Registration categories
RCVS explains registration categories