18 Sept 2025
Veterinary professionals will have to wait several more weeks for regulators’ verdict after “administrative reasons” were cited for the revised schedule.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Image: VadimGuzhva / Adobe Stock
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today (18 September) announced a further delay in the latest phase of its inquiry into UK veterinary services.
Provisional remedy decisions had been expected to be published this month, following an extension to the investigation process announced in June.
But the CMA has now confirmed those proposals are scheduled for release in mid-October, due to what are said to be “administrative reasons”.
Officials have also stressed that the revised statutory deadline for the inquiry’s completion next May remains unchanged.
An updated timetable for the process now envisages final submissions from interested parties being provided in November, with remedy hearings also taking place then and into December.
The inquiry group’s final recommendations are now expected in February or March.
But the latest delay appears to have come as a surprise, after an update on the investigation delivered at an RCVS VN council meeting yesterday referenced the previous September date for publication of provisional remedies.
Chief executive Lizzie Lockett said the college was in ongoing discussions with the CMA about how it might be able to “support” some of its remedy proposals, though she stressed most of the key nursing issues would require legislative change.
However, a college spokesperson later told Vet Times it had not been given any indication of the likely publication date beyond the published timetable.
Earlier this summer, one of the sector’s largest care providers, the CVS Group, also announced it was delaying publication of its full-year results until October – after the then expected remedy release date – while IVC Evidensia bosses hinted future flotation plans could depend on the outcome of the process.
