Ex-Met boss cleared over conduct

Former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair has been cleared of misconduct over the award of police contracts valued at £3m to a friend.

The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) said an inquiry had found "no evidence of dishonesty or criminal offence".

The inquiry looked at a contract given in 2002 to the consultancy firm Impact Plus, owned by his friend Andy Miller.

The MPA said it would not be publishing the report yet, but Sir Ian said there was "no reason" to withhold it.

Impact Plus, later Hitachi Consulting, was hired to provide communications and IT systems for the Met and Sir Ian maintains he was "open and straightforward" about his relationship with Mr Miller, his skiing partner.

A spokesman for the MPA said as the report did not find any evidence of dishonesty "no further action" would be taken against Sir Ian.

"I can find no reason why the police authority... should refuse to publish a report which exonerates me entirely from allegations of wrongdoing"

The MPA spokesman said: "At the meeting on Monday, members of the sub-committee took the decision not to publish the final report.

"The sub-committee was not required to determine whether disciplinary proceedings should be brought against Sir Ian Blair since he is no longer serving with the Met.

"The sub-committee was required to consider whether a criminal offence may have been committed. It determined that the report and supporting evidence did not demonstrate any evidence of dishonesty.

"It also concluded that there was no evidence that any criminal offence had been committed."

'Deeply unfair'

He added: "The MPA recognises the importance of 'lessons to be learned' arising from this investigation and until that work has been concluded has decided not to publish."

Sir Ian released details of three of the conclusions of the inquiry passed to him in a letter which established that there was no basis for a criminal prosecution.

Sir Ian said: "I can find no reason why the police authority, whom I served as commissioner and deputy commissioner for nine years, should refuse to publish a report which exonerates me entirely from allegations of wrongdoing.

"It is a great sadness that all of the hard work involved in the extraordinary transformation of communications which the C3i Programme brought to the Met should be overshadowed by this inquiry and now this refusal to publish its findings."

His solicitor, Stephen Parkinson, said: "The decision of the MPA not to inform the public that Sir Ronnie's investigation has acquitted Sir Ian of any misconduct, and to suppress the report or at least those parts affecting him, is deeply unfair."

Sir Ronnie's report in to the 11-month-inquiry arrived at the MPA in June.

Sir Ian stepped down last December after he lost the support of Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

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