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UK Sport had ‘big concerns’ on cycling’s bullying probe

Shane Sutton: (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Shane Sutton: (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

UK Sport raised serious concerns about British Cycling’s handling of the in-house Shane Sutton bullying investigation, it has emerged.

Last October, the cycling governing body upheld a complaint from Jess Varnish that Sutton had used sexist language against her but leaked minutes of a board meeting later revealed just one of the nine charges against Sutton had been upheld.

It found Sutton had used the term “bitches” but that “on the balance of probabilities” the former technical director had not told the rider to “go and have a baby” and not used the “c word”.

But in an email dated December 14 to then British Cycling chairman and president Bob Howden, which has been made public today, following a Freedom of Information Act request by the Press Association, UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said she had “serious concerns” about how the board came to that conclusion following the investigation led by Alex Russell, a board member.

She also asked for a copy of the report, which was shared with the subsequent independent review into an alleged climate of fear at British Cycling, but has not been shared with UK Sport on confidentiality grounds. A spokesman for British Cycling said that was because “interviewees provided information on the understanding it would be confidential and shared only with the British Cycling board and with the independent review panel”.

But Nicholl said she had “serious concerns about your process, not least that it was the board that made the findings of fact about the allegations, not the person [Russell] who had directly heard the evidence”.

Also in the email, she stated: “I also questioned why UK Sport had not been fully informed of the facts. It was a surprise to hear of the board’s involvement of anything other than ensuring due process and handling reputation management, and a shock to hear it revealed in the media that eight out of nine of the complaints considered by the internal review (had) not been upheld.”

Meanwhile, MPs have not yet decided whether to recall British Cycling medical chief Dr Richard Freeman over the jiffy bag delivered to Sir Bradley Wiggins back in 2011.

Yesterday, Freeman wrote to the Culture, Media and Sport committee, saying there was no policy of recording drugs use at Team Sky or British Cycling in 2011.