Pet News: Vet Price Lists Move a Step Closer

The biggest change to how UK vets quote prices in a generation moved a step closer this week, as the consultation on the draft order closed. One provider used the last few days of it to point out something missing from the list. And a stamp collection gave the RSPCA an opening to talk about how full its centres are.

The consultation on mandatory vet price lists closed on 20 August

The Competition and Markets Authority published its draft Veterinary Services Market Investigation Order on 21 July 2026, and the consultation on it closed at 11.59pm on 20 August. The order follows the CMA’s final report in March, which found that pet owners are too often left in the dark about who owns their practice, what their treatment options are and what things cost. Under it, practices will have to publish a standard price list covering 36 defined services, give a written estimate for any treatment expected to cost £500 or more except in an emergency, provide itemised bills, and display the branding of the large group that owns them. Prescription fees will be capped at £21 for the first medicine and £12.50 for each additional one, and owners must be told they can ask for a written prescription. The CMA expects to prepare the final order by 23 September 2026, with most requirements taking effect over the following three to twelve months and smaller practices given longer.

This consultation was not a chance to reopen the March decisions. It asked whether the drafted documents are consistent with the report and actually deliver the remedies, and coverage in the veterinary press suggests the profession has real concerns about how workable some of it is. For an owner, the change worth waiting for is the written estimate threshold, because £500 is roughly where a routine visit turns into a decision, and a written figure is far easier to question than a number said out loud in a consulting room. Our guide to finding a good vet in the UK covers what to ask now, before any of this becomes compulsory. The consultation is at GOV.UK and the sector’s reaction at Vet Times.

A gap in the list: home visits and at-home euthanasia

On 18 August, home visit provider Cloud 9 Vets used the closing days of the consultation to ask the CMA to list at-home euthanasia separately from euthanasia carried out in a practice. Three of the 36 services sit under an end-of-life care heading: euthanasia, communal cremation and individual cremation. There is no separate entry for euthanasia at home, and no home visit fee anywhere on the list. The company points to its own research from July 2025 in which 67 per cent of UK dog and cat owners aged 35 and over said they had no idea the at-home service existed.

Whatever you make of a company arguing for a line item that happens to be its own business, the underlying point stands. A price list that only shows the in-practice option makes the in-practice option look like the only option, and this is the single decision owners are least able to research calmly when the moment arrives. It is worth knowing now, quietly, whether your own practice offers home visits and roughly what it charges, rather than finding out on the day. Our senior dog care guide covers the conversations that come before this one. The submission is at GlobeNewswire.

Royal Mail’s pet stamps, and 7,000 animals waiting

Royal Mail’s Pets special stamp collection went on general sale on 20 August, after opening for pre-order on 13 August. The ten stamp set covers dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, a budgerigar, a cockatiel, fish and fancy rats, with a presentation pack at £14.45. The RSPCA welcomed it and used the moment to encourage anyone inspired by the stamps to consider rehoming rather than buying, noting that it has more than 7,000 animals in its care in England and Wales at any one time, with more than 1,500 in emergency boarding kennels, catteries and stables waiting for foster care or a place in a centre.

Those numbers are the story, not the stamps. Late summer is when rescue capacity is at its tightest, and a charity that has to pay for emergency boarding is spending money on holding animals rather than rehoming them. If you are thinking about a pet this autumn, a rescue centre will match you to an animal that suits your household rather than the other way round, which is a genuine advantage and not just a moral one. Whatever you take home, the cost planning is the part people underestimate: our annual dog cost calculator gives you the real yearly figure, and how to choose a dog walker covers the help most new owners end up needing. The announcement is at Companion Life.