May 2008
Delegate Veterinary Jobs
Over recent years the NAAC has been consulted a number of times about a possible review of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 and, most recently, we provided comments to the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee.
Our focus has remained on the need to delegate ‘acts of veterinary surgery' that could be safely derogated to fully trained and qualified para-professionals. The NAAC believes that procedures which do not require a veterinary diagnosis could be potentially deregulated.
In the recent EFRA report published this month, the Committee says that a decision by Defra to walk away from work on a white paper to update the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 has left the revision of this 42-year-old legislation in a mess. Whilst Defra agrees that the Act is in urgent need of updating, it has said that there is no funding available for work until at least 2011.