Some things are plain common sense. Female employees should not be expected to share changing rooms with male colleagues. They shouldn’t be socially shamed into undressing around them, or being in spaces where male colleagues get undressed in front of them.

There is a host of principles and evidence around women’s privacy, dignity and safety to be marshalled in support of this – the charity Sex Matters lays them out – but most people don’t need to read accounts of how uncomfortable mixed-sex changing facilities make some women feel, or statistics showing that voyeurism and exposure are two of the most common male sex crimes, to understand how wrong this would be.

But not managers at NHS Fife, it would seem. Despite the law of the land enshrining that commonsense insight – that employers are obliged to provide separate changing facilities for their male and female employees – female staff working for this Scottish health board have been expected to share changing rooms with a male doctor who identifies as female. One nurse, Sandie Peggie, has brought an employment tribunal claim for harassment, sex discrimination and victimisation against the board, following her suspension after she raised concerns.

Peggie shared her account of what happened with the tribunal last week. She initially talked to her line manager on a couple of occasions, including after Dr Beth Upton, the male doctor in question, walked into the room while she was partially undressed. Her manager said she passed on the nurse’s concerns but didn’t get anywhere; Peggie said that if she were put in that position again, she would need to address it with Upton. This is what happened a few months later, when she found herself needing to use the........

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