Veterinary Services UK-wide

Meet your veterinary practice regulatory duties

If your practice is RCVS-registered, supplies veterinary medicines, handles controlled drugs, disposes of clinical waste or uses X-ray equipment, you carry specific regulatory duties on top of the universal workplace foundation. This guide covers each regime and what you need to do.

Guide summary

Register your practice with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and pay the annual fee. Comply with veterinary medicines rules by keeping records for 5 years and observing withdrawal periods for food animals. Manage clinical waste through registered carriers and use consignment notes for hazardous waste. If you handle controlled drugs, keep a register and store them in a locked cabinet.

  • Register with RCVS and pay annual retention fee
  • Follow the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct
  • Register your premises with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD)
  • Keep medicine records for 5 years for food-producing animals
  • Observe withdrawal periods before food enters the chain
  • Carry out a clinical assessment before prescribing POM-V medicines
  • Do not prescribe antibiotics for prevention except in exceptional cases
  • Classify, segregate and store clinical waste safely
  • Use registered waste carriers and consignment notes for hazardous waste
  • Keep a controlled drugs register and store Schedule 2 drugs in a locked cabinet
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Related guides in Compliance & Legal

Veterinary practice is a regulated profession. On top of the universal workplace health and safety, fire, insurance, equality and data protection duties, your practice must hold the right professional registrations, comply with medicines controls, manage waste lawfully, and — depending on your activities — meet controlled-drugs and ionising-radiation requirements. Five regulators share oversight.

A. RCVS registration

Practising veterinary surgery is restricted to persons on the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) register. Unregistered practice is a criminal offence under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966. RCVS operates UK-wide. Registrants pay an annual retention fee and must follow the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct, which covers standards of clinical care, professional behaviour, client communication and record-keeping. The RCVS Practice Standards Scheme is a voluntary practice accreditation, not a statutory licence — but it demonstrates compliance with recognised standards.

B. Veterinary medicines

The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 — as amended for Great Britain by the Veterinary Medicines (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2024 — govern the prescribing, supply, dispensing, record-keeping and pharmacovigilance of veterinary medicinal products. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is the UK regulator, but the medicines law it administers is not uniform across the UK: in Great Britain the amended 2013 Regulations apply, while in Northern Ireland Regulation (EU) 2019/6 on veterinary medicinal products applies under the Windsor Framework — from 1 January 2026, veterinary medicines are placed on the Northern Ireland market under the Veterinary Medicines Internal Market Scheme or the Veterinary Medicine Health Situation Scheme. Premises supplying veterinary medicines must be registered or approved with VMD as appropriate. Prescription-only medicines may be administered to animals only by, or under the direction of, a veterinary surgeon. Since 17 May 2024, before prescribing a prescription-only veterinary medicine (POM-V) you must first carry out a clinical assessment of the animal or group under your care; and you must not prescribe antibiotics for prophylactic (preventive) purposes except in exceptional circumstances where the risk of infection is very high and the consequences of not treating are likely to be severe — for group prophylactic use you must record your rationale and carry out a management review. Medicine records must be kept — for food-producing animals, normally for five years — and withdrawal periods must be observed before produce enters the food chain. Adverse reactions must be reported to VMD.

C. Clinical waste

Veterinary practices generate clinical and hazardous waste — sharps, pharmaceutical waste, infectious waste and anatomical waste. You must classify, segregate, store and consign waste through registered waste carriers under the waste duty of care, using consignment notes for hazardous waste. In Great Britain the duty of care is under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990: the Environment Agency regulates in England, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in Wales, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) in Scotland under the Special Waste Regulations. In Northern Ireland the equivalent duty of care is under Article 5 of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997, regulated by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), with hazardous waste under the Hazardous Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005.

D. Controlled drugs

If your practice stocks Schedule 2 or Schedule 3 controlled drugs — for example ketamine, opioid analgesics such as buprenorphine and methadone, or pentobarbital for euthanasia — you must comply with the safe-custody, register and destruction requirements of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. The Home Office oversees the controlled-drugs regime UK-wide. You must keep a controlled-drugs register recording every receipt and supply, store Schedule 2 drugs (and any Schedule 3 drugs subject to safe custody, such as buprenorphine) in a locked controlled-drugs cabinet meeting the Misuse of Drugs (Safe Custody) Regulations 1973, and arrange witnessed destruction of expired or unwanted stock. Not every veterinary practice stocks controlled drugs — this section applies only to those that do.

E. Ionising radiations (X-ray)

If your practice operates diagnostic X-ray or other ionising-radiation equipment, you must comply with the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017. You must notify or register the work with HSE, appoint a radiation protection adviser (RPA) and a radiation protection supervisor (RPS), draw up local rules, designate controlled and supervised areas around the X-ray equipment, and monitor personal doses for classified workers. In Northern Ireland the Ionising Radiations Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017 apply. This section applies only to practices with imaging equipment.

F. Reporting notifiable diseases

If you suspect that an animal is affected with a notifiable disease — such as foot-and-mouth disease, avian influenza, bluetongue or rabies — you must report your suspicion to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) without delay, under the Animal Health Act 1981 and the disease-specific orders made under it. The primary statutory duty to notify falls on the animal's keeper or owner, but as the attending veterinary surgeon you are also under a duty to report your suspicion to APHA — and in practice should do so while still on the premises. This duty applies whatever your practice type and is most likely to arise in farm-animal and equine work. For the full list of notifiable diseases and how to report, see Recognise and report notifiable animal diseases.

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    What to do next

    Complete the veterinary compliance checklist to confirm you have met every obligation that applies to your practice.

Official sources

Authoritative guidance for veterinary practice regulatory duties.