David Kenworthy, chair of United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD), warns in the body's newly published annual report that recent public-sector cuts mean that "providing a comprehensive service in the future will be challenging".

His comments come just two weeks after World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chairman John Fahey warned that WADA would be forced to scale back its activities if Governments were not prepared to stump up more cash.

Such statements, coming from two very senior figures in the fight against doping, may raise concerns that Governments' efforts to drive down their deficits in the wake of weak economic growth could impact negatively on attempts to unmask drug cheats at a time when there is little to suggest that illicit drug use by athletes is falling.

As Kenworthy acknowledges, UKAD's funding "was always planned to be reduced" after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

And indeed the body moved to smaller offices in November 2012.


However, Kenworthy says, "we have had two further budget cuts across the whole public sector and so providing a comprehensive service in the future will be challenging".

Although the Olympics have moved on, Britain is set to stage a considerable number of major international events in coming years, including the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The report showed that UKAD ran up operating expenditure of £7.9 million ($11.9 million/€9.1 million) in the year to March 31, 2013, and generated income, mainly from testing, of £1.3 million ($1.9 million/€1.5 million).

This gap was closed by £6.5 million ($9.8 million/€7.5 million) of grant-in-aid from the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).

UKAD chief executive Andy Parkinson - whose salary for the 12 months including London 2012 was just £90,000-£95,000 ($135,000-€143,000/€104,000-€110,000) plus £5,000-£10,000 ($7,500-$15,000/€5,700-€11,500) in performance-related pay - said he was "delighted to report, as validated by WADA, that our innovative intelligence-driven approach to pre-Games and Games-time testing outside the key venues delivered six out of the eight positive tests at the Olympics, removing those athletes from competition, in some cases before they even arrived in the country".

He also paid tribute to UKAD staff for their "never ending dedication and commitment which in this economic climate really is for the love of sport".

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