RCVS responds to CMA's provisional decision

We have today broadly welcomed the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) provisional decision on remedies for the veterinary sector, following its market investigation into ‘veterinary services for household pets’. 

The CMA published its provisional decision on 15 October 2025, with a document that sets out a number of potential actions it feels are needed to remedy the issues for consumers that its investigation has identified in the veterinary services market.

We are supportive of there being greater transparency for the animal-owning public over the costs of veterinary services and medicines and around the ownership structures of veterinary businesses and associated services.

We are supportive of there being greater transparency for the animal-owning public over the costs of veterinary services and medicines and around the ownership structures of veterinary businesses and associated services.  

We also welcome the CMA’s finding that the government needs urgently to prioritise a new Veterinary Surgeons Act, which supports the College’s long-held position that it needs new statutory powers to regulate veterinary businesses as well as individual veterinary professionals. 

Linda Belton, RCVS Senior Vice-President and RCVS Lead for the CMA investigation, said:  

“There are welcome recommendations in the CMA’s summary of its report, and we note that they have listened and taken on board feedback about the scope of their recommendations and the impact they may have on veterinary practices.  

“We are pleased that the CMA recommendations support our longstanding calls for legislative reform, and particularly mandatory veterinary business regulation, as well as recognising the value of our Find a Vet search tool as a means for consumers to find out more about practices.  

“There are elements of the recommendations that the CMA has asked us to incorporate into our own Code of Professional Conduct and, while we will need to consider these recommendations in detail, we look forward to continuing discussions with the CMA on this. 

"We are pleased that the CMA recommendations support our longstanding calls for legislative reform, and particularly mandatory veterinary business regulation."

Linda Belton MRCVS
Senior Vice-President

“We agree with the CMA that ‘the vast majority of veterinary professionals work hard, act ethically, and put animal welfare first’, and echo its sentiment that vets and vet nurses ‘deserve respect, not hostility, as they go about their professional duties’. 

“We were also reassured to hear the CMA’s view that their proposed remedies should further ‘protect veterinary judgement from undue commercial pressure’.”  

The CMA investigation was launched in May 2024 and has encompassed areas such as: the information pet owners receive when deciding on treatment options or making purchases; competition between vet practices; ownership of vet practices and associated service providers; the profitability of different types of vet businesses; and the regulatory framework which underpins the sector. 

We have worked closely with the CMA throughout its investigation, providing data and information about its powers to regulate individual veterinary professionals (but not veterinary businesses, other than on a voluntary basis).  

Via our CMA Working Group, we have also given extensive feedback to the CMA, including responding to its May 2025 draft remedies documents, in which we welcomed the broad direction of travel, but expressed caution over potential unintended consequences of some of the draft recommendations. 

We will now work on formulating a response to the provisional recommendations ahead of the deadline of Wednesday 12 November 2025.