16 Jul 2024
Senior officials have urged ministers to move swiftly to reform the Veterinary Surgeons Act following Labour’s landslide general election victory on 4 July.
Allister Webb
Job TitleThe new UK Government has been warned it is unlikely to achieve its animal welfare objectives unless it prioritises the passage of new veterinary legislation.
Senior officials have urged ministers to move swiftly to reform the Veterinary Surgeons Act (VSA) following Labour’s landslide general election victory on 4 July.
Leaders of both the BVA and BVNA have said they are encouraged by the party’s wider welfare proposals, which have been described as the most ambitious in a generation.
However, BVA president Anna Judson cautioned that the profession was “critical” to delivering many of the new administration’s pledges.
She said: “It’s essential the new Government quickly turns its attention to reforming the woefully outdated Veterinary Surgeons Act, or risk falling at the first hurdle.”
Her BVNA counterpart, Lyndsay Hughes, warned new legislation was also essential to reflect the contemporary veterinary nursing profession.
She added: “This unfit-for-purpose legislation must be urgently reviewed to fully enable the veterinary profession to support the Labour Party’s aims to secure better welfare standards for animals.”
Steve Reed was confirmed as the new environment secretary on 5 July, having shadowed the role since last September, and described taking office as the “privilege of my life”.
Daniel Zeichner, who served under Mr Reed in opposition, has also been confirmed in a junior ministerial role in the department, alongside the Hull West and Hessle MP Emma Hardy and Baroness Hayman.
Although a new VSA did not feature in Labour’s election manifesto, the outgoing RCVS president, Sue Paterson, pledged to continue working towards the goal in her speech to the annual Royal College Day event in London.
She said: “We will get the new Veterinary Surgeons Act we so desperately need, which will transform our professions beyond all recognition, and I will do my very best to work to secure that in the time I have left on council.”
The party’s proposals did include a series of animal welfare commitments, including pledges to end puppy smuggling and farming, plus the use of snare traps.
Other commitments included a ban on the import of hunting trophies and a pledge to work with other stakeholders towards phasing out animal testing.
The party also said it would “seek to negotiate a veterinary agreement to prevent unnecessary border checks” as part of a wider effort to improve UK-EU relations.
Current arrangements for the supply of veterinary medicines to Northern Ireland, which has been a long-standing area of concern within the sector, are due to expire at the end of 2025.
While Defra officials said the department would set out full details of its new approach “in due course”, Dr Judson described Labour’s welfare pledges as “good news” and said the BVA was willing to work with the party to achieve them.
But she warned that ministers should also address its concerns about breed-specific dog legislation and bring forward outstanding measures from the former Kept Animals Bill, as well as resolving the Northern Ireland medicine supply problem.
Dr Judson added: “Alongside these, we also urge the Government to press ahead with legislation which would have been delivered as part of the abandoned Kept Animals Bill like stricter pet import measures, including mandatory pre-import testing to minimise the spread of infections like Brucella canis.”
The Government’s programme for the coming year is due to be set out in the King’s Speech tomorrow (17 July).
