RCVS announces 2023 RCVS Council and VN Council election results

Today (Tuesday 25 April 2023) we are announcing the results of the 2023 elections for RCVS Council and the Veterinary Nurses (VN) Council with three vets and two vet nurses being elected to their respective governing bodies.

RCVS Council is responsible for the governance of the College, for example, by setting veterinary professional and educational standards. In this year’s election there were 10 veterinary surgeon candidates standing for the three available elected places on the body.

In total, 6,087 veterinary surgeons (representing 16.7% of those eligible to vote) cast their votes. This compares to turnouts of 18.6% in 2022, 24.5% in 2021, and 26.2% in 2020.

The three candidates elected for four-year terms, which will start at this year’s RCVS Annual General Meeting on Friday 7 July 2023, were as follows:

• Dr Alice McLeish MRCVS – 3,465 votes (ELECTED)
• Linda Belton MRCVS – 2,725 votes (RE-ELECTED)
• Tim Hutchinson MRCVS – 1,571 votes (ELECTED)

In this year’s election for VN Council, which has the overall responsibility for all matters concerning veterinary nurse training, post-qualification awards and the registration of qualified veterinary nurses, there were five candidates standing for the two available elected places.

In total, 1,927 veterinary nurses (representing 8.8% of those eligible to vote) cast their votes. This compares to turnouts of 8.4% in 2022, 12.4% in 2021 and 17.1% in 2020.

The two candidates elected for three-year terms, which will also start at this year’s RCVS AGM, are as follows:

• Matthew Rendle RVN – 891 votes (RE-ELECTED)
• Simon Williams RVN – 642 votes (ELECTED)

As with the previous two years, this year’s elections were conducted entirely online with Civica Election Services, which runs elections on behalf of the RCVS, sending emails containing secure links to their respective voting websites to each eligible veterinary surgeon and veterinary nurse, along with reminders throughout the voting period.

Eleanor Ferguson (pictured), RCVS Registrar and Returning Officer for both elections, said: “Congratulations to all our successful candidates in this year’s elections and thank you to all those who stood for election this year. We look forward to welcoming our successful candidates to their elected places at this year’s AGM.

“While the turnout for the VN Council election improved slightly on last year, it was a shame to see the turnout for vets fall again. As part of our wider Council culture project, we are looking at how to increase engagement with our election processes across the board, from candidate nominations, to how we present information about the candidates, to how we encourage greater election turnout. We will be consulting with the group set up to look specifically at this issue in due course to see how we can improve turnout going forward.”

The full results for the RCVS Council election can be found on its dedicated webpage, while those for VN Council can be found on its equivalent dedicated webpage.