UK Vet Bill Changes: 5 Measures in the CMA’s Draft Order
Edited by Scoop for theTailed Editorial Desk · Published
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A veterinary estimate can look reassuringly tidy until tests, medicines and follow-up appointments begin gathering around it. For pet owners, the difficult part is often not only the total but knowing what is included, what might change and whether another practice or pharmacy offers a realistic alternative.
The Competition and Markets Authority has finished its investigation into UK veterinary services and selected a package of reforms. On 20 August 2026, consultation closed on the draft legal Order intended to put most of those reforms into effect. The current CMA timetable gives 23 September as the statutory deadline for completing that remedial action.
That does not mean five new consumer rights appeared on 20 August. A separate funding Order was published that day, but the substantive Order covering prices, estimates, prescriptions and complaints is still being finalised. If that substantive Order is made in its current form, the draft indicates that most duties would begin after implementation periods of between three and twelve months.
What changed on 20 August?
Two similarly named processes reached different stages.
The CMA published its final funding Order and related Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons undertakings. Those arrangements fund work needed to support and monitor the remedies. Meanwhile, consultation on the draft substantive Order closed. That second document contains the changes owners are most likely to notice.
The official CMA veterinary-services case page remains the authoritative timetable. Until the final substantive Order appears, individual wording and commencement dates should not be described as settled law.
1. The draft would make ownership and standard prices easier to see
Under the current draft Order, veterinary groups would have to identify their group ownership prominently across websites, premises, signage and communications. A familiar local practice name could remain, but the proposal is intended to make its wider commercial ownership easier to find.
The same draft would require practices to publish standard prices for a defined range of commonly used services. The proposed list covers consultations, vaccinations, microchipping, routine procedures, diagnostic work, prescription charges, common medicines and cremation services where offered. Under the draft, those prices would need to include VAT and be readily accessible online and in the practice.
The draft timetable would give larger businesses three months after the substantive Order to provide much of their service and price information; smaller businesses would generally have six months. Under the same draft, groups would have six months for ownership disclosure.
The current draft Undertakings and remedies plan also envisage the RCVS expanding Find a Vet using submitted practice, ownership, service and price data. That proposed comparison function has a longer planning timetable: the RCVS is currently expected to be ready for data in June 2027, with businesses expected to supply it by September 2027.
2. The draft would require estimates for pathways of £500 or more
Under the current draft Order, where a recommended treatment pathway is reasonably likely to cost at least £500 including VAT, the practice would have to provide a written estimate.
The draft says a “treatment pathway” could include related tests and treatment already provided or expected over as long as twelve months for the condition being investigated. Under the proposal, the estimate could be a figure, a range or a combination, but a range would need to indicate where the likely cost sits and what could alter it.
If the expected total later rose by either 20% or £500—including VAT—whichever is lower, the draft would require a further written update for the owner.
If this duty takes effect, the estimate would not guarantee that an animal’s clinical needs will remain unchanged. Its value would be that a changing plan should produce a changing written explanation, rather than a larger total appearing without context.
The draft timetable would give large businesses nine months after the substantive Order to comply and smaller businesses twelve months.
3. The draft would require itemised bills
The current draft Order would require veterinary businesses to provide itemised bills. It says those bills would need, at minimum, to distinguish individual medicines, other goods and services, outside services and any added administration cost.
That matters because a single total cannot show whether the cost came from diagnostics, professional time, medication, referral work or an external laboratory. Itemisation would not determine whether every charge was reasonable, but it would give an owner a factual starting point for understanding or questioning it.
Under the draft timetable, the itemised-bill periods would match written estimates: nine months after the substantive Order for larger businesses and twelve months for smaller ones.
4. The draft would make prescription choices and fees clearer
The CMA package is intended to make it easier for owners to obtain a written prescription and buy suitable medicines elsewhere.
Under the current draft Order, practices would have to explain that written prescriptions are available and that medicines may cost less from another supplier. Under that draft, when medicine was prescribed during a consultation, vets would generally have to offer that option orally, except where urgent clinical administration made the proposed requirement inappropriate.
The draft says a hard-copy prescription would need to be available by the end of the consultation, or a digital one within 48 hours. It would set a maximum charge of £21 including VAT for the first medicine prescribed in a consultation and £12.50 for each additional medicine requiring a prescription at the same consultation. Those proposed caps would be adjusted for inflation.
The cap is on the written-prescription fee, not the medicine itself, consultation charges or all veterinary treatment. Clinical decisions about which medicine is appropriate remain with the vet.
Under the draft timetable, larger businesses would have to meet the prescription-fee cap six months after the substantive Order and the remaining medicine-information duties within nine months. Smaller businesses would generally have twelve months.
5. The draft would create a clearer complaints route
The current draft Order would require first-opinion and out-of-hours businesses to publish and follow an in-house complaints process.
Under the draft, if an issue could not be resolved during ordinary contact within five working days, it would become an actionable complaint. The proposed process would require written acknowledgement within five working days and a full response within eight weeks.
Once the practice’s own process was exhausted, the draft would require it to participate in mediation in good faith where the owner wished to use it. The draft Undertakings envisage the RCVS commissioning the mediation provider and publishing a decision tree explaining the available routes to redress.
If the substantive Order and Undertakings are finalised in their current form, the complaint and mediation arrangements would be due within six months. A proposed resolution would become binding only if both sides agreed to it.
What owners can ask for now
Some practices already provide detailed estimates, itemised bills and transparent prices. Owners do not need to wait for the final Order to ask:
- Who owns the practice and any recommended referral, out-of-hours or laboratory service?
- What does the displayed or quoted price include?
- Can the treatment plan and likely total be provided in writing?
- What change would trigger a revised estimate?
- Can the final bill be itemised?
- Is a written prescription available, what is the fee and could the medicine be bought elsewhere?
- Where is the practice’s complaints procedure?
For urgent or emergency care, do not delay necessary treatment merely to compare prices. Ask the practice to explain the immediate clinical need and expected cost as clearly as the circumstances allow.
What these reforms do not promise
The CMA says its proposed package is intended to use better information and competition to place pressure on prices or service quality. It has not imposed a general cap on vet bills, and no official record promises that every treatment would become cheaper.
If the estimate duty takes effect, an estimate could still change when an animal’s condition or recommended treatment changed. The proposed comparison tool would not reduce veterinary care to price alone: location, continuity, facilities, emergency cover and clinical expertise would still matter.
Most importantly, the substantive rules are not yet in force. The next decisive record would be the final Order, which the present timetable places by the 23 September 2026 statutory deadline, followed by any implementation periods in the final instrument.
Read the official timetable
The CMA’s live veterinary-services case page contains the Order documents, consultation record and current timetable. Its remedies guidance for veterinary businesses sets out the proposed duties and compliance periods in detail.
