The fourth day of the July hearing of Peggie vs NHS Fife & Dr B Upton is due to start at 10am.
We anticipate a discussion regarding NHS Fife's statement of 18.7.2025 before the next witness, Charlotte Myles, is called.
Our Substack on the case can be found at this link.
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A reminder on the limitations of our reporting: open.substack.com/pub/tribunaltw
Admonition from Employment Judge Kemp to any potential witnesses to avoid Tribunal Tweets coverage.
Claimant, respondents, counsel, members of the court
C/SP - Claimant, Sandy Peggie
NC - Naomi Cunningham, C’s barrister
MG - Margaret Gribbons, C’s solicitor
R/Board - first respondent, Fife Health Board
R2/DU - second respondent, Dr B Upton
Rs – first and second respondents
JR - Jane Russell, KC, barrister for respondents
AW - Adam Watson, solicitor for respondents
J - Employment Judge Alexander Kemp
ET - Employment Tribunal
P1, P2 - additional panel members; CM Russell, L Brown
MF - Maya Forstater, CEO of Sex Matters
DP - Darren Peggie, Claimant's husband
NP - Nicole Peggie, Claimant's daughter
SB - Sheila Bell, Claimant's mother
ED - Esther Davidson, SP’s line manager
IB – Isla Bumba, NHS Fife Equality and Diversity Lead Officer
KS - Kate Searle, A&E consultant
SF - Stuart Fraser, SP’s RCN Rep
AG - Angela Glancy, headed up in SP investigation
VV – Vic Valentine, Equality Network
Abbreviations for frequently used terms (not exhaustive):
AE - Accident & emergency department
B&H - bullying and harassment
CR - changing room
CX – complaint
DX - disciplinary procedure or process
FtP - fitness to practice
GC /SR: gender critical or sex realists. Belief that biological sex is important, immutable and different from gender identity
GI – Gender identity is a person's internal sense of their own gender, which may or may not align with their birth sex.
HI - hate incident
HR - Human Rights
IX - investigation
SX - suspension
GM - Gillian Malone, Director of Nursing, NHS Fife
EA - Equality Act 2010
PC - protected characteristic; 9 under EA
RA = risk assessment
We're still waiting to enter the hearing room and do not know what time the hearing will resume today.
We are in the hearing and waiting for the judge to arrive. CM is in the witness box.
CM sworn in
J Please speak up as I write longhand.
JR Full name plse
CM Charlotte Myles
JR How long have u worked at Fife
CM Started June 23. I'm Clinical Services manager in ED
CM My role is complex, I line manage Clin Nurse Mgers and consultants and some financial oversight. Before Fife I was at Dumfries Trust, ran a rural hospital.
JR ED, LH and LC - did u manage them?
No
JR Did u manage Searle Pitt or Curran?
CM Not directly. Only if on-call
JR When were u 1st aware of DU?
CM I was 1st aware of DU in Feb when sent an email in error.
JR Looking at the email on p290 [hunting in bundle] the top email is from 16.2.24. Is this the email?
Yes
JR Why sent to the wrong person?
MC As mentioned Angie Shepherd and mention
legal I thought shld be for a senior manager
JR Prob Laura not sure what to do with it and wanted advice from a senior manager
JR You didnt take much account of Miss Gribbon's email. Take a look at it now please. What was yr awareness of these issues raised
CM I'm more aware
now but wasnt then. I became aware of SP as asked to do a Sx review. Was verbal request to do a Sx review, and agreed to meet SP after brief doc review.
JR Look at doc on p298, email 22 Feb re being allocated.
CM GM requested I did the review. I had a small amt of paperwork
JR When did she ask?
CM Mon am (?26 Feb). I checked she had report from an MSP. I wanted a faciltated discussion w SP and to discuss next way forward. The convo happened on Tues. I wanted to follow up formally via her personal email
JR When did u 1st meet SP?
CM 6th March.
I'd never met her before. I wasnt aware of her GC views.and didnt line manage her. I cld look at the Sx dispassionately. I didnt know about her beleifs until an hr before the mtg and she had other beleifs others might not have, I was focussing on getting her back into the workpla
JR Did this mtg with Miss Davidson did anything else come up?
CM Not really, she said she was anti-trans. But again, I'd never met her before. The incident was about DU, and ED highlighted that SP had transphobic views due to an incident in a CR. I didnt have any other
documentation. I went in blind
JR What other beliefs?
CM Heresay that homophobic and racist but I tried to disregard views that werent documented
JR What did u know about r'ship between SP and DU
CM I only knew about Xmas eve incident. Unless directly involved nothing else
wld have come to me
CM The workforce directorate wld have been involved in the issues that wer ebeing debated about the CR, that I was vaguely aware of but didnt know well
JR GM email re arranging a Sx review mtg. What happened?
CM It wasnt a proper mtg but head through door.
I said I'd spoken w SP and wld be having a mtg. I wasnt surprised by req for MSP to attend as was used to this type of thing.
JR The SX RA filled in by?
CM Me
JR Who completed the summary
I did. It was a summary of the actual meeting.
JR Look at p1334.
JR Email to you from JD
J Judge questioning page nos
JR On p1337 is a table. Who wrote the info in column 3?
CM I did. It live updates. I'd downloaded it previously and is an actively live document
JR Assessment criteria and othe columns
CM The 3rd is about returning someone. Changing duties etc. We normally update it every 4 wks.
JR Temporary deployment is suggested because?
