Following the nurses’ landmark victory, the Darlington Nursing Union (DNU) has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, urging immediate national policy reform after an employment tribunal ruled that forcing female NHS nurses to share changing facilities with a male colleague was unlawful harassment, direct sex discrimination, and a violation of their dignity and safety.
The judgment, handed down on 16 January 2026, represents a historic legal win for women’s dignity in the NHS and confirms that gender‑identity‑driven policies used widely across the health service have been operating outside the law.
The nurses have been supported from the beginning of their ordeal by the Christian Legal Centre.
The letter comes as Bethany and Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, Andrea Williams, travel to Washington DC to speak at a ‘She Leads the Nations’ Global Summit on Capitol Hill. They will also meet with US politicians to discuss the Darlington case, the wider work of Christian Concern, and the state of Christian freedoms’ and free speech in the UK.
In the letter to Mr Streeting, DNU President Bethany Hutchison described the ruling as a “watershed moment for women’s safety, dignity, and the fundamental right to same‑sex spaces in the NHS.”
The tribunal found that County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust had unlawfully permitted a male employee, identifying as a woman, to access the women’s changing room and then punished female staff who objected.
The letter comes as Bethany and Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, Andrea Williams, travel to Washington DC to speak to US politicians about the case.
DNU calls for urgent national guidance and reform
Ms Hutchison urges the Health Secretary to take swift and decisive action, including:
- Publishing long‑awaited Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on single‑sex spaces.
- Introducing clear national rules ensuring biological sex determines access to private, intimate facilities.
- Ending the “legal vacuum” within which NHS trusts have been making decisions that expose staff to unlawful treatment.
She notes that despite Mr Streeting’s personal promises to act “within weeks” after the April 2025 Supreme Court ruling, no new rules or guidance have materialised.
“There has never been a valid reason for inaction,” she writes. “The law is now clear; the guidance must follow.”
Call for accountability within the NHS
The letter also urges the Health Secretary to examine the leadership practices inside County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. Female nurses endured serious and lasting harm, were removed from their changing room, and forced to change in an unsafe office area for 11 months. Several nurses, including Ms Hutchison, continue to face intimidation and threats to their professional registration.
“Nurses do not ask for privilege,” Hutchison writes, “only fairness, clarity, and protection from ideological overreach.”
Wider systemic issues exposed
The case highlights broader failings within NHS workplace culture. Hutchison notes the recent case of Christian nurse Jennifer Melle, who was reinstated only after facing disciplinary action for refusing to use preferred pronouns.
She asks the Health Secretary to reconsider his past refusal to intervene in such cases, arguing that the tribunal ruling now makes reform unavoidable.
The Darlington Nursing Union is requesting a follow‑up meeting with Mr Streeting to discuss national reform and ensure no nurse is ever again forced to choose between her conscience, the law, and her job.
“This is a moment for leadership,” Hutchison concludes. “We stand ready to work constructively with you to make the NHS a place where truth, dignity, and accountability genuinely prevail.”
Christian Legal Centre: ‘A ruling of major legal consequence’
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which has supported the Darlington nurses throughout their legal battle, said:
“This ruling is of huge legal significance. It confirms beyond doubt that policies allowing men into women’s private spaces are not only harmful but unlawful. Institutions across the UK must now urgently review and overhaul every policy that has replaced biological reality with gender‑identity ideology.
For too long, workers who raised legitimate safeguarding concerns have been silenced, punished, or driven out of their jobs. This judgment draws a line: the law protects women’s and men’s dignity and employers must do the same. The Government must now act at speed to ensure this never happens again in any NHS trust, school, prison, or public institution.”
The legal ruling
On 16 January 2026, the Employment Tribunal ruled that County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust unlawfully discriminated against and harassed the female nurses by requiring them to share female-only changing rooms with a biological male.
The ruling confirms that the Trust’s policy allowing men into women’s spaces is unlawful and violates the rights of female staff.
In their ruling, Employment Judge Sweeney and Tribunal members Denise Newey Malcolm Brain declared:
“By requiring the Claimants to share a changing room with a biological male trans woman… the Respondent engaged in unwanted conduct related to sex and gender reassignment which had the effect of violating the dignity of the Claimants and creating for the Claimants a hostile, humiliating and degrading environment.
“By not taking seriously and declining to address the Claimants’ concerns of August and September 2023 and of 04 April 2024, regarding that part of the Transition in the Workplace Policy that afforded biological males access to the female changing room, the Respondent engaged in unwanted conduct related to sex and gender reassignment which had the effect of creating for the Claimants a hostile and intimidating environment.”
The Tribunal considered and followed last year’s seminal decision of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v Scottish Ministers.
The Tribunal found that the Trust failed to uphold its legal obligations under the Equality Act by disregarding the nurses’ safeguarding concerns about privacy and dignity.
Under the ‘Transitioning in the Workplace’ policy, female nurses, had been told by the Trust that if they had an issue with getting changed in front of a man who identifies as a woman, they should find alternative changing facilities.
The Tribunal’s judgment concludes: “We were unclear what was meant by the submission that the policy was ‘lawful’ and deeper consideration of the argument led us to conclude that the policy of permitting biological males who identify as women to use a female changing room was not ‘lawful’.” The judgment then points out that the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 requires an employer to provide changing facilities which “include separate facilities for, or separate use of facilities by, men and women where necessary or reasons of propriety”.
In contrast to the recent decision in a similar case in Scotland, Sandie Peggie v Fife NHS Trust, the Tribunal clearly declared that the law leaves no scope for permitting men to use a female changing room based on their ‘gender identity’ or under any other pretext.
The Tribunal disbelieved the HR manager, Ms Atkinson, who denied telling the nurses who raised concerns that they needed to be ‘educated’, ‘broaden their mindset’, ‘compromise’ and be ‘inclusive.’
Forced into a ‘temporary’ office for 11 months to change that opened on to a public corridor, the nurses discovered during the tribunal hearing that the Trust had compromised their safety again by refusing to adhere to fire regulations.
The nurses’ case has seen them meet with Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, Leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, and receive public support from J.K. Rowling.
After receiving no support from the UK’s biggest unions, the nurses formed a first of its kind union – The Darlington Nursing Union.
Find out more about Darlington Nurses
