the times | Tuesday April 5 2022 15
News
Scotland Yard is considering introduc-
ting warrant cards that can be scanned
by smartphones in an attempt to re-
store confidence in officers after the
murder of Sarah Everard.
The Metropolitan Police said it
would “urgently explore” technology to
allow the public to verify warrant cards
after a serving firearms officer used his
to lure Everard into his car before ab-
ducting, raping and killing her.
The plans were among commitments
in a report outlining the Met’s new ap-
proach to tackling violence against
women and girls and repairing the
damage done to public trust by her
Police’s tech plan to rebuild public trust
John Simpson Crime Correspondent murder. However, Everard, a 33-year-
old marketing manager, was shown an
authentic warrant card by PC Wayne
Couzens and it is unclear how the plan
would address any such abuse of power.
The report, released yesterday, said:
“We will expedite the rollout of new
warrant cards to improve security and
urgently explore the capability to pro-
vide the public the ability to scan new
passes to confirm authenticity.”
Speaking after publication of the
plans, Assistant Commissioner Louisa
Rolfe said: “I’m devastated when I see
poor behaviour and I’m really sad
because I know that a very small num-
ber of people are attracted to policing
for the wrong reasons, for the power the
uniform might afford them and they
might use and abuse that power to
abuse victims and that makes me very,
very sad. But it makes me ever more de-
termined to root it out and ensure that
people can trust the police service
because the vast majority of us care a
great deal about this and we want to
work with women and girls across
London to ensure their safety.”
Rolfe said 50 more investigators have
been added to the Met’s department for
professional standards and that the
force was “acting swiftly and robustly”
to deal with poor behaviour by officers.
“There will be more offences and in-
cidences coming to light; we’re an em-
ployer of more than 40,000 people inLondon but we are really clear about
our expectations,” she said.
The force had more than 1,400 re-
sponses from the public on the plan
after publishing a draft in November.
As well as tackling officers’ behaviour, it
sets out how the Met will target perpe-
trators and improve outcomes for vic-
tims in the justice system.
Rolfe said: “We wanted women and
girls in London to feel that they had in-
fluenced this plan so we’ve been con-
sulting. They wanted us to be really
clear about the work we’re doing to im-
prove our professional standards and to
root out bad behaviour in the Met, so
we’ve put that front and centre.”
Baroness Casey of Blackstock is lead-ing an independent review of standards
in the Met which will consider miso-
gyny among concerns about the force’s
culture following the Everard case, the
jailing of two officers for sharing photo-
graphs of the bodies of two murdered
sisters and officers at Charing Cross
police station sharing bigoted jokes on
rape and killing black children.
The Met said before its action plan
was published that a serving officer had
been charged with sexually assaulting a
colleague while on duty.
Dame Cressida Dick resigned as Met
Commissioner on February 10 after
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, made it
clear that he had no confidence in her
plans to reform the force.New divorce
law ‘won’t
make splits
any easier’
James Beal Social Affairs EditorA change in the divorce law aimed at re-
ducing conflict between couples will
not necessarily be a quick way to end a
marriage.
The Divorce, Dissolution and Sepa-
ration Act, which becomes law tomor-
row, heralds the introduction of “no-
fault” divorce, meaning couples no
longer need to blame each other for the
collapse of a relationship.
However, family lawyers said that
the inclusion of a 20-week cooling-off
period could frustrate individuals
wanting to end a marriage.
Claire Reid, of Hall Brown Family
Law, said the legislation also does noth-
ing to help resolve disputes about how
to divide marital assets. “The new law
does not contain measures to help ad-
dress that very essential part of the pro-
cess, meaning that spouses may find di-
vorces taking just as long as under the
old regime,” she said.
The warning follows a debate in the
House of Lords last month in which the
failure to tackle financial disputes on
divorce was singled out as a shortcom-
ing of the new law.
Baroness Deech even indicated that
“unless it is reformed, the no-fault di-
vorce law will fail to achieve its aims”.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, a justice
minister, said that the government was
“committed to exploring the financial
provision aspects of divorce after the
act comes into effect”.
The new act gained royal assent in
June 2020 and was due to come into
force last autumn but it was delayed
because of the need to upgrade the on-
line portal which now processes 80 per
cent of all divorce petitions.
Figures published by the Ministry of
Justice last month showed that 42 per
cent of divorces in 2020 were on the
grounds of unreasonable behaviour. A
further 10 per cent were because of alle-
gations of adultery.
Divorces concluded last autumn
took 55 weeks on average from the issu-
ing of the initial petition to the granting
of the decree absolute.