CM Staff might not be getting along. To take the pressure off someone by having them in an
alt environment
JR Interest of other staff: no overlap w satff member who raised concerns..which negates uncomfortable sitns that may occur. why did u say that?
CM ED can be v stressful. Listening to both parties it was v difficult and wanted her return to be as seemless as pos
JR On p307, you reference Professional Codes, the LMC code is on p578. On 583 it says prioritising people. Practice effectively is another topic, as is preserve safety. Which bit of the code were u looking at?
CM All of them. It seemed to be she said/she said sitn
CM After discussion w SP I felt she'd always support a patients dignity, and had never had any complaints about her before. So wanted to lift the Sx.
JR Want to look at p 309. SP [reads re moving to another dept] Who suggested this?
CM I did, in line w column 3 which I line
managed (this dept). I wanted her to feel supported. QM is in Dunbentley, which is 9-10 miles away.
JR Which wards do u manage?
CM Lists many incl renal. She wasnt partic happy w prospect of being moved, which I understood, as not her usual work. Onreflection it cld have been
more disruptive to her. I was then perplexed about how to support her, so I looked at alternative shifts opposite to DU instead, which she seemed happy with.
JR Can we look at the conduct policy now? It refs temp redeployment to another role.
CM Yes, what I had in mind
JR The Ix Policy, includes manager assessing risk to altering duties
CM Yes, I had in mind
JR In yr summary, plse read para 4. Why did u note this?
CM Was the language of calling DU male. Now I have an understanding why she may have used this terminology.
JR What was yr opin
re how she felt about DU?
CM Not happy w him, but more to do with the event that happened. I was reassured she wldnt treat a T patient any differently than another. So felt her feelings were circumstantial to the sitn
JR Read these pages [reads re SP feeling sorry for TG and
had no issues w them
CM I was reassured that no pat safety concerns re T patients
JR What about her working w DU?
CM Felt it best to keep them separated for both their safety and mental wellbeing. The version of events was difficult for both parties
JR [reads re return on 8th March and phasing] What were return plans at that stage
CM Phased returns are normal (describes potentials). Plan was to schedule SP shifts around DU's.
JR [reads re para 3 and FoE] What do u mean by this?
CM They are entitled to FoE but not to be
brought into the workplace
JR Next is fitness to practice
CM I evaluated her safety to other patients and staff and felt there'd be no concerns on her return
JR Then the EA2010?
CM I had to look into it. It's quite a grey area and didnt want to treat either badly.
When I looked at GR we have to treat the person as the sex they ID as. And wanted SP tot be treated equally and fairly
JR Look at yr email to GM at 4.30 on March 7th.
CM I think I met SP at 11.30 but cant recall exactly. Our mtg lasted over an hour
CM I sent the email to her as she's head of nursing. I wanted to keep her in the loop and she'd req the Sx review and I wanted her informed re supported return to work
JR It's v similar to the summary?
CM Yes, I copied and pasted
JR U discussed w SP later?
CM It was a diff mtg for all as SP was upset and the topics in the mtg [apologies meant SF above]
CM After the mtg and discussion with ED, I thought it might be a diff return and wanted to make it easier. SF said was prob v little we cld do to persude her to work elsewhere and
we didnt have grounds to refuse her return to ED.
JR Who do u normally remove from a work area?
CM Sometimes the [missed] but try to not suspend ppl
JR Why were u keen for her to return
CM Thought wld benefit her as she found awaiting an Ix stressful. And for getting back to
routine. And was a she said/she said sitn. Later on I became aware of the ET situation.
JR Email from u to SP re Sx review update. What were u trying to say to her?
CM I wanted to explain we were trying to be supportive / give her a safety measure and wasnt punative to give her
support. I told her verbally at the end of the mtg that I wanted to return her to work and discussed poss manners.
JR U discuss using public holiday hours?
CM I gave her the possiblilty of using these so she wldnt lose them
JR What about the phased return?
Cm It was trying to maintain her prev shift pattern if possible. Hard to work around all the shift patterns
JR U refer to opposite shift to DU?
CM Drs rotas are far more complicated and are pre-populated. They are given hrs they ahve to do so was limited what we cld change for
him. there's more flexibility in nurses rota
JR Email of 20 Mar to ED saying not heard from SP
Yes
JR Then from ED to you. and then a reply from SP saying she didnt want to work days.
CM When I eventually read it I felt we were going backwards. I explained it wasnt punative
JR Why suggestion to work days?
MC The supporting nurses tend to work day shifts and these nurses were already aware - so other sr nurses didnt need to get involved
JR You write to SP on Mar 28th. You ref the Sx being reinstated to further explore matters
CM That was to explore shift patterns.
JR You say the you and the RCN rep felt returns to day was approp. How did u jnow
CM We'd discussed this. I'd taken advice.
JR You ref the changing facilities. What input were u looking for from estates and facilities?
CM I was looking at how we cld facilitate them both w/out breaking the EA or any of their rights. Belinda Morgan is the Estates Manager
JR How long were day shifts to last?
CM 4 weeks. Was for senior oversight for support
JR WHat level of seniority approp?
CM Band 6
CM Also a clin nurse manager at w/ends
JR Oversight of yr interactions for a time mentioned.
CM Were some concerns raised- patient safety - later. I challenged these and asked whether documented and escalated. I felt it was heresay but to prevent further allegations I felt
havng a senior was important for her
JR What did u mean by it being a sensitive Ix?
CM I wanted the Ix to be completed before her full return. It was both a protective measure towards her and to prevent her saying anything inappropriate.
JR Can we have a break?
J Yes
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