Ahead of its Annual General Meeting, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) has published its Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2025, setting out key achievements and projects from the College through the year.
The Annual Report will be formally presented at Royal College Day on Friday 3 July at One Great George Street and is now available to download from the RCVS website.
The document sets out how the College started working to meet the goals set out in its 2025 to 2029 Strategic Plan – ‘Stronger together, with animal health and welfare at our heart’. The strategy is built around four key values – compassion, collaboration, clarity, and courage – with a particular focus on how the RCVS works with veterinary professionals, animal owners/ keepers, society at large and its own staff and Council members, to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Some of the highlights of 2025 noted in the Annual Report include:
The RCVS working closely with officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to discuss the need for legislative change via a series of meetings focused on different areas potential reform in a new Veterinary Surgeons Act. In these meetings staff and officers from the College, British Veterinary Association (BVA), British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) and other key stakeholders made the case for why reforms were needed and how they could be implemented. This work resulted in a consultation on a reformed VSA being announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget speech in November and a full government consultation on a new VSA in January 2026.
A partnership with National Careers Week and STEM Learning to raise the profile of veterinary careers among both school careers advisers and schoolchildren. This partnership saw the RCVS taking part in events such as National Careers Week and the RCVS and veterinary careers were featured in the organisation’s magazine, e-newsletters and social media posts.
The launch of a new online resource, developed with the help of the RCVS Public Advisory Group, to help animal owners/ keepers better understand how vet teams and practices work, with a new public-facing advice section on the RCVS website, launched in time for 2025’s National Pet Day in April.
Holding the first ever International Postgraduate Veterinary Education Symposium in November 2025 which brought together academics and educationalists from across the world to discuss ideas and best practice in postgraduate education. This was attended by more than 140 delegates from around the world to discuss graduate transition into the profession; advanced education and training; continuing education and professional development; and licensure and revalidation.
The ongoing work of the VN Vision project to explore what veterinary nurses, veterinary surgeons and other members of the veterinary team thought the future role of the veterinary nurse should be within the sector and how this could be achieved. This work included the publication of the project’s initial findings report in June 2025 and a focus on examining how the role of the veterinary nurse could be strengthened and better utilised in the veterinary team by identifying the current barriers and opportunities for the effective utilisation of veterinary nurses.
Commenting on the Annual Report and the College’s achievements in 2025, RCVS CEO Lizzie Lockett said: “I am proud of the effort that has gone into tackling the ambitions of our new strategic plan. Against a backdrop of the huge amount of work required to support the Competition and Markets Authority’s Investigation into the veterinary sector, the College teams have not only worked hard to meet their routine key performance indicators, but also put a lot of energy into these new developments as well as the delivery of a number of major projects. When interacting with overseas regulators and associations, it’s always heartening to see the regard in which the College is held, and our often trailblazing strategic work contributes to that.”
Ahead of the AGM, veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses are able to submit questions about any aspect of the Annual Report. Subject to time, these will be answered by the College at the AGM, or followed up in writing after the event.
Questions should be emailed to Deborah Rowlanes, RCVS Events Manager, on d.rowlanes@rcvs.org.uk no later than 5pm on Tuesday 30 June 2026.