A former borough commander has been moved out of his Scotland Yard job following criticism over his meeting with an undercover officer with close ties to murder black teenager Stephen Lawrence's family - a matter now referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Commander Richard Walton - Harrow's most senior policeman between April 2007 and July 2009 - was reassigned from his role as head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command in the wake of Thursday's publication of the findings of The Stephen Lawrence Independent Review into allegations of corruption in the original police investigation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the role of undercover policing in the case.

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The review conducted by specialist fraud and crime barrister Mark Ellison QC was critical of a 1998 meeting between Mr Walton, then an Acting Detective Inspector, and an undercover police officer, known only as N81, who had been deployed to infiltrate one of the groups seeking to influence Stephen's family.

The report said the confab was "wrong-headed and inappropriate" because Mr Walton had been seconded to the Metropolitan Police's Lawrence Review Team that was drafting the force's response to The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry set up in the aftermath of the killing.

Mr Ellison's review found Mr Walton's account of the circumstances and content of the secret encounter "less than straightforward to establish and somewhat troubling".

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Saturday: "The Commissioner has already instructed his Professional Standards team to examine where both reports should lead to action against individual officers.

"One officer has already been moved and that matter has been voluntarily referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission."

Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "I want to assure Baroness Lawrence and Mr Lawrence, and the public, right now of my determination to act.

"Under my leadership, the Metropolitan Police will do all it can to redeem ourselves in their eyes. We will continue to seek to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of their son.

"I fully support the public inquiry announced by the Home Secretary on Thursday.

"I undertake to ensure that the Metropolitan Police shares everything with that inquiry and other investigations.

"The Metropolitan Police will not regain lost trust without honesty, openness and transparency."

Two men, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were convicted two years ago at the Old Bailey of the racially-motivated 1993 murder of Stephen in Eltham, south-east London, and were sentenced to life imprisonment.