In Lockwood v Cheshire and Wirral NHS Foundation Trust (ET case numbers: 2401211/2024, 2407178/2024), an employment tribunal has rejected a non-binary National Health Service (NHS) worker’s complaint over repeated misgendering at work, ruling that protections under equality laws did not apply. Judge Nicky Benson ruled that Haech Lockwood, a Cheshire and Wirral NHS Foundation Trust worker, does not have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010), rejecting a harassment claim. Lockwood had changed their name and pronouns (to they/them) but had not reassigned their sex from female to male. EqA 2010, s 7 offers protections for gender reassignment only if a person is undergoing a process ‘for the purpose of reassigning’ their sex. The word ‘reassigning‘ means ‘a move from one thing to another’; ‘it requires a from and a to’, Judge Benson said. ‘In our view it is not sufficient for [Lockwood] to be moving…away from the female sex’, the judge wrote, ‘to qualify for the protection within Section 7, they need to have the purpose of reassigning their sex to that of the opposite sex’.
This is believed to be the first employment tribunal decision on non-binary gender identity since the April 2025 landmark Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers [2025] IRLR 537, which ruled that sex as defined in EqA 2010 is biological; it is binary; either male or female.
Formed in 2017, following significant legislative changes designed to increase competition within the legal services marketplace, Pro Employment Law is a progressive set of barristers’ chambers, consisting only of experienced employment law barristers, offering a full range of specialist advisory, case management, and advocacy services directly to the public through the Public Access scheme. We supply our legal services exclusively in the area of Employment Law to clients located across England & Wales. All of the legal services we supply are covered by professional indemnity insurance with Bar Mutual.
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In Lockwood v Cheshire and Wirral NHS Foundation Trust (ET case numbers: 2401211/2024, 2407178/2024), an employment tribunal has rejected a non-binary National Health Service (NHS) worker’s complaint over repeated misgendering at work, ruling that protections under equality laws did not apply. Judge Nicky Benson ruled that Haech Lockwood, a Cheshire and Wirral NHS Foundation Trust… >>