Insights

CMA Vet Reforms: What Changes for the Vets in Practice

Last reviewed: 1 October 2026 · Written by Isaac Stevenson BVMSci MRCVS

Most of what has been written about the CMA's new rules is aimed at practice owners and managers. If you are the vet in the consulting room, you might be wondering what any of it has to do with you. Quite a lot, as it turns out, and some of it is there to protect you.

This is a plain-English summary. It is not legal advice, and the Order itself is the authority. The official documents are linked at the foot of this page.

Is it you or the practice that has to comply?

The practice. The Order puts its duties on the business, and it is the business the CMA will hold to account. Your own duties are still the ones in the RCVS Code.

But several of those duties can only be done by the vet in the room. So in practice, a good part of this lands on you.

If you locum, there is a separate page for you.

What you will be doing differently

• Offering a written prescription, out loud. Every time you prescribe a medicine, unless the animal needs it urgently or you have to give it yourself. More on the prescription rules.
• Noticing when an estimate is due. You are the one who knows a work-up is heading past £500. Once it is, the owner needs a written estimate by the end of the next working day. More on written estimates.
• Flagging what might push the cost up. If you already suspect something could make it more expensive, the estimate needs to say so.
• Being upfront about own-brand medicines. If you prescribe one, you tell the owner, and tell them they can buy the original elsewhere.

What your employer now owes you

You already have a duty under the RCVS Code to give honest advice and offer owners a range of options. The trouble is that the RCVS can only hold you to that. It has no power over the business you work for.

Some vets told the CMA that targets, performance figures and set protocols put pressure on them to recommend particular tests or treatments. So the Order now puts a duty on the business too.

Every practice has to write a policy, train its staff on it, and check it is working, so that you can:

• give advice that is your own, and not shaped by what earns the practice more; and
• offer a range of options, with what each one costs.

If the practice sets targets, pays bonuses or expects you to follow a set protocol, the policy has to make sure none of that pushes you into recommending something you wouldn't otherwise choose. That applies even if nobody has said anything outright and you just feel it is expected.

It does not ban targets or bonuses. It says they must not get in the way of your judgement.

The practice also has to keep an eye on whether the policy is working. One way the CMA suggests is keeping a record of any concerns its vets raise.

When does this start?

A large group runs 15 or more practices. Everyone else counts as small.

The policy protecting your judgement

22 December 2026 (large) · 22 March 2027 (small)

Prescriptions, estimates and own-brand medicines

22 June 2027 (large) · 22 September 2027 (small)

Three things worth doing now

• Ask to see the policy once your practice has written it.
• Find out how you would raise a concern, and who it would go to.
• Get the prescription offer down to one easy sentence. Something like: “I can dispense this here, or write you a prescription to buy it elsewhere, whichever you'd prefer.”

Where to check this yourself

The CMA's guidance for veterinary businesses and vets, and the Order and its Explanatory Note (GOV.UK).

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vetamica.co.uk/insights/cma-changes-employed-vets · © 2026 Vet Amica Limited · A plain-English summary, not legal advice.