MPs set for radical bid to criminalise doping

THE government is considering a radical review of procedures in the fight against drugs in British sport, with MPs ready to call for criminalising certain doping offences and a levy on sports to provide more funding for the UK Anti-Doping agency. UKAD will host their Annual Clean Sport Forum in London today and, while it comes before the publication of either the government’s tailored review of the publicly funded agency or the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee report on doping, big reforms are understood to be under discussion. The select committee’s chairman Damian Collins said in an interview with The Mixed Zone website last year: ‘I think there’s a strong case

to be made for criminalising certain breaches of the (WADA) code. If other parties are involved — a courier, someone prescribing, someone administering — they would all be party to a criminal act. It would really make them think and check.’ Details of the review of UKAD are being kept under wraps until after the Budget, but Sportsmail understands there will be a push for wealthy sports such as football to support an agency that relies almost exclusively on government funding of around £3million a year. Ministers are understood to feel that sport needs to start investing in protecting its own credibility.