Today marks six months since the UK Supreme Court ruled on the definition of a woman, but NHS Scotland health boards continue to delay the publication of guidance for staff and visitors using single-sex spaces.
The only health board that has complied with the court ruling as of October 16 is NHS Fife, which has been embroiled in a lengthy employment tribunal brought by nurse Sandie Peggie, who was suspended after she protested sharing a changing room with a transgender doctor.
The health board complied with a directive from the UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission demanded NHS Fife update its policy on single-sex spaces to comply with the Supreme Court decision, but Scotland’s other 13 health boards have yet to publish similar guidance.
Holyrood ministers issued fresh directives for schools in September, instructing education facilities across Scotland to ensure pupil toilets were “made available on the basis of biological sex” but hospitals and medical centres are yet to receive the same level of clarity.
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Cabinet Secretary for Health, Neil Gray, told GB News he had written to health boards across Scotland to insist they comply with the Supreme Court decision.
“We accept the Supreme Court decision,” he said, “and we have corresponded with the health boards, making clear our expectation is for them to follow the law and make sure the law is implemented locally as they need to as employers.”
The Scottish Government took criticism for pausing its own drafting of guidance in the summer, drawing ire from the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
Reem Alsalem told the Government a “pause” suggested “ambiguity” though there was none, and insisted it was time to “actually get on with it and do it”.
Neil Gray has written to health boards across Scotland to insist they comply with the Supreme Court decision
|PA
When pressed if six months was a fair time to wait for guidance from all health boards, Mr Gray suggested conversations with the EHRC have already begun.
He said: “I’ve been working closely with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and I’ve met with them around when we could expect publication of the EHRC guidance, and we’ve corresponded with health boards setting out our expectation for boards to be compliant.”
However, six months after they walked out of the Supreme Court with their arms raised aloft after a long-fought victory, For Women Scotland has said the fault of the delay lies with the Health Secretary, not the equality regulator.
Co-director Susan Smith told GB News: “This is on Neil Gray, not the EHRC”.
Co-director of For Women Scotland, Susan Smith (L), blamed Mr Gray not the EHRC for the delay
| PAShe said: “NHS Scotland and associated boards are still allowing men into the women's changing rooms, opening themselves up to legal challenge and leaving lower-level management without proper tools to do their job.”
She believes the “expansive” number of solicitors reporting to the Chief Legal Officer would be an asset for assisting health boards to speed up their compliance with the law.
“You'd expect them to guide NHS,” she suggested, before urging further caution.
She continued: “Given the chaotic mess in the Peggie vs NHS Fife, health boards should be very aware in taking guidance from them as well as Scottish Ministers after they lost at the Supreme Court.”
The clarification of the Equality Act came into force immediately on April 16, and an EHRC consultation on changes to the code of practice closed on June 30.
Despite the regulator putting pressure on NHS Fife in the midst of the Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife & Dr Beth Upton tribunal, no such ultimatum to Scotland’s other 13 health boards has been made public.
As a result, health boards around the country - such as Scotland’s largest, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde - have written interim guidance while they remain in a holding pattern, tentatively awaiting the completion of the rebooted advice from ministers.
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