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- Council Members
- Role of Council Members
- Council meetings
- Council elections
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- Dr Louise Allum
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- Past-Presidents
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- About extra-mural studies (EMS)
- EMS requirements
- Information for vet students
- Information for EMS providers
- Information for vet schools
- Temporary EMS requirements
- Practice by students - regulations
- Health and safety on EMS placements
- EMS contacts and further guidance
- Extra-mural studies fit for the future
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- Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Surgeons
- Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Nurses
- Contact the Advice Team
- XL Bully dog ban
- 'Under care' - guidance
- Advice on Schedule 3
- Controlled Drugs Guidance – A to Z
- Dealing with Difficult Situations webinar recordings
- FAQs – Common medicines pitfalls
- FAQs – Routine veterinary practice and clinical veterinary research
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- GDPR – RCVS information and Q&As
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- Accrediting veterinary degrees
- Accrediting veterinary nursing qualifications
- Reasonable adjustments for student vets
- Reasonable adjustments for student veterinary nurses
- Health and disability in veterinary nurse education and training
- Reasonable adjustments for students and the UK disability discrimination legislation
- Educational assessment of veterinary nurses
- Roles of key stakeholders in the application of reasonable adjustments
- Examples of reasonable adjustments for vet nurse students
- External review of the RCVS by ENQA
- Requirements for remote and online student assessments
RCVS responds to Which? report on vet services
30 May 2025
We welcomed the opportunity to speak with Which? last November about their planned research and will read their report carefully now it has been published this morning (30 May 2025). We also explained to Which? the current limitations in our regulatory framework and the need for new legislation and we are pleased to see that they support our recommendations.
We have been asking government to reform the current legislation – the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 - for some years. Our current remit is relatively narrow and focuses on regulating the individual professionals and not practices, which have never been regulated.
We support proposals to enhance consumer protection, and mandatory practice regulation, and we are currently exploring with Defra how these might be brought about via new legislation, which is the only way to achieve this.
We support proposals to enhance consumer protection, and mandatory practice regulation, and we are currently exploring with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) how these might be brought about via new legislation, which is the only way to achieve this.
Recognising that the legislative change required to make this happen may take some time, we will work with the CMA on any short-term remedies as part of their market investigation into the household pet sector.
Such remedies need to be proportionate, enforceable, effective, applicable across all veterinary settings, and mindful of the fact that any additional burden on veterinary practices could have the unintended consequences of raising prices for the consumer, or a reduction in the availability of veterinary services in some areas
Our concerns investigation process
We work first and foremost to support animal health and welfare, in the public interest.
Investigating concerns raised with us is crucial to our role in upholding standards of veterinary professional conduct and ensuring public confidence in the veterinary professions as being fully regulated and accountable for their actions.
Investigating concerns raised with us is crucial to our role in upholding standards of veterinary professional conduct and ensuring public confidence in the veterinary professions as being fully regulated and accountable for their actions
Under current legislation, we can only investigate allegations of serious professional misconduct, where the conduct of a veterinary professional has fallen far short of the expected behaviours and standards set out in the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct.
For example, fraud or dishonesty, criminality, or a pattern of poor performance involving very serious departures from the Code. It would generally not encompass issues relating to negligence, cost or levels of service, however, a modern regulatory framework under reformed legislation may broaden the range of cases that we are able to investigate.
We investigate the concerns we receive thoroughly in order to ensure that both the public and the veterinary professions have faith in the fairness, integrity and rigour of the system.
We have safeguards in place to ensure that, if a case is closed, there is the opportunity for review and to reopen the case if, for example, further information has come to light.
If a concern progresses to our Preliminary Investigation Committee or a Disciplinary Committee hearing, the case is considered by both lay people and veterinary professionals.
Cases that do not meet our threshold for investigation may be considered by the independent but RCVS-funded Veterinary Client Mediation Service (or VCMS), which provides impartial complaint mediation to try and find a resolution that can be accepted by both parties.
Case studies in the Which? report
We don’t comment on individual cases, but did notify Which? that the facts presented in the case studies do not completely align with those reported to us.
Help and advice for pet owners
We have recently published new advice for pet owners to help build a good understanding of their vet practice and what they should expect from their vet team.