New National Anti-doping Agency To Launch In 2009

After a number of delays, it has been confirmed that the new national anti-doping agency (NADO) will be in operation by the end of 2009, taking full responsibility for all drug testing of elite athletes.

The agency, provisionally called UK Anti-Doping, will cost £7.2m a year, a 60% hike on the current testing budget and will take over responsibility for the procedures from elite funding body UK Sport.

In confirming that the new organisation would be up and running this year, Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe commented: ‘The Nado will build on UK Sport’s excellent work. But the global fight against doping sport has shifted and the move to a new, stand-alone Nado reflects that change.

‘We have learned that to be truly effective we need the ability to target manufacturers, traffickers and suppliers of prohibited substances.’

As well as continuing UK Sport’s athlete education and testing work, Sutcliffe said the new body will be given ‘significant new powers’ to ensure Britain’s remains in the forefront of anti-doping efforts in the build-up to London 2012.

These new powers will include a more centralised approach to pursuing doping cases, and much closer links will be sought with law enforcement agencies, particularly Customs and Excise and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).

First announced to universal approval in December 2007, the agency was supposed to have opened for business last year but arguments between UK Sport and the Government over start-up costs have stalled the project.

Those up-front costs are believed to have been trimmed from £3m to £1.8m but there are still important issues, such as a name and location for the Nado, to be resolved.

It was also confirmed that one step the Government and Nado will not be taking is to make doping a criminal offence, as has started to happen elsewhere in Europe, most notably in Italy.