Payment to Darlington nurses after trans change division court

An NHS trust has paid £187,000 in damages after an employment tribunal found it abused seven nurses by asking them to share with a transgender woman.

A jury found County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust created a “hostile environment” for nurses who protested Rose Henderson’s use of single-sex changing rooms.

One of the claimants, Bethany Hutchison, said the nurses raised their concerns to protect women but were instead subjected to “pressure and intimidation”.

The trust’s chief executive, Steve Russell, said the approach should have been different and regretted “the impact this had on the colleagues involved”.

Hutchison, president of the Darlington Nursing Union, said the results “affirm our commitment to dignity, privacy and common sense”.

“We hope that no woman will ever be made to feel unsafe in the workplace again by telling the truth,” she said.