The budget for anti-doping in the United Kingdom may soon be more than doubled from £4million a year to help to give the host nation a respectable chance of fighting drugs in sport before the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Plans were presented to Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, this week that not only called for a budget of about £9million, but also a rise in the workforce from 20 to 50.

One of the most interesting aspects of this brave new world is the possibility that, rather than use the expanded budget to increase the number of drugs tests, there will be criminal investigators employed to track down the supply chain.

A new national anti-doping organisation (Nado) is planned to be up and running in April next year. The Government's intention is that its chairman would be in place by the time of the Beijing Games in August.

The strong focus in the new Nado on police work and investigations into doping will reflect the increasing loss of faith in the success of testing urine samples as a way of fighting drugs in sport. The Marion Jones case demonstrated the flaws in dopetesting; Jones was tested 160 times in her career and never tested positive, but she was forced to confess that she had used performance-enhancing chemicals when she was caught up in a police investigation.

The new Nado will consider employing its own investigators. The intention, therefore, is to “move upstream”, which is the term used by the anti-doping authorities for taking the sole focus away from the athletes who use the drugs and up the supply chain, to their coaches and dealers. This will bring the UK into line with other nations. Last year, when the Drug Enforcement Agency in the United States pulled off Operation Raw Deal, the biggest bust in the performance-enhancing drugs industry, it was reported that a long list of countries had assisted in the investigation and the only one that resisted involvement was the UK.

However, much of this move forward in the UK requires the Government to sign off on the new budget. The presentation is said to have gone down well, although a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said only that “we will consider the proposal thoroughly”. Sutcliffe is, however, under a certain obligation to accept the bulk of new plans because it was he who insisted on the creation of a new Nado. At present, dope-testing in the UK is carried out by Drug-Free Sport, an arm of UK Sport, which also funds the nation's leading Olympic athletes.

Richard Caborn, the former Sports Minister, refused to concede to the argument that this was a conflict of interest. On his appointment as Sports Minister, however, Sutcliffe insisted on the formation of the new Nado.