Elections for RCVS Council and VN Council to take place this spring

Elections to RCVS Council and to the RCVS VN Council will be taking place this spring, with candidates standing for the available elected places on each of the bodies.

RCVS Council is the governing body for the RCVS responsible for deciding on major issues relating to the regulation of the veterinary professions including strategy, professional standards, education, registration, and projects to help advance the professions.

There are 10 candidates standing for the three available elected places on RCVS Council. The voting period for RCVS Council opens in the week commencing Monday 13 March and closes at 5pm on Friday 21 April 2023. The candidates are:

• Professor David Barrett FRCVS
• Linda Belton MRCVS
• Dr Martin Chamberlain MRCVS
• Daniel Doherty MRCVS
• James Gartside MRCVS
• Steven Howard MRCVS
• Tim Hutchinson MRCVS
• Dr Alice McLeish MRCVS
• Professor Chris Proudman FRCVS
• Dr Peter Robinson MRCVS

The full biographies and election statements for each candidate are available to read on the RCVS Council election page. The three candidates who receive the most votes will take up their four-year terms on RCVS Council at the College’s Annual General Meeting on Friday 7 July 2023.

The VN Council election will be taking place over the same timeframe. VN Council has the overall responsibility for all matters concerning veterinary nurse training, post-qualification awards and the registration of qualified veterinary nurses, and the five candidates who are standing in this year’s election are:

• Sarah Jane Batt-Williams RVN
• Heather Jane Mathieson Kirkness RVN
• Katherine Ann Mortimer RVN
• Matthew Edwin Rendle RVN
• Simon Peter Williams RVN

The two candidates with the most votes will join VN Council for their three-year terms at the College’s AGM in July.

As with the most recent two elections, voting this year will take place completely online with Civica Election Services (CES), which runs the elections on behalf of the RCVS, sending emails containing links to a unique voting website to each veterinary surgeon and veterinary nurse eligible to vote in their respective elections.

Veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses for whom the RCVS does not hold an email address, as well as vets and VNs who do not have their own email address but who share an address with one or more members of the professions, will not receive an email but will be sent a letter telling them how to vote online.

Ahead of the start of both elections in mid-March, the RCVS is asking both veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses to submit written questions to candidates in order to better understand them and their views on a range of subjects. Each candidate will produce a written reply to two questions of their choice, which will be included on their candidate profile webpage ahead of the start of the election.

Please note – the RCVS will only accept one question per person and questions must be decent – offensive, defamatory and inaccurate questions will not be passed on to candidates.

Veterinary surgeons can submit a question to the RCVS Council candidates by emailing [email protected].  

Veterinary nurses can submit a question to the VN Council candidates by emailing [email protected].

Members of the professions have until Friday 24 February 2023 to submit their question.