House of Commons - Culture, Media and Sport

Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Seventh Report

1 Introduction

1. The terms of reference for this inquiry were published in April 2004 and followed a twin-track approach. One strand concerned drugs in sport and set out the issues as follows:

the policy underpinning drug-free sport and the extent of the problem;

variations in approach and regime between different sports;

the role and performance of DCMS and UK Sport as the lead agency in this field (within the context of the current review of its functions);

progress by the UK as a whole towards adopting the World Anti-Doping Code; and

the importance of educational initiatives and processes.

2. The second strand was the associated issue of the positive and negative aspects of the role-model status assigned to sportsmen and -women and initiatives designed to capitalise on the public profile of such figures to encourage people, especially young people, to:

achieve their own personal "gold medal" standard of sporting performance;
engage generally in a more active and healthy lifestyle; and
reach goals, and overcome hurdles, beyond sport.

Course of inquiry

3. In addition to issuing an invitation to submit written evidence, the Committee took oral evidence from: Ms Michelle Verroken, former Director of UK Sport's Drug-Free Sport Directorate (DFSD) and Vice-President of the Association of National Anti-Doping Organisations; Professor David Cowan BPharm, PhD, FRPharmS, Director of the Doping Control Centre, Kings College London (the UK's IOC-accredited drugs testing laboratory); Mr Charles Woodhouse, Chairman, Mr Jon Siddal, Director, Mr Peter Leaver QC, panel member, Ms Alison Faiers, Case Officer, Sports Dispute Resolution Panel (SDRP); Mr David Sparkes, Chief Executive of British Swimming; Mr David Moorcroft, Chief Executive, Ms Helen Jacobs, Operations Director, UK Athletics and Mr Mark Richardson, athlete; the Rt Hon Richard Caborn MP, Minister for Sport and Tourism, Mr Stephen Hodgson, Head of Elite Sports, DCMS; Mr (now Sir) Trevor Brooking, Director of Football Development, and Mr Nic Coward, Director of Corporate & Legal Affairs, The Football Association (FA); Ms Guinevere Batten, Olympic rower, Mr Giles Long, Paralympic swimmer, and Mr Adam Pengilly, Bob Skeleton rider, from the British Athletes Commission; and Ms Sue Campbell CBE, Chairman, and Mr John Scott, Acting Director of the Drug-Free Sport Directorate, UK Sport.

4. In addition to these proceedings we were aided by a technical briefing commissioned from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST)[2] as well as a private briefing from the FA on aspects of its disciplinary proceedings. We were grateful for the efforts by all our witnesses to supply clear and helpful material in this inquiry. The evidence gathered is set out in Volume II of this Report.[3]

5. Alongside our inquiry there was a review of the role of UK Sport's Drug Free Sport Directorate undertaken by consultants PMP on behalf of UK Sport and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. This report provided a useful backdrop to our work and is available from UK Sport.[4] On 20 April, Ministers meeting in the UK 'Sport Cabinet' considered the way forward for drug-free sport policy, including the role to be played by UK Sport and the findings of the PMP review. The conclusions of the Sports Cabinet, which broadly endorsed the PMP report, were set out in the submission from the DCMS to the Committee.[5]

2 Ev 134ff Back

3 Ev 1ff Back

4 Review of Drug Free Sport Directorate, PMP, UK Sport, 22 March 2004. Back

5 Ev 53 Back



© Parliamentary copyright 2004	Prepared 15 July 2004