Wes Streeting meets nurses suing NHS trust over single-sex spaces: ‘We have to deal with this’

Health secretary Wes Streeting has met with a group of nurses who are suing an NHS trust over its single-sex spaces policy after a trans colleague began using the female facilities.

Five nurses at County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust took legal action at an employment tribunal in May following complaints that a transgender woman was permitted to use the women’s changing rooms.

The nurses initially raised concerns in August 2023, with no formal action being taken. The group were then taken to an “informal meeting” where they were reportedly told to “be more inclusive”.

Conservative religious organisation Christian Concern reported that Streeting met the nurses on Monday (28 October) to discuss their concerns.

The group are said to have taken along a petition signed by 48,000 people, which urges the government to “ensure women have access to single-sex changing rooms and toilets”.

Streeting, who indicated in the run-up to the general election that he no longer stood by the statement ‘trans women are women‘, said in June that he was “horrified” by the case, adding: “We’ve got to find a way that treats trans people with respect and respects women’s safe spaces.”

During the meeting, one of the nurses is reported to have said that she had been sexually abused as a child and had experience panic attacks after being asked “are you getting changed yet?” while in the changing room with the colleague.

In response, Streeting said: “I cannot sit here and look at you and say you need to change your mind set. I don’t think that is healthy or fair.”

When asked by another nurse whether he believes sex was a “protected characteristic” and “biological,” Streeting is said to have replied: “Yeah.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health told PinkNews: “The secretary of state met with five nurses from the Darlington Nursing Union to hear about their concerns concerning single-sex spaces in NHS hospitals. The health secretary is clear that everybody deserves to feel safe and treated with respect at their workplace.”

Following a debate on the definition of sex in the 2010 Equality Act, LGBTQ+ charity Galop said informal policing and harassment of gender-non-conforming people in single-sex spaces “is on the rise.”

The charity claimed that anti-trans pundits and organisations were trying to “pit women’s rights, even lesbian and gay rights, against trans rights”, and that use of single-sex spaces was being used as “a blunt tool in that argument”.

A Galop spokesperson said: “Women’s services should exist – they are important, hard-won spaces – and many have run for a long time with a trans-inclusive approach. LGBT+ services should also exist, though they currently account for under one per cent of total support available.”