Boris Johnson’s policing chief Stephen Greenhalgh will receive a verbal warning today over claims he touched a female colleague’s bottom.
Senior City Hall sources said the Mayor was due to speak to Mr Greenhalgh this afternoon to make it clear that there can be no inappropriate conduct “of any kind” at the Greater London Authority.
It comes after a City Hall investigation found that the deputy mayor for policing’s behaviour “may have inadvertently — or otherwise” fallen short of expectations.
However, it concluded that as he had not committed a criminal offence Mr Greenhalgh would not be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
No official complaint has been lodged but the GLA’s monitoring officer confirmed the woman believed the “core elements” of the reported claims of contact were true.
As well as the informal verbal warning, Mr Greenhalgh has received a letter from City Hall officials reminding him of his responsibilities under the Mayor’s Office of Police and Crime’s code of conduct.
However, it emerged that the monitoring officer had not interviewed Mr Greenhalgh in the course of his investigation.
In a letter to the Mayor about his investigation, Ed Williams, wrote: “The member of staff has stated that she considers the core element of those reports to be true, namely that there was contact.
“It is also the case that I have not questioned the deputy mayor for policing and crime about the alleged incident, as I do not consider that to have been a necessary part of this process.
“On balance, and taking into account the recollection of the member of GLA staff concerned, I have decided that the conduct of the deputy mayor did not on this occasion amount to a ‘conduct matter’. I will not therefore be recording or referring the matter to the IPCC.”
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The Mayor, who is ultimately responsible for disciplining his appointments, confirmed that no further action would be taken against his deputy.
“I take a very strong line against inappropriate behaviour, sexual discrimination or harassment. There is no conclusive evidence here as to what happened or has not happened,” he told the London Assembly.
Mr Greenhalgh, who oversees the Met Police, said he had “no recollection” of the incident but apologised for anything that could have been misconstrued.
