thepetbill

Guide · updated

What the CMA vet price rules mean for pet owners

From 23 December 2026 big vet groups must publish a standard price list. Here is what changes, when, and what you can do with it.

Until now, most of us found out what a vet charges when the bill arrived. That changes this winter.

In March 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) finished its investigation into vet services for household pets. It found that competition was not working well for the everyday practices pet owners use, or for the out-of-hours cover those practices buy in, and it has made an order to fix that: The Veterinary Services Market Investigation Order 2026. The Order covers the whole UK, including Scotland and Northern Ireland (Art. 1(3)).

This guide sticks to what the Order actually says. Article numbers are given so you can check.

Who has to do what, and when

The Order splits vet businesses into two sizes. A "Large Veterinary Business" runs 15 or more first-opinion practices or out-of-hours centres. Anything smaller is a "Small Veterinary Business" (Art. 2). Big groups go first.

Each duty starts on the working day after its compliance date (Art. 3(1)). The compliance dates in the Order are:

Duty Order article Compliance date, large businesses Compliance date, small businesses
Practice information on the website Art. 6 22 December 2026 22 March 2027
Standard price list Art. 7 22 December 2026 22 March 2027
Parasiticide (flea and worm treatment) price list Art. 8 22 December 2026 22 March 2027
Pet care plan information Art. 9 22 December 2026 22 March 2027
Cremation options and prices Art. 20 22 December 2026 22 March 2027
Who owns the practice Art. 5 22 March 2027 22 March 2027
Prescription fee caps Art. 18 22 March 2027 22 September 2027
Complaints process, complaint logs, mediation Art. 21 to 23 22 March 2027 22 March 2027
Written estimates and itemised bills Art. 11 and 12 22 June 2027 22 September 2027
Written prescriptions Art. 14 and 15 22 June 2027 22 September 2027

So the first price lists from the big groups are due on Wednesday 23 December 2026, and the smaller practices' lists on Tuesday 23 March 2027.

The price list itself

This is the part that makes comparison possible. Every practice has to publish a price list on its own website, pricing whichever of a fixed list of 36 items set out in Schedule 1 of the Order it offers (Art. 7(1) and 7(3)). The items run from a first consultation and nail clipping to castration, X-rays, euthanasia and cremation.

The rules are strict about how the list is written:

  • The practice must use the exact name of each item from Schedule 1, with no free-text descriptions (Art. 7(2)(a)).
  • Where the price depends on the animal, there are six fixed bands: cat, small dog under 10 kg, medium dog 10 to under 25 kg, large dog 25 to under 40 kg, extra-large dog 40 to under 60 kg, and giant dog 60 kg and over (Art. 7(2)(c)).
  • Prices include VAT (Art. 7(2)(f)) and must be kept up to date (Art. 7(2)(g)). A practice that is putting a price up has to change the list before it charges the new price (Art. 7(5)).
  • Each price is what owners are typically charged and has to include anything that is an essential part of the service (Art. 7(2)(d)).
  • For a dental assessment, castration and both types of spay, the list must show tick boxes for seven components such as general anaesthesia and post-operative check-ups, so you can see what is in the price (Art. 7(2)(e)). Our guide to what is included in a spay or neuter price goes through them.
  • If a practice charges more out of hours, those prices sit alongside the daytime ones (Art. 7(2)(h)). If it sends its out-of-hours work to another provider, the list has to give that provider's consultation price and a link to its price list (Art. 7(2)(i)).

The list also has to be easy to find: no more than one click from the practice's home page, on a page that uses the words "price", "prices", "pricing" or "fees" in its navigation and metadata (Art. 7(4)). When you book a consultation, the first digital confirmation must tell you the consultation price and link to the list (Art. 7(3)(c)).

One thing the list will not tell you is what your own bill comes to. Every list has to say that its prices are for the typical case and may go up in more complex cases (Art. 7(2)(l)). That warning is fair. A list price is a starting point, not a quote.

Bigger bills: estimates and itemised bills

From 23 June 2027 for large businesses (23 September 2027 for small ones), a practice has to give you a written estimate when the vet thinks a course of treatment is likely to cost £500 or more including VAT, and more than a fifth of that £500 relates to costs that may come later (Art. 2 and 11(1)). You can say you don't want one (Art. 11(3)).

On the same dates, itemised bills become compulsory. The bill has to be detailed enough for you to compare what you were charged with any estimate and with the published price list (Art. 12(3)).

Prescriptions and medicines

Vets will have to tell you that you can ask for a written prescription and that buying medicine from an online or other retailer may save you money (Art. 14). There will also be a cap on the prescription fee itself: at first £21.40 for the first medication and £12.70 for each extra one prescribed at the same time, including VAT (Art. 2 and 18). Large groups have to keep to the cap from 23 March 2027, smaller businesses from 23 September 2027.

Cremation

Every practice must offer a basic communal cremation (Art. 20(2)). It also has to put its end-of-life options on its website with equal prominence: a communal cremation, an individual one if offered, arranging it yourself with a crematorium, or taking your pet home for burial (Art. 20(1), (3) and (4)). Communal and individual cremation are both on the standard price list.

Complaints

From 23 March 2027 every practice needs an in-house complaints process and a complaint log, and has to sign up with an approved mediation provider that is free for pet owners to use (Art. 21 to 23).

Where does The Pet Bill fit?

The Order also makes practices send their price lists to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for its Find a Vet service, but not until 23 September 2027 at the earliest (Art. 10 and 3). Until then, the lists exist only on thousands of separate practice websites.

We collect them and put them side by side on a map, with the date we checked each price and a link to the page it came from. How we get prices explains the process and how practices can correct or remove their listing.

Sources

Prices mentioned in this guide

Low-cost and charity vet care in the UK: who qualifies and where to find the cheapest vetWho qualifies for free or reduced-cost vet care from PDSA, Blue Cross, RSPCA branches, Cats Protection and Dogs Trust, and how to find the cheapest paid practice near you if you don't.How to complain about a vet bill or a price in the UKThe steps that work for a disputed vet bill or price: the practice's own complaints process, free mediation through the VCMS, what the RCVS can and cannot do, and what the CMA Order changes from 23 March 2027.How to compare vet prices in the UKA practical checklist for comparing vet price lists fairly, from consultation minutes and vaccine bundles to out-of-hours cover and cremation.Cat vaccination cost in the UK: kitten course, boosters and what the price includesWhat a cat or kitten vaccination price covers under the new CMA price lists, why a primary course costs more than a booster, and what to ask before you book.Pet care plans explained: what they cover, what they cost and how to compare themWhat a vet's monthly pet care plan includes, what the CMA found about whether plans save money, and the new rules on how practices must show plan contents and savings.What's included in a neuter or spay priceThe seven tick boxes every UK vet price list must show for castration, spays and dentals, and how to read them before you compare prices.