The UK Anti-Doping Agency is to receive a £6m cash injection, boosting its annual budget by more than 50%, after high-profile cases including the Bradley Wiggins Jiffy bag investigation highlighted its relative lack of funding and power.
Ukad will receive the £6.1m, spread over the next two years after a review of its operations by the government’s department of culture, media and sport. Ukad, which currently receives around £5.5m a year, feared last year it would be bankrupt by a long-running battle with Tyson Fury.
It worried that the boxer, who tested positive for a banned steroid in June 2016, might sue for loss of earnings after he was sidelined for two years claiming the adverse result came from eating uncastrated wild boar. His annual earnings were roughly equal to Ukad’s entire yearly budget.
Ukad’s limitations, both financial and investigative, were exposed by their probe into a mystery Jiffy bag delivered to Bradley Wiggins at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2011. The investigation, which Ukad said was hampered by British Cycling, had to be closed last year due to a lack of evidence. It hopes the increased funding could also be bolstered by legal powers to compel people of interest to cooperate with the investigation, something the DCMS is currently exploring.
The sports minister, Tracey Crouch, 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 £6m 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 £6.1m will be spent on.
