The British Veterinary Association, which represents more than 19,000 individual vets across the UK, welcomes the majority of the measures, particularly those designed to improve transparency and consumer choice, outlined by the Competition and Markets Authority as it publishes its final decision following more than two years of investigation into the UK vet services market for household pets.

BVA welcomed the CMA’s continued support for BVA’s longstanding calls for reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act, including the introduction of vet practice regulation. It is also pleased to see the CMA acknowledge the intense public scrutiny vet teams have been under during the investigation and highlighted their ‘continued professionalism, compassion, and commitment to animal welfare’ shown throughout.  

The CMA has also clearly listened to concerns raised by BVA about a number of its earlier proposals, many of which were disproportionate to the issues they sought to address and would have unfairly impacted smaller independent practices. It has made a number of significant changes or in some cases dropped them altogether. These include: 

• Prescriptions – the CMA has increased the fee cap for a written prescription from its earlier suggestion of £16 for one or more medicines to £21 (for the first medicine) and £12.50 (for any additional medicines). In addition, the timeframe for delivering a written prescription to the client has increased from the end of the day to 48 hours following the consultation. 
• Implementation – the CMA has increased the implementation timeframe for the remedies to between three to twelve months, with independent practices having an additional three months to comply.  
• Pet owner survey – the CMA doesn’t appear to be progressing its ill-conceived proposal for an annual pet owner survey. 

British Veterinary Association President Dr. Rob Williams MRCVS said: “I know it’s been a long and testing couple of years for the profession. I’m pleased to see that with this final decision, the CMA has listened to BVA’s concerns and we’re able to welcome the majority of these measures, which are largely focused on increasing transparency and information, supporting clients to make more informed choices. As vets, we care deeply for animals and anything we can do to build trust between us and their owners, like supporting consumer choice, is a good thing.  

“We’re also pleased to see that the CMA continues to support our calls for reform of the woefully outdated Veterinary Surgeons Act, including the introduction of vet practice regulation, which will go a long way to addressing many of the issues its investigation raised.