The British Orienteering Federation is delighted to announce its completion of the Assurance Framework, which National Governing Bodies (NGBs) must fulfil to certify to UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) that they are meeting their anti-doping responsibilities.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published the updated 2021 UK National Anti-Doping Policy (Policy) in April 2021, which all NGBs must be compliant with. This was the first update of the Policy since its implementation in 2009.

UKAD, which is responsible for ensuring that sports bodies comply with the World Anti-Doping Code through its implementation and management of the Policy, introduced the Assurance Framework for NGBs to be able to evidence their compliance with the Policy.

The introduction of the Assurance Framework is the most significant change in the Policy. It outlines a series of mandatory requirements which all NGBs must fulfil. These requirements include the creation of an education strategy and plan, the implementation of anti-doping rules and increased involvement of an NGB’s Board with clean sport.

Upon completion of the Assurance Framework Peter Hart from British Orienteering, said: “At British Orienteering, we recognise the importance of a clean sport and have worked hard to ensure our policies and education strategy provides our athletes the best support. We are pleased to have achieved compliance with the framework which highlights how seriously we take clean sport within Orienteering.

We would like to thank UKAD for their help and support during this process to ensure we have a strong and robust framework in place.”

UKAD’s Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Nisha Dutt, said: “At UKAD we work tirelessly to protect clean sport, but we can’t do it alone. This Assurance Framework supports NGBs with the delivery of their anti-doping responsibilities and will help British Orienteering embed clean sport values into Orienteering going forward. It is brilliant to see that British Orienteering has completed the UKAD Assurance Framework after working closely with our dedicated Assurance and Education teams over recent months.”

For more information on the Policy and Assurance Framework, visit the UKAD website.