My Lords, Amendment 214B is the product of some 30 years of discussions I have had with successive Governments, numerous reviews and ministerial answers, during which time many countries have now overtaken us and introduced legislation to criminalise the worst effects of doping in sport. So at least I am confident that the Minister will not be seeking more time to consider this very important subject.
I thank Her Majesty’s Opposition for the work they did in another place. My amendment follows the amendments tabled by Christina Rees, the Labour MP for Neath, who was supported on 24 April this year by Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham who said:
“People need to be able to trust that what they are seeing on the pitch, on the track or in the pool is real endeavour and not artificially enhanced. If you are using performance-enhancing drugs, you are not just cheating the other athletes but you are perpetrating a fraud against the paying public. For that reason, there is a clear case for it to be a criminal offence. We must send the strongest possible message that it will not be tolerated in sport”.
The amendments tabled today have also been actively discussed in informal conversations with the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, from the Cross Benches and the noble Lords, Lord Campbell of Pittenweem, Lord Addington, and others, who have campaigned for many years on this subject. I am grateful to them for the interest they have shown and to colleagues on my side of the House for their expressed support. The Government should be in no doubt of the depth of support for these measures, both in the press and the country as a whole, not least in the wake of the banning of the Russian athletics team from the Rio Olympic Games this year.
The effect of the amendment is set out in proposed subsection (2). It seeks to deal with nothing less than fraud in sport. Those athletes who knowingly take performance-enhancing drugs from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list with the intention of enhancing his or her performance to the detriment of the clean athlete—thus potentially denying the clean athlete selection, the prestige of winning or financial gain for professional athletes—would, if the amendment is passed, be guilty of a crime under the legislation.
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The bar in the legislation has been set very high in the draft amendment, since it is intended to be principally one of deterrence. In recent years many countries, ranging from New Zealand, Austria, Italy, France, Holland and Sweden to Mexico and China, have
either criminalised the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport or enacted legislation that criminalises the trafficking of such drugs. Germany is the most recent country to introduce legislation. Under its new law earlier this year, athletes found guilty of doping face fines or prison sentences of up to three years. The German Interior Minister stated:
“The law was overdue, important penal provisions now come into effect”.
He added:
“I am convinced that we can tackle doping in sport and the criminal structures behind it more effectively with this anti-doping law”.
Under the law, athletes who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs or are found guilty of possession of performance-enhancing drugs can face prison terms of up to three years. Those who provide them with the substances can face sentences of up to 10 years.
We in this country are behind the curve, and the amendment addresses fraud in sport. Sadly, the existing legislation lacks the sport-specific requirements to deal with fraud caused by doping in sport. There is no intention whatever to criminalise an athlete who simply makes a mistake—for example, innocently eating a steak that has been imported from a farm where cows were injected with steroids. The bar of proof needs to be set very high for those athletes who knowingly take a cocktail of drugs with the intention of enhancing their performance and cheating a clean athlete out of a career or out of selection.
I turn to proposed subsection (3). At present an athlete serves a ban usually for four years for a serious offence, with many serving less time. The amendment seeks to make a connection between the drugs taken and how long the benefit lasts. Where some drugs are out of the human system within a matter of days, others stay for life. For example, when taken in the teens, human growth hormone can deliver a substantial increase in height and the beneficiary is unlikely to shrink back to his original height in years to come. As a result, there is a proposed requirement on any previously banned athlete to provide a certificate from a medical practitioner in the UK, appointed by the General Medical Council for the purpose of testing athletes for prohibited substances, confirming that the athlete no longer has the prohibited substance in his or her body and that their body does not retain any advantage in sporting performance by reason of the athlete having taken a prohibited substance in the past.
It has been the press, not our own or indeed the world anti-doping agencies, who have led the way on this subject, and they should be congratulated. That position should be reversed, though; it should be the anti-doping agencies that lead the way. Earlier this year the Sunday Times led a campaign to empower the United Kingdom Anti-Doping agency, in the light of its lack of sanctions, to deal with a certain Dr Bonar, who is alleged to have provided performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of British athletes. Under current legislation, UKAD has no powers to deal with any doctors unless they are affiliated with a British governing body of sport. My amendment would work to ensure that a medical professional would commit an offence
if he or she prescribed a prohibited substance to any athlete with the intention of enhancing that athlete’s performance in contravention of the World Anti-Doping Agency. In framing legislation, it is as important to address the athlete as it is the entourage that supplies them.
It is proposed that the UK organising committee of any European or world championship has to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the athletes it accepts through the entry process, which is mandated as part of its function by the international federation, are clean. This is important in the context of the Russian athletics team, which was banned from Rio as a team but among which there were few athletes who had individually tested positive. At present there is nothing to stop that team being reaccepted into the International Amateur Athletic Federation and competing next year in the world championships to be held here in London. The amendment would put an onus on the UK organising committee members to work with the anti-doping agency to ensure that no international drug cheats came to London to compete in the world athletics championships without demonstrating that they were clean. I then have two sections that address the relationship between UKAD and the World Anti-Doping Agency and their accountability here in Parliament.
In summary, there is no redemption for the clean athlete denied selection or winnings by a competitor who knowingly cheats. What is worse, the cheat with a chance of a long-lasting benefit derived from performance-enhancing drugs knowingly shreds the dreams of clean athletes with every needle that they inject. The director-general of the World Anti-Doping Agency reflected last year:
“I want to pose the question: should doping be a criminal matter? It is in Italy, and we think—some of us—that the real deterrent that cheating athletes fear is the fear of going to prison, not the fear of being stood down from their sport for a year, two years, four years, but a fear of going to prison”.
He is right. Over the years, many British Olympic athletes—and I declare my interest of not only having competed in two Olympic Games, but having had the privilege of being the Chairman of the British Olympic Association during Beijing and London—have taken a firm and uncompromising stance that those guilty of cheating should never again be selected to represent their country. These amendments go nowhere near as far as that objective, but they signal a clear intention to clean athletes that Parliament will act and will act now.