10 Jan 2024
Association issues priorities for animal health and welfare – including new Veterinary Surgeons Act – at start of what many expect will be a UK general election year.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Cross-party consensus ought to provide the political platform for long-sought veterinary legislative reform to finally become reality, a senior vet has argued.
With 2024 widely expected to be a general election year, the BVA has issued its own manifesto as it challenged politicians to commit themselves to delivering change in its key priority areas.
Tougher welfare laws, reform of dangerous dogs legislation and the development of minimum standards for trade deals are among the areas that are being highlighted.
But top of the association’s list remains reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act which it said had been “designed for a different era”.
Writing for Politics Home, the group’s senior vice-president, Malcolm Morley, said: “New primary legislation which modernises the regulatory framework is urgently needed, making the Act fit for purpose.
“The need for legislative reform has significant cross-party support and needs to be a priority for the next Government, in the interests of animal health and welfare, the delivery of veterinary care and the retention of veterinary professionals.”
Although the latest that an election can legally be held is in January 2025, most current speculation is focused on dates in either May or the autumn of this year.
Reform of the VSA has long been sought by veterinary sector groups such as the BVA as a means of ensuring proper regulation of practices as well as individual clinicians, plus formal protection of the veterinary nurse title and recognition of the wider practice team.
But with little prospect of sufficient Parliamentary time being secured for that before voters finally go to the polls, attention has now shifted towards shaping future policy.
Another enduring area of concern is the threat posed to the supply of veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland by the lack of a long-term agreement between the UK and the EU.
Although temporary arrangements, which enable all currently available products to be distributed to the country, are due to remain in place until the end of 2025, it is feared that up to half of them would not be thereafter if the current system is allowed to lapse.
The paper said: “These include the only licensed Salmonella vaccine for poultry, the loss of which could represent a serious public health emergency.
“We need continued engagement between the UK Government and the European Commission to find a permanent solution to safeguard the future supply of veterinary medicines beyond 2025.”
The paper also criticised recent trade deals with Australia, Japan and New Zealand which it argued had opened UK markets to goods produced under lower welfare standards.
The BVA is calling for a minimum set of welfare standards for future trade deals to “prevent the UK market from being flooded with produce farmed under conditions we would never accept in this country”.
The manifesto further calls for reform of the Dangerous Dogs Act to focus on responsible breeding and ownership as well as new action against the importation of animals with mutilations that are illegal here, such as cropped ears, and livestock worrying.
Measures in those areas were part of the ill-fated Kept Animals Bill that was dropped last year and the Government has insisted the issues will be addressed in separate legislation. Proposals for new rules that would effectively bar the keeping of primates as pets, as well as a ban on live exports for slaughter and fattening, were put before Parliament last month.
