25 Jul 2024
Critics who demanded a vote on college reform proposals have overlooked its public interest responsibilities, the body has claimed.
Allister Webb
Job Title
The RCVS has rejected calls for a referendum of professionals over its proposed governance reforms, warning such a process would be neither “legitimate or wise”.
Dozens of clinicians signed an open letter released by the Progressive Veterinary Association (PVA) last week, which warned the measures required “substantial buy-in” from the sector.
The key point of contention concerns the plan to replace the current annual council and VN council elections with a fully appointment-based system.
But while it has thanked the PVA for its input, the college said its letter “fundamentally” misunderstood the college’s public interest and welfare functions.
In a statement to Vet Times, the college said: “Much of the letter concerns democracy, democratic rights and representation in the context of the veterinary professions, but these are questionable concepts for a regulator that works in the public interest and not for or on behalf of the veterinary professions.
“Under the current electoral system, vets are not elected to RCVS Council to represent the professions, but to govern, through RCVS council and its committees, in the public interest.
“Representation of the professions is most properly the role of the BVA, the BVNA and its regional and specialist divisions, not the RCVS.”
The letter, which was first released on 15 July, drew parallels with the current Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation of the sector as it made the case for a vote.
It said: “Had such a referendum been carried out in the 1990s with respect to the corporatisation of the profession, voices calling for caution and the need for checks and balances may have held more sway.”
The document argued that such an approach then might have meant the sector would “not now be facing such open criticism from both public and media alike” and the CMA process “may not have been necessary”.
It added: “Changes of such gravity surely need robust debate and subsequent buy-in from the whole profession.”
But the college said it would not be “legitimate or wise for a body that regulates in the public interest to hold a referendum with the veterinary professions only”.
A spokesperson added: “A member of the public concerned that the veterinary professions, via their regulator, set and mark their own homework, may well look askance at vets voting against reform in the public interest via a referendum.”
The letter argued that change had already been imposed with minimal consultation when the number of council seats contested at each election was reduced from six to three in 2018. It also accused the RCVS of failing to provide “relevant legislation and history connected with the electoral system for council”, which it said dates back to its 1844 royal charter.
But the college said its plans would adhere to regulatory best practice and dismissed suggestions that it had not provided appropriate information about potential alternatives.
Their spokesperson said: “As the consulting body that arrived at these recommendations by a long process of deliberation, it is entirely proper that RCVS council puts forward a clear set of proposals regarding what it believes would be the best way forward for its own governance.”
The BVA is expected to publish its consultation response in the next few days but has signalled support for the principle of change despite concerns raised during discussions at the BVA Live event last month.
Its president, Anna Judson, said: “If we are to have a royal college and regulatory body that meets the needs of a modern veterinary profession, reform is clearly needed.”
