{"id":315329,"date":"2025-12-14T09:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T09:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/315329\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T09:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T09:19:07","slug":"sandie-peggie-latest-how-the-nhs-fife-ruling-caused-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/315329\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandie Peggie latest: How the NHS Fife ruling caused chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n It is a legal dispute that has already cost taxpayers \u00a3400,000<\/a>, with that figure expected to rise.\n<\/p>\n

\n For the key players in this case – Ms Peggie and Dr Beth Upton<\/a> – their lives can never be the same again. Both have been catapulted from ordinary NHS staff to household names with their faces splashed across national newspapers.\n<\/p>\n

\n The row over a transgender medic’s right to use the female changing room – and the health board’s handing of staff who complain – should have concluded with the judgment published on Monday.\n<\/p>\n

\n But in the days that have followed, this case has unravelled in a way that no one could have predicted.\n<\/p>\n

\n The tribunal panel, led by employment judge Sandy Kemp, has already been forced to publish a “certificate of correction” over accusations quotes had been “made up”.\n<\/p>\n

\n Dr Michael Foran, an associate professor of law at the University of Oxford, warned there were “serious questions” to be answered.\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more:\n<\/p>\n

\n The judiciary have been asked to step in to confirm whether AI has been used – but has ruled out doing so.\n<\/p>\n

\n The details of this case are well documented. Ms Peggie was suspended as an A&E nurse after she complained about sharing a changing room with the transgender medic Dr Upton on Christmas Eve 2023.\n<\/p>\n

\n She took legal action against the health board at Dr Upton last year, claiming belief discrimination, harassment and victimisation.\n<\/p>\n

\n The exact wording used in the changing room dispute are contested but it is understood there were references to “chromosomes” and transgender prisoners being placed in the female prison estate.\n<\/p>\n

\n Dr Upton, who was represented by London-based barrister Jane Russell KC alongside NHS Fife, said the incident left them feeling distressed, while Ms Peggie said she made it clear she was not comfortable sharing a changing room with a biological man because of a previous sexual assault.\n<\/p>\n

\n The employment tribunal’s conclusion was unanimous. It ruled that NHS Fife did harass Ms Peggie on four separate accounts, including by failing to revoke Dr Upton’s permission to use the female changing facilities until different rota arrangements had been put in place.\n<\/p>\n

\n It found that NHS Fife had taken an “unreasonable” length of time to investigate patient safety claims made against Ms Peggie.\n<\/p>\n

\n But all claims against Dr Upton were dismissed, with the medic described as a “credible” witness by the tribunal panel, and the doctor’s account, at times, described as “entirely convincing”.\n<\/p>\n

\n The nurse, on the other hand, was described as “less reliable”, including in reference to racist comments allegedly made by Ms Peggie to colleagues.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Peggie’s other claims against her employer – victimisation and discrimination – failed.\n<\/p>\n

\n It took a day or two for people to fully digest the long-anticipated ruling but when they did, social media turned into a frenzy over its contents.\n<\/p>\n

\n Whatever anyone things about the outcomes of the case, there are clear areas of concern within the judgment.\n<\/p>\n

\n Here is the problem: the ruling references other judgments – but the particular quotes used in a number of cases have been altered, misquoted or do not exist.\n<\/p>\n

\n Take the 2021 tribunal between Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters and the Centre for Global Development Europe.\n<\/p>\n

\n On paragraph 791 of the ruling, employment judge Sandy Kemp referenced the case, quoting it as stating: “It is important to bear in mind that the [Equality Act 2010] does not create a hierarchy of protected characteristics.”\n<\/p>\n

\n That line was never mentioned in the Forstater judgment, with her legal team confirming it.\n<\/p>\n

\n (Image: Jane Barlow\/PA Wire)\n<\/p>\n

\n Following complaints, the Judicial Office confirmed an amendment would be issued, which corrected “clerical mistake(s), error(s) or omission(s) in the judgment”.\n<\/p>\n

\n It changed the paragraph to the correct wording to clarify that the Forstater judgment did not mean those with gender critical beliefs could ‘misgender’ transgender people with ‘impunity’.\n<\/p>\n

\n It said there would still be “prohibitions on discrimination and harassment” under the 2010 Equality Act.\n<\/p>\n

\n The panel used the quote to make the argument that the correct quotation “provides support for the proposition that the Equality Act 2010 does not create a hierarchy of protected characteristics”.\n<\/p>\n

\n But the correction did not offer any clarification on how the misquote came to be in the judgment.\n<\/p>\n

\n Peter Daly, an employment lawyer, told the Times: “The suggestion that non-existent quotes from case law have been used in any court judgment is therefore of the utmost seriousness because it is potentially a threat to the functioning of our legal system.”\n<\/p>\n

\n That was the only correction made, but it was not the only point of contention.\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more:\n<\/p>\n

\n Two lines after the Forstater reference, the panel quotes Lee v Asher Baking Co Ltd, a 2018 Supreme Court case.\n<\/p>\n

\n The judge cites a quote that does not exist in the Lee judgment. The misquote makes reference to “no hierarchy of rights”.\n<\/p>\n

\n An organisation known as Not All Gays have also written to the judiciary over a reference to their submission in the case.\n<\/p>\n

\n The gender critical group was called ‘Not for Gays’ in the Peggie judgment, with the organisation warning it completely changed its meaning.\n<\/p>\n

\n In a fourth issue, the For Women Scotland case in the Supreme Court, which defined “woman”, “man” and “sex” as being linked to biological sex under the Equality Act 2010, the tribunal panel states that “such women may in practice choose to use female-only facilities in a way which does not in fact compromise the privacy and dignity of other women users….”\n<\/p>\n

\n It omits the term “trans” from the quote while also cutting off the end of the quote which states that “Scottish ministers do not suggest that a trans woman without a GRC (gender recognition certificate) is legally entitled to do so”.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Herald asked the Judicial Office whether any further amendments would be made, and to clarify if AI had been used it the judgment.\n<\/p>\n

\n A statement said: “We can’t comment on the case including on any claims of AI being used by judges.”\n<\/p>\n

\n But Ms Peggie’s legal team have announced they will appeal the ruling as the nurse said several aspects of the ruling “fell short”.\n<\/p>\n

\n Whether the judiciary and the tribunal panel want to discuss the use of AI in this judgment, the issue will not go away quietly.\n<\/p>\n

\n Tribunal guidance published in October warned AI tools could “hallucinate”, including making up quotes and citations, while also referring to “legislation, articles or legal texts that do not exist”.\n<\/p>\n

\n It also warned: \u201cJudicial office holders are personally responsible for material which is produced in their name.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cJudges must always read the underlying documents. AI tools may assist, but they cannot replace direct judicial engagement with evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a legal dispute that has already cost taxpayers \u00a3400,000, with that figure expected to rise. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-315329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}