Beating the cheats: UK Anti-Doping receives £6 million funding boost

Budget increased in the run up to Tokyo 2020 to cement UKAD’s position as one of the leading anti-doping agencies in the world

• Investment of £6.1 million will help educate athletes, share intelligence and conduct testing in the fight against drug cheats to keep sport clean
• Sports Minister Tracey Crouch also publishes second annual update on government’s sport strategy that shows progress on governance,

UK Anti-Doping is to receive an additional £6 million of funding from the government to further strengthen its armoury in the fight against doping, Sports Minister Tracey Crouch announced today.

The move comes after the first full-scale review of the organisation since it was set up in 2009 that has resulted in a number of recommendations to help make further progress in anti-doping.

These include:

• UKAD to consider submitting a framework to government and sports to allow doping control officers to have unfettered access to conduct random testing at competitions
• UKAD to encourage greater collaboration from law enforcement agencies and to ensure whistleblowers have confidence to come forward
• Sports in receipt of public funding to report annually on their anti-doping education programmes to UKAD and publish this information on their websites
• Health harms associated with the abuses of Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs (IPEDs) should be integrated into drug information and education supported by Public Health England, Public Health Wales, Health Scotland, Public Health (Northern Ireland) and the Home Office Drugs Strategy
• Government should revise the National Anti-Doping Policy by September 2018 in consultation with UKAD and the Home Country Sport Councils
• UKAD to ensure that all publicly funded athletes and support personnel participate in annual anti-doping education programmes
• UKAD to establish an Innovations Committee later this year to signpost new trends in doping
• A new international strategy to be drawn up by UKAD to help drive a global approach to innovation in anti-doping

The move means that over the next two years UKAD’s budget will be increased by around 50 per cent to help it implement the recommendations in the tailored review.

Sports Minister Tracey Crouch (above) said: “We must do all we can to make sure sport is free from doping and that players and fans are confident that there is a level playing field. This £6 million additional funding for UKAD will help us take the fight even harder to those trying to cheat through doping. It will also help educate people at all levels of sport about the dangers of image and performance enhancing drugs and maintain UKAD’s standing as one of the leading anti-doping agencies in the world.”

UKAD will now work with the DCMS on the specifics of what the additional £6.1 million will be spent on.

UK Anti-Doping Chair Trevor Pearce said: “We are delighted at the news from DCMS today, to significantly increase the funding available to UKAD for the next two years. This clear commitment to clean sport from government will allow us to increase the effectiveness of our current investigation, testing and education programmes, and also importantly to expand our investment into new approaches in the fight against doping. We look forward to working with DCMS on the implementation of recommendations for UKAD and we share their ambition for the UK to lead the world in Anti-Doping.”

Today Tracey Crouch has also published the second annual report to Parliament on the government’s sport strategy ‘Sporting Future.’ Progress made on the implementation of the strategy over includes:

• Code for Sports governance being adhered to by national governing bodies to ensure greater transparency, accountability and diversity across the sector
• Continued investment in the sector in line with the change in approach to encouraging participation in sport and physical activity that Sporting Future signalled. Sport England has invested over £530 million of exchequer and lottery money in over 2,500 projects over the past 20 months and is working with a broader range of organisations to get people active.
• Sports Business Council set up, co-chaired by Tracey Crouch and Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore
• Review of criminalisation of doping completed with recommendations made to strengthen approach to anti-doping
• Held roundtables on the issue of mental health in physical activity and sport with work ongoing to make progress in this area
• Duty of Care report published by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson to help the sector focus on what more can be done to ensure safeguarding of participants at every level
• Successfully hosted major global sporting events including the 2017 World Athletics Championships
• Won the right to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham

Tracey Crouch added: “We are making good progress on a number of fronts. We are ensuring our governing bodies have world leading standards of governance as well as targeting funding to encourage new participants in sport and physical activity. There is still more work to do. This year I will particularly focus on mental health in sport and encouraging the sector to continue to step up on safeguarding all participants – from the grassroots to the elite.”