Ten per cent is expected to be cut from the organisation's budget in 2015-2016.

"The cut comes in a pre-Olympic year, where we have expectations on our athletes," said UKAD chief executive Andy Parkinson.

"The challenge is to have the resource to run our [testing] programmes."

He added: "Being able to find efficiencies is more limited now" - because UKAD has already made them.

Parkinson led the World Anti-Doping Agency's Observer Programme at the Sochi 2014 Olympics last month.

The observers monitored all aspects of doping control at the Games, and will present a report on their findings.

"We're in the final stages of the report - it's another three to four weeks down the line," said Parkinson.

German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle was the first athlete at Sochi 2014 to test positive ©Getty Images



Seven athletes were found to have doped during the Olympics: German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle; Italian bobsledder William Frullani; Ukrainian cross-country skier Marina Lisogor; Latvian ice hockey player Vitalijs Pavlovs; Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Duerr and Polish bobsledder Daniel Zalewski.

Swedish ice hockey player Nicklas Bäckström also failed a test shortly before the men's final, but the International Olympic Committee cleared him of any doping charge and awarded a silver medal.

He had tested positive for pseudoephedrine, but claimed the banned substance came from an allergy medication he had been taking for seven years

"It was disappointing that most of the seven were avoidable," said Parkinson.

"There was a lot of methylhexaneamine in these cases."

"Things like cold remedies [leading to doping violations] continue to happen.

"It shouldn't be happening.

"I don't know why it continues to.

"You can't continue to say, 'The coach said it's OK'."