Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department taking to support veterinary workers during the covid-19 outbreak.

Veterinary practices have been able to remain open and continue operating during the Covid-19 outbreak and are able to provide a range of services as those practices see fit. The Government has been working with the veterinary profession to develop guidance and protocols so that veterinary practice staff and customers alike can remain safe.

Veterinary surgeons working in food supply are classed as critical workers in England for the purposes of securing childcare in schools. This includes veterinary surgeons working in abattoirs and meat processing plants, at border control posts, and attending to livestock production.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the statutory regulator of the profession, under their code of professional conduct requires all veterinary surgeons to have provisions in place to allow customers to access 24-hour care. Even if a veterinary practice does not provide 24-hour care itself it must ensure a customer can be directed to a local practice that does provide such a service.