Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of regulating veterinary services to (a) strengthen animal welfare and (b) ensure affordability for pet owners.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the UK regulatory body for the veterinary profession, is currently undertaking a consultation on potential regulatory reform, including changes to the way vets and the wider veterinary team are regulated. They aim to report the consultation’s findings to Defra later in 2021.
The RCVS also advises it’s members on fees in its Code of Conduct: https://www.rcvs.org.uk/setting-standards/advice-and-guidance/code-of-professional-conduct-for-veterinary-surgeons/supporting-guidance/practice-information-and-fees/.
The fees are generally set by the market between the vet and their clients, but the RCVS could intervene if individual vets charged prices to pet owners that were so disproportionate, they amounted to disgraceful professional conduct.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will hold discussions with the Leader of the House on ensuring that there is parliamentary time to enable the Environment Bill to receive Royal Assent before the end of the transition period.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I would like to thank my honourable friend for his work on the Committee scrutinising the Environment Bill so far and I share his anticipation for the Bill’s return. I would like to assure him that the Government is working to resume the Bill’s consideration as soon as the parliamentary timetable allows us to do so. I and my department are in close contact with counterparts in the Leader’s and Whips’ Offices as to the resumption of scrutiny of the Bill.