Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of UK anti-doping procedures in preventing athletes who have failed drug tests from partaking in combat sports.

The UK’s national anti-doping organisation, UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), an arm’s length body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, acts according to the remit laid out in the UK’s National Anti-Doping Policy, and implements the UK’s National Anti-Doping Rules: https://www.ukad.org.uk/anti-doping-rules.

These Rules ensure the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Code are met in the UK. The Rules make no distinction between individual sports in terms of sanctions.

Decisions around any athlete ban from sport (if contested) are made by the independent National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP). This is independent of UKAD and is run on behalf of DCMS. The NADP’s procedural rules are available on their website: https://www.sportresolutions.co.uk/images/uploads/files/D_1_-_2019_NADP_Rules.pdf