Taxpayers have been forced to fork out £220,500 to defend NHS Fife and Dr Beth Upton in the employment tribunal brought by A&E nurse Sandie Peggie.

However, the final bill will continue to rise when the case continues, with a further 11 days set aside for new hearings. And if Ms Peggie wins the case, the cost will rocket.

A number of news outlets have spent months attempting to pin down the secretive health board on how much they were spending.

In May, the Scottish Information Commissioner was forced to intervene and ordered NHS Fife to reveal what information it held about its legal bill. Now it has emerged the figures were quietly slipped out on Monday.

Ms Peggie, 50, was suspended after she challenged the presence of Dr Upton, born a biological male, in the female changing rooms at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital on Christmas Eve 2023.

She later sued her employers for sexual harassment and discrimination, with previous hearings in February revealing the widespread failure by Scottish public bodies to provide single-sex changing rooms.