British government wary of criminalising doping

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) The British government appears reluctant to make doping a criminal offence despite the British Olympic Association (BOA) setting up a commission to look into the possibility.

The chairman of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) medical commission Arne Ljungqvist, an advisor to the BOA inquiry, said this week that criminalising doping would ensure a clean London 2012 Olympics.

An EU white paper on sport has also called for doping to treated in the same way as other drug offences.

Responding to Ljungqvist's comments, new sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe said: ''Doping in sport is a serious issue and one that I'm working hard on to address alongside UK Sport.

''We must ensure sport is clean and that athletes realise that taking banned substances is simply unacceptable.'' However, the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) said making doping a criminal offence would be a ''disproportionate'' response, insisting they fully supported the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.

''We think the WADA code, where an athlete can be banned for two years or more, sends out a very strong message,'' a DCMS spokesman said.

HIGH PRIORITY With London hosting the Olympics in 2012, the anti-doping issue in Britain is high priority, although the BOA's inquiry has not been welcomed by UK Sport, the government agency responsible for testing.

''There needs to be clarity about who is responsible for what,'' John Steele, chief executive of UK Sport, said in a statement. ''The last thing British sport needs as we build up to Beijing 2008 and London 2012 is distraction, confusion about roles and duplication of effort.'' Earlier this year, a cross-party committee of British MPs accused the government and UK Sport of complacency in the fight against drugs cheats.

Their report called for automatic four-year bans and recommended that an independent body be put in charge of national anti-doping controls, rather than UK Sport.

Today, UK Sport announced plans to establish a new independent anti-doping panel to hear doping cases on behalf of national governing bodies.

''This is a hugely exciting development in the fight against doping in sport in the UK,'' John Scott, director of Drug-Free Sport at UK Sport, said in a statement.

''The current decentralised system of adjudication places huge demands on national governing bodies, particularly the smaller ones with scarce resources. It also undermines our goal of consistent application of (WADA) Code-compliant rules across every sport in the UK.'' At present, once an athlete has failed a UK Sport doping test they then go before their own sport's national governing body's disciplinary panel which decides the punishment.

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