RCVS overspend: an apology

In light of responses received to our recent decision to follow independent legal advice and not publish the full 'Overspend Report' produced by Professor Bill McKelvey and colleagues, we thought it might be helpful to make more widely available a copy of the presentation made by RCVS President Jerry Davies to a meeting of BVA Council on 7 December.

At this meeting, Dr Davies set out more background about the two RCVS projects under review, explained the decisions taken at the time and the finances involved.

He also described how Professor McKelvey's recommendations were being actioned, alongside those of the College's Governance Review Group which were already underway.

Dr Davies reiterated that the College had always intended to publish the report in full, but that external legal Counsel had advised that to do so would be unlawful under the Data Protection Act.

It was not possible to redact the report to an acceptable extent, as the personal data in question were referred to throughout a large proportion of it.

Most importantly however, Dr Davies took the opportunity to make an apology to the profession, saying:

"In closing, I would like to emphasise that I, as President of the RCVS, am sorry for what has happened, but I hope you will appreciate that steps are being taken, in particular the setting up of the Audit and Risk Committee, to strengthen governance within our College."

The full presentation is available to download from the 'Related documents' box, above right, and the BVA Council meeting is expected to be reported in more detail in The Veterinary Record in due course.