27 Nov 2025
Newly published consultation response says “any reform should preserve the benefits of a Royal College that regulates. The CMA’s provisional proposals make this harder and more costly to achieve.”
Allister Webb
Job Title
Image: RCVS
The RCVS has urged the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to rethink its options for regulatory reform, warning they could cost tens of millions of pounds to implement.
The authority argued there was a “lack of effective separation” between the college’s regulatory and professional leadership functions when it published its provisional remedy proposals last month.
But the RCVS has now claimed that stance is based on “misunderstandings” that it fears could cause further damage if the ideas based upon them are implemented.
Its newly published consultation response said: “Any reform should preserve the benefits of a Royal College that regulates. The CMA’s provisional proposals make this harder and more costly to achieve.”
Until now, college leaders have welcomed the investigation’s broad support for legislative and regulatory reform without being drawn on the specific concerns relating to its own structures.
The remedies report said: “If government were designing the regulatory framework from a blank slate, we would expect to see the veterinary regulator established separately from any professional leadership or royal college bodies.
“Separation of these two functions into distinct organisations would likely ensure that our provisional operational principles of governance could be clearly established within the regulator.”
But while the CMA’s concerns appear to reflect unease expressed from some parts of the sector itself in recent times, the new paper insists there is “no inherent conflict” between the college’s current functions.
It argues there are “no actual examples” of conflicts raised in the CMA’s proposals and describes the citing of bodies that have seen a separation of functions as “misleading” on the basis that the college does not have a representative function.
But particular concerns are raised about the idea of creating a new body, as envisaged in one of the CMA’s reform options.
The college highlighted the estimated £30 million cost of establishing the General Pharmaceutical Council in 2010 as it argued such an idea was “entirely contrary” to the current political agenda of seeking to reduce regulatory costs.
It added: “We would invite the CMA to reconsider this potentially very costly approach that appears to have been made based on a misunderstanding of the objectives and functions of the RCVS.”
The authority’s other option, which consists of a “top-level board” overseeing separate professional leadership and regulatory functions, was also rejected by the college paper, which argued it would bring “no clear benefits”.
The document agrees some reforms are needed, but argues that some prominent aspects of the college’s current work would be jeopardised by more far-reaching reform.
It said: “There is reasonable doubt as to whether initiatives such as Mind Matters – which has demonstrably saved lives and enabled professionals to continue good practice – would have happened without the resources and holistic approach of a royal college that regulates.”
The document was published as the consultation period on the CMA’s remedy proposals ended on 14 November.
As reported yesterday (26 November), reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act was listed among six points of “Getting inflation down and tackling the cost of living” in the policy document accompanying chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget.
It said: “The government is committed to publishing a consultation this year on potential reforms, including a new framework through which pet owners would have better access to treatment options and more price transparency.”
