Skip to main content

Data display issue on RCVS Find a Vet service

We have this week [10 September 2026] written to a number of individuals on our Registers about a recent incident where limited individual location and/or contact details were unintentionally published on our Find a Vet website. 

Date Published:
Advice
Advice/guidance
Practices

Our investigation has identified that the issue arose following an internal data configuration issue with our digital systems. This was not a cybersecurity issue, and no bank or payment details were published. 

Nevertheless, we are very sorry that this has happened, and for any concern or inconvenience we have caused, and would like to set out more detail below for those people who may have been affected. 

What data was published 

For 8,928 of over 68,000 people on our Registers, a single line from the correspondence address we hold for individuals, rather than from the registered address, was published on the individual’s listing on Find a Vet.  

In the majority of cases, this was county name and, in a minority of cases, this was the town/city or country name. 

Please note: we do not and have not publish(ed) full address details for any individual on our Registers. 

Separately, on approximately 789 of over 4,500 practice listings on Find a Vet, some alternate phone numbers and individual email addresses were published.  

These details had been supplied to us as the preferred way for us to contact the practice but were temporarily published in their practice’s contact details on Find a Vet, instead of the practice’s main phone number and main email address. 

The majority of the email addresses contained business-related domains; 124 of the email addresses appeared to have personal domains, eg hotmail.com, gmail.com etc. 

When was it published 

The data was displaying incorrectly from 29 July to 25 August 2026 when we became aware of the issue and took immediate action. 

What action did we take 

On 25 August, we: 

  • removed from public view the location field on individual records 
  • reconfigured practice listings to show only business contact details 
  • began an investigation to determine what had gone wrong, in order to avoid this situation reoccurring. 

After concluding our investigation, on 10 September, we: 

  • emailed all individuals affected to inform them of the situation, and to apologise for any inconvenience or concern this might have caused them.

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) 

We have notified the ICO of the situation.  

What happens next 

We have reassured the individuals affected that they do no need to do anything. 

We will continue additional testing on our internal systems to ensure they are working as they should. Once we are fully satisfied that they are, we will reinstate the location field for all individual records. 

Questions 

Anyone with any questions about the issue should please contact us at [email protected], with ‘Data display’ in the subject line. 

Related Content

Veterinary professional accessing Academy Live sessions on a computer

RCVS Academy: supporting veterinary professionals with complaints and client communication

With increasing public attention on veterinary services - including the recently concluded investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) - supporting veterinary professionals to communicate effectively with clients and navigate complaint resolution has never been more important. The RCVS Academy continues to provide practical learning resources to help veterinary teams build confidence in managing complaints, responding compassionately to concerns, and understanding regulatory processes.