Reid said that many cases which did
not involve a lot of money or complex-
ity could still take up to 18 months to
bring to a close because of arguments
about finances.
“Economic uncertainty has meant
that people are more anxious about
their future prospects and, therefore,
determined to leave a marriage with as
much as they can,” she said.T
im and Tanya
Spittle woke
up at 4.30am
to finish
lambing on
their Cotswolds farm,
then took part in a
gym class in a
converted cattle barn,
before changing into
business clothes for a
meeting at the local
distillery that has
helped them to create
Europe’s first sheep
milk vodka (Will
Humphries writes).
They are part of a
growing breed of
farmers who are
having to diversify to
keep their farms alive.
“If you think you are
going to stay on a farm
by sticking to the old
ways you aren’t going
to last very long,” Mr
Spittle, 50, said.
“Fourteen years ago
we created a gym on
our farm and that
turned out to be the
factor that allowed us
to resurrect our farm
and ultimately allowed
us to be able to create
this vodka.”
Last year they
launched Blacklion
Vodka, which was at
the time the only
sheep milk vodka in
Europe and one of just
three in the world.
The Spittles ferment
the sugar-rich whey, a
waste product from
sheep milk cheese-
making, to create atriple distilled, triple
filtered, small-batch
spirit.
Their vodka, which
costs £75 a bottle, is
becoming a key source
of income for their
300-acre farm near
Moreton-in-Marsh,
Gloucestershire.
To produce the vodka
they created a new
breed of sheep, the
black lion, a cross
between the Swiss
valais blacknose and
milking sheep.
The spirit is creamy
on the nose and
smooth to drink. It
took four years of
experimentation to
perfect and recently
won a bronze award at
the International
Wine and Spirit
Competition.
Pete Simpson, a
mixologist at the Old
Stocks Inn in
nearby Stow-on-
the-Wold, said they
had stocked the
vodka for the past
year and it had
been a hit.
The Spittles’
gym, called
Freestyle 360,
covers 7,
sq m, has 300
members and
eight personal
trainers, along
with a spin
room, fitness
classes and
outdoor
workoutareas. Mr Spittle
said he would like
to see more
government
assistance to help
farms
maximise
their business
potential.
Farmers
face an
uncertain
future as the
costs of
production
soar and
government
subsidies
change topromote
environmental
schemes and
rewilding.
The latest Farm
Business Survey
conducted by the
government shows
that 68 per cent of
farms have chosen to
diversify and the
income generated as a
result topped £
million in 2019-2020.
Of the farms that
have diversified, this
amounted to an
additional income of
more than £19,000 perfarm, about 28 per
cent of total farm
business income.
Bryn Perry, 33, a
tenant on a 35-acre
council-owned starter
farm near
Haverfordwest in
Pembrokeshire,
launched his
Ewenique Spirits
vodka business last
year after being
horrified by the
amount of whey being
thrown away while
making blue and
halloumi sheep milk
cheeses. Whenmaking cheese he was
getting about 18 per
cent curds (used for
cheese making) and
80 per cent whey, a
waste product that was
then poured down the
drain. Perry said:
“Environmentally,
financially, morally,
there’s no justification
for wasting any
farming by-product.”
Three years ago
Pete and Emma
Ledbury thought
selling fresh milk at
their farm gate could
bring in some extra
income from their 80-
strong dairy herd. It
has saved the farm.
“If we hadn’t
diversified we
probably would have
jacked it in last year,”
Ms Ledbury said.
The couple have
installed a vending
machine and also sell
home-made butter,
cream and
increasingly popular
milkshakes from their
tenant farm near
Shipston-on-Stour in
Warwickshire.
They also supply the
milk for the “cow
juice” vending
machine at Jeremy
Clarkson’s Diddly
Squat farm shop
nearby.
The wedding
business has also been
a lifeline for many
farms. Celia Gaze, 52,
was a stressed
programme director in
the NHS before
deciding to turn her
partner’s rundown
family property into
the Wellbeing Farm
wedding venue on the
Lancashire moors.
After eight years of
hard work they have
about 100 weddings a
year and the sheep her
father-in-law still
farms are used to feed
the guests, while the
surrounding farms
and villages benefit
from guests booking
accommodation and
taxis to the venue.Sheep milk vodka
gives farmers a shot
at staying afloat
Tim and Tanya Spittle’s
Blacklion Vodka, which is
made with sheep milk,
has helped to diversify
their farm’s incomeBLACKLION