Prescription, dispensing and administration
Prescription fee for additional items prices at UK vets
The fee for each extra medicine added to the same written prescription, at the same time as another medication.
Published prices
No practice on our list publishes this price yet: vet businesses with 15 or more practices or out-of-hours centres must publish it, if they offer it, on each practice's website from 23 December 2026, and smaller practices from 23 March 2027.
What it is
Official price-list name: Prescription fee for additional items prescribed at the same time as another medication
(CMA Order, Schedule 1).
What others have published
- £15.00: the median fee for each additional medicine, across the four large groups that priced it separately (CMA, Final report Appendix N: supporting evidence on prescription price controls, paragraph 1.52; 2024).
- £12.70: the most a practice may charge for each additional medication, including VAT, from the cap's start dates (Competition and Markets Authority, The Veterinary Services Market Investigation Order 2026, Articles 3 and 18; cap set in 2026).
Figures from published reports, not prices we collected, and not a current UK average.
What's included
- Anything that is an essential part of the service, and VAT (Art. 7(2)(d) and (f))
The three prescription fees
A written prescription lets you buy a medicine somewhere other than the practice. The list prices the first medicine, each additional one prescribed at the same time, and a repeat prescription.
Separately from the price list, the Order caps the fee. The first caps are £21.40 for the first medication and £12.70 for each additional medication prescribed at the same time, both including VAT (Art. 2 and 18). Many news reports give £21 and £12.50: those were the levels in the CMA's final report of March 2026, which the Order uprated for inflation (Explanatory Note, footnote 25). Large groups must keep to the caps from 23 March 2027 and smaller businesses from 23 September 2027 (Art. 3).
- Prescription fee
- Prescription fee for additional items
- Prescription fee (repeat)
- Guide: Vet prescription fees in the UK: the new £21.40 cap and buying pet medicines elsewhere
Why the price varies
- Who owns the practice. The CMA found a median additional prescription fee of £15.00 in 2024 across the four large groups that priced it separately (final report Appendix N, paragraph 1.52). Prices vary by practice; see the map for published prices from 23 December 2026.
- How the practice counts items. In the CMA's data, one large group's first-medicine fee covered up to five medicines for a single condition (Appendix N, notes to Table 1.9). Ask how your practice counts.
Questions to ask the practice
- Is there a charge for each additional medicine, or does the first fee cover several?
- Do two medicines for different conditions count as additional items?
We explain prices, not treatment. Ask your vet about the clinical choices for your own pet.
The rules
What the practice's price list must show, with the Order's article references
The exact name from Schedule 1, “Prescription fee for additional items prescribed at the same time as another medication”, with no free-text description (Art. 7(2)(a)).
As for every item: each version on its own line with the standard one marked, a cat price and five dog bands where the price depends on the animal, and VAT included, kept up to date and changed before a higher price is charged (Art. 7(2)(b), (c), (f) and (g), and 7(5)).
Large vet groups must publish from 23 December 2026 and smaller practices from 23 March 2027 (Art. 3 and 7).
Unhappy with a bill or a price? Our guide explains how to complain, from the practice's own process to free mediation.
Questions
What is the most a vet can charge for an additional item?
£12.70 including VAT per additional medication, from the cap's start dates (Art. 2 and 18(1)(c) and (d)).
Why might my bill be higher than the listed price?
Listed prices are for the typical case. Each price list must say so, and must warn that prices may go up in more complex or complicated cases (Art. 7(2)(l)). The price must still include anything that is an essential part of the service (Art. 7(2)(d)).
How up to date are the prices here?
Every price shows the date we last checked it and links to the practice's own page. We re-check weekly, and daily from 23 to 31 December 2026. If a price looks wrong, email [email protected].
Sources
- Competition and Markets Authority, The Veterinary Services Market Investigation Order 2026 (published 22 September 2026): Article 3 (compliance dates), Article 7 (price list) and Schedule 1 (the 36 price-list items).
- CMA, Veterinary services for household pets: summary of the final report (24 March 2026).
- CMA, Final report Appendix N: supporting evidence on prescription price controls (24 March 2026).
- CMA, Explanatory Note to the Order (22 September 2026).
- Practice prices: each practice's own published price list, linked next to every price.