is blowing in England. The question is how quickly the Scottish courts will catch up.

I took a little gander to see if they have benched EJ Alexander Kemp - alas no. There are 12 decisions that post date his horror judgment in Peggie and the complaint to the President in December 2025.

Six months on he just continues on as normal - while issuing at best an AI judgment, and at worst a cooked up crock of crap as assisted by his judicial colleague.

Peggie meanwhile has had to instruct lawyers in an appeal to fix it. If she didn’t have a funder she’d be probably out of road.

She’s still not back at work in a job she loved.

Upton is down under avoiding all consequences like he has likely done his entire life.

The process is the punishment.

Or whether they will want to differentiate themselves from English courts, as the Scotgov does with WM.

I see Dorothy Bain is off, fwiw.

We will have to wait for the Kelly appeal but it was so patently wrong - a cubicle cannot be a room… and Peggie.

GLP v EHRC decided earlier this year also helps with an appeal. It’s a High Court case that sets out it is legal to have single sex toilets and no need for genital inspections because you know employers can have a policy against toilet misuse and use contracts to endorce. It was extensively quoted in LS v NHS England. So per FWS - Workplace Regs 1974 need to be interpreted of its time. Woman means woman in that. 2026 judge says in High Court single sex toilets are right and proper. Now an ET puts those two things together and says it’s out and out discrimination against women.

And appeal fails the team will push upwards. No way SC says men in toilets is all
grand. Justice comes eventually.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/high-court-judgment-summary-good-law-project-v-equality-and-human-rights-commission