1. Ms B Hutchinson 2. Ms K Danson 3. Joanne Bradbury 4. Ms M A Grundy 5. Ms L Lockley 6. Ms C Hoy 7. Ms T A Hooper 8. Ms J Peveller v County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust — 2025

The Tribunal heard combined claims from eight claimants (seven determined; one stayed) against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust concerning the operation of a uniform policy and part of the Trust's Transition in the Workplace policy, which permitted a transgender colleague (referred to as Rose Henderson, a biological male who identifies as female and has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment) to use the female changing room. The claimants brought claims of harassment related to sex and/or gender reassignment (s.26 Equality Act 2010), indirect sex discrimination (s.19) and victimisation (s.27).

The Tribunal found that, by requiring the claimants to share the 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 claimants' dignity and creating a hostile, humiliating and degrading environment. It further found that, by not taking seriously and declining to address the claimants' concerns raised in August and September 2023 and on 4 April 2024 regarding that part of the policy, the Respondent engaged in unwanted conduct which had the effect of creating a hostile and intimidating environment. The complaints of indirect sex discrimination were also well founded and succeeded.

The Tribunal dismissed the harassment complaints insofar as they related to Rose Henderson's conduct inside and outside the changing room (pleaded at paragraph 23(b) and (e) of the Amended Particulars), and the harassment complaints relating to other aspects of the Respondent's conduct pleaded at paragraph 23(d), (f), (h), (i), (j) and (k). The victimisation complaints were not well founded and were dismissed. This is a reserved judgment on liability only; remedy was not determined in this judgment.