October 2015
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is the national organisation dedicated to protecting a culture of clean sport. UKAD is responsible for ensuring sports bodies in the UK are compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code through implementation and management of the UK’s National Anti-Doping Policy.
UKAD is a Non-Departmental Public Body which is accountable to Parliament through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. UKAD was created in December 2009 taking over responsibility for testing and education from the 'Drug Free Sport' Directorate at UK Sport.
UKAD's functions include a prevention through education programme, intelligence-led athlete testing across more than 40 Olympic, Paralympic and professional sports, investigations and exclusive results management authority for the determination of Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs).
UKAD also works in partnership on scientific matters with the Drug Control Centre at King’s College London who are the only World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory in the UK. This partnership looks to identify new pharmacological threats and supports the development of new detection methods with the aim of increasing the detection of prohibited substances.
To this end, UKAD (and formerly the Drug Free Sport Directorate at UK Sport) have actively supported the GH-2004 team at Southampton University and the Drug Control Centre in addressing the challenge of detecting growth hormone use in sport since November 2006. The work of the GH-2004 team to establish a robust detection method for growth hormone is of real importance and invaluable in the continuing fight to protect clean sport and to specifically deter athletes from misusing growth hormone.
To find out more about UKAD, visit www.ukad.org.uk or follow @ukantidoping on Twitter.
