Newly released board papers have revealed that County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust spent £603,000 of taxpayer money defending an unlawful policy that forced female nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital to share a changing room with a biological male colleague.
The sum, equivalent to more than 19 annual salaries for newly qualified nurses, was disclosed by Trust Chief Executive Steve Russell, who acknowledged the “significant public interest” generated by the case.
The Trust has confirmed it will not appeal the Tribunal’s decision.
This comes after a landmark Employment Tribunal ruling which concluded the Trust had unlawfully discriminated against and harassed the female nurses, violating their dignity and creating a “hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading” working environment.
For nearly three years the NHS fought its own nurses
For almost three years (see timeline in notes to editors), County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust pursued an aggressive and escalating campaign to preserve a policy that allowed a biological male staff member into the women’s changing room.
From the moment nurses first raised safeguarding concerns in July 2023, the Trust repeatedly dismissed them, telling staff to “broaden their mindset”, “be educated,” and accept the policy because “Rose identifies as a woman.”
Throughout 2024, despite 26 nurses signing a formal letter pleading for action, the Trust refused to reconsider its stance. When the women filed their Employment Tribunal claim in May, the Trust entrenched its position further, clearing out a manager’s office to create a makeshift “temporary” changing space that opened onto a public corridor and left the women exposed for 11 months.
It was subsequently revealed in court that the Trust had refused to spend the money to make the ‘temporary’ changing room compliant with fire regulations, putting the nurses at further risk.
The Trust continued to defend its policy even as pressure mounted from national political leaders, the Royal College of Nursing, and after the Supreme Court’s ruling in For Women Scotland.
Rather than backing down, the Trust re‑published the very policy under challenge, again asserting that a biological male could use the female facilities.
By 2025, the lengths the NHS was prepared to go became even more stark. The Trust attempted a last‑minute legal application to restrict media reporting and conceal the colleague’s identity, an application the Tribunal rejected outright. During evidence, senior Trust officials were forced to admit they had “not considered” the risk, safety or wellbeing of the women involved.
The escalation continued: four nurses were reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council for speaking to the media about their experiences.
In October 2025, the Tribunal heard harrowing testimony, detailing intimidation, trauma linked to past abuse and institutional neglect, the Trust nevertheless persisted with its defence, spending more than £600,000 of public money on the case.
In January 2026, the Tribunal ruled decisively that the Trust had acted unlawfully, confirming that it had gone to extraordinary lengths to maintain a policy that breached health and safety regulations, equality law, and basic safeguarding standards.
Tribunal findings
The Tribunal concluded that permitting a biological male to use the female changing room amounted to unwanted conduct related to sex and gender reassignment, violating the nurses’ dignity.
It also found the Trust had failed to uphold its obligations under the Equality Act and ignored safeguarding concerns. Managers instructed nurses who objected to seek alternative facilities, forcing them into a small, unsuitable office.
The judgment also highlighted that the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require employers to provide separate male and female changing facilities where necessary for reasons of privacy and propriety.
The panel stated plainly: “The policy of permitting biological males who identify as women to use a female changing room was not ‘lawful’.”
During their ordeal, the nurses met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Shadow Equalities Secretary Claire Coutinho, and Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch, and have received public support from author J.K. Rowling.
Appalling
Bethany Hutchison, Darlington nurse and President of the Darlington Nursing Union, said:
“It is appalling to see more than £600,000 spent by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust resisting something for years as basic as women having the right to get changed without a man present in the female staff changing rooms. No nurse should have to fight this hard for such a simple matter of dignity, privacy and safety.
“We come to work to care for patients, not to enter battles over whether female only spaces should remain female. To know that this enormous sum of public money has been spent resisting what should be common sense is deeply upsetting for those of us on the frontline.”
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said:
“It is shocking and unacceptable that more than £600,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent by an NHS trust fighting its own nurses rather than listening to them. This sum represents not just a waste of public resources, but a deep moral failure in leadership. Instead of protecting the dignity, privacy and wellbeing of staff, the Trust poured vast funds into defending an unlawful policy that the tribunal found had violated nurses’ dignity and created a hostile working environment.
“At a time when the NHS claims to be under immense financial strain, patients and the public will rightly ask how such a staggering amount could be justified, and what else might have been achieved if that money had been spent on care, staffing and frontline services instead of costly litigation.”
