Woman’s Hour, Radio 4, 20 November 2024

Complaint

The programme included an interview with Bethany Hutchison, one of eight female nurses taking an NHS trust to an employment tribunal for allowing a trans woman to use their changing facilities at work.  A listener complained that the presenter had failed to ask questions which would have pointed out to the audience that UK law does not recognise gender self-identification and that “letting a fully intact male into a changing room with females” might facilitate voyeurism, which is contrary to UK law.  The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of impartiality.


Outcome

The focus of the interview was on the employment tribunal case to which Ms Hutchison was a party, and the ECU saw no occasion for the interviewer to put questions to her about the wider legal context, on which she professed no expertise.

Not upheld