Nurse cleared of misconduct in trans doctor changing room row in Scotland
A nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender woman doctor has been cleared of gross misconduct allegations.Sandie Peggie, who has worked as a nurse for the health board for more than 30 years, is claiming she was subject to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act when she was expected to share a changing room with a trans woman, Dr Beth Upton.Upton herself complained to the board about Peggie’s behaviour after an altercation in the women’s changing room in Victoria hospital, Kirkcaldy, Fife, in December 2023.Peggie was accused of misconduct, failures of patient care and misgendering Upton.But NHS Fife confirmed on Wednesday that an internal hearing had concluded there was “insufficient evidence to support a finding of misconduct”.
Peggie’s solicitor, Margaret Gribbon, described her client – who was suspended from work at Victoria hospital in January 2024 – as “relieved and delighted” at the outcome of the 18-month internal process.NHS Fife and Upton are defending their actions in an employment tribunal case against the trust that resumed on Wednesday after a five-month break.The tribunal hearing is being watched closely for how it may be influenced by April’s landmark judgment by the supreme court that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 does not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates.The ruling has since been publicly welcomed by Peggie and her supporters.In earlier evidence, Peggie said she had felt “embarrassed and intimidated” when Upton started to get changed alongside her, leading to a heated exchange, the details of which are disputed.
The health board has previously described Peggie’s action as “unnecessary and vexatious”.Upton is also disputing it.NHS Fife’s equality lead, Isla Bumba, told NHS Fife’s counsel, Jane Russell KC, that in August 2023, her line manager, Esther Davidson, had asked for “very generic and informal” advice on how best to accommodate a new trans member of staff, “particularly around changing rooms”.The advice was based on the Equality and Human Rights Commissions’s statutory code of practice, which is currently being revised to reflect the supreme court’s ruling.Bumba told the hearing: “I said it could be deemed discriminatory to not allow a trans person access to facilities that aligned with their gender, but I recommended that it might be worthwhile having a conversation with the person directly if they had been open about their trans status to see where they would be most comfortable.
”She confirmed to Russell that she was not aware of any other cases of staff objecting to trans employees using changing facilities that aligned with their lived gender to date, and that no other female staff had approached her to say they felt their safety, privacy or dignity were being compromised.Bumba was later questioned by Peggie’s lawyer, Naomi Cunningham, who asked whether the health board’s approach to allowing Upton to use the women’s facilities amounted to forcing female colleagues “to participate in a pretence” that Upton was a woman.“I disagree,” said Bumba firmly.She later denied that she wanted to “see Sandie Peggie punished” for her gender-critical views, telling Cunningham “that’s quite a leap”.Earlier she accepted that, while she believed that trans women were women, there were others who did not.
“I believe gender is a spectrum and people’s views on gender will also be a spectrum”.As the tribunal continues, the first minister, John Swinney, insisted that NHS Fife – which has spent at least £220,000 defending its actions – “has my confidence and support”, while Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, called on NHS Fife to settle the tribunal case “and brings this sorry saga to an end”.
Can Trump fire Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell?
Donald Trump told Republican lawmakers that he plans to fire the US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, in what would be an unprecedented move against the non-partisan central bank.Trump drafted a letter firing Powell and showed it to House Republicans during a private meeting on Tuesday night, according to the New York Times. Stock markets sank on the news but rose as Trump complicated the story by telling reporters it was “highly unlikely” he would fire Powell.This isn’t the first time Trump has said he will fire Powell, whose term is up in May 2026, though it marks a rapid escalation of his threats to do so.Any move by the White House to formally dismiss the Fed chair would be unprecedented
Debra Crew couldn’t shift Diageo’s post-Covid hangover
Two years is no time at all to be the boss of a large FTSE 100 company, but the departure of Debra Crew from Diageo, the Guinness and Johnnie Walker group, has felt possible for at least half that period. Now she has gone “by mutual agreement”.Crew’s first problem was that she followed a genuine corporate superstar in the form of the late Sir Ivan Menezes, whose strategy of “premiumisation” – encouraging punters to drink more expensive stuff – did wonders for profit margins year after year. Any successor would have found it hard to match his record.Second, she started with a thumping profits warning in November 2023 – a proper shock to investors – and explained it badly
Internet-safe iPhone for children goes on sale for £99 a month
A neutered iPhone, stripped of web browsers and social media apps, is going on sale to parents worried about their children’s phone use, but the “peace and freedom” its creators promise will come at a steep price.The pared-back version of the top-selling handset, which will not allow internet searches, gaming or downloads of Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other social media, is being offered in the UK for £99 a month by a US company that wants children to “reconnect with real life, not just reduce screen time”.At more than double the price of a typical two-year iPhone contract, Sage Mobile, an iPhone 16 handset loaded with custom software, will be a pricey way to avoid online harms. But it reflects growing parental dilemmas over the best way to start their children’s digital lives.Research has shown children with problematic smartphone use are twice as likely to experience anxiety and almost three times as likely to experience depression compared with those whose use did not resemble addiction
WeTransfer says user content will not be used to train AI after backlash
The popular filesharing service WeTransfer has said user content will not be used to train artificial intelligence after a change in its service terms had triggered a public backlash.The company, which is regularly used by creative professionals to transfer their work online, had suggested in new terms that uploaded files could be used to “improve machine learning models”.The clause had previously said the service had a right to “reproduce, modify, distribute and publicly display” content, and the updated version caused confusion among users.A WeTransfer spokesperson said user content had never been used, even internally, to test or develop AI models and that “no specific kind of AI” was being considered for use by the Dutch company.The firm said: “There’s no change in how WeTransfer handles your content in practice
Australia’s selectors took a punt on Sam Konstas as Test opener – and he is left with the debt | Geoff Lemon
Sam Konstas had given up. After his duck in Grenada, he looked devastated. After his duck in Jamaica, resigned. On body language, here was a player expecting to make nothing and expecting to be dropped. After his second shot at batting in the third Test proved futile, his second stint of fielding was one of absence: late to move, throwing one hand at the first dropped catch, snatching at the second, misfielding the run that let West Indies escape the lowest Test score
Edwards left with food for thought as India edge England in first women’s ODI
Fifty-over cricket is Charlotte Edwards’s Big Project. The day she was announced as the new England head coach, she declared that the national side had “underperformed” in the one‑day format of late, and that she was making it her “first priority” before the World Cup in India in October.All eyes, then, on this three‑match ODI series against India, which began on Wednesday at Southampton with a narrow four-wicket win by the visitors.After England’s sloppiness in the T20 series defeat, India returned the favour here, putting down catches off the two players – Sophia Dunkley and Alice Davidson-Richards – who crafted England’s recovery from 97 for four to 258 for six.India then did their level best to mess up what should have been a relatively straightforward run chase: the lowlight was a horrendously casual piece of running by Harleen Deol which led to her dismissal purely because she couldn’t be bothered to ground her bat
Wealth redistribution is good for growth | Letters
Rachael Maskell ‘upset’ for Labour party as she confirms her suspension – as it happened
Commons at pompous worst as Afghan data breach proves too much bother for Badenoch | John Crace
UK government putting pressure on nature groups to drop opposition to planning bill
Sick pay changes could benefit UK firms by up to £2bn, TUC says
HMRC criticised by watchdog for failing to track billionaires’ tax