Today (24 March), the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its final report into veterinary services for household pets in the UK.

The report outlines the final remedies and recommendations which the CMA summarises as follows:

• Empowering owners to compare practices by requiring comprehensive price lists, supporting a comparison site and making it clear who owns their practice.
• Helping owners know what to expect by mandating written estimates for treatments over £500, itemised bills, clarity on pet care plans and cremations, and ensuring vets and veterinary nurses can give impartial advice.
• Reducing medicine costs by requiring that pet owners are told that medicines may be cheaper online, making sure that pet owners know that they can get a prescription and that this could save them money, and capping prescription fees at £21 – the resulting stronger competition in medicines could save pet owners hundreds of pounds.
• Raising standards and ensuring the right support when things go wrong by requiring fairness and consistency in handling complaints and access to mediation services.
• Improving out-of-hours services by making it easier for practices to switch providers.

This is the culmination of a process that began in September 2023 when the CMA undertook a market review of the veterinary sector, recognising that this is a critical market for the UK’s 16 million pet owners. It reflected growing concern at the rapid change in the way veterinary services are owned and at rising costs for consumers. In 2013, independent practices accounted for 89% of the UK veterinary industry but this had fallen to 45% by 2021. In addition, average prices of vet services had risen sharply and much faster than general inflation, by 63% between 2016 and 2023. The CMA also found that practices owned by large vet groups charged 16.6% more on average than independent vets.

The 2023 review received an unprecedented response from the public and veterinary professionals and as a result the CMA consulted on whether to make a Market Investigation Reference (MIR). The Alliance responded to this consultation in April 2024. The following month the CMA launched a market investigation into the supply of veterinary services for household pets, publishing its provisional decision report in October last year which set out its provisional findings. This was followed by a further consultation before the final report published today.

The CMA now has six months to put in place the legally binding Orders needed to implement these remedies. These will therefore be in place by 23 September 2026. Once the Orders are made, nearly all remedies will be in place in the following three to 12 months.

The CMA’s investigation must be seen alongside the proposed reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 expected in this Parliament. There is currently regulation of individual vets, but no regulation of the businesses that now own the majority of the practices in the country. The government has consulted on wide ranging changes to the way in which the profession is regulated to reflect the huge transformation in veterinary practise that has taken place in the last 60 years. As the CMA notes, competition alone is not enough to protect consumers and the current legal regime is outdated, “leaving key parts of the system unregulated and allowing the very concerns we have identified to emerge.”

The final report, press notice and guidance for veterinary practices can be found here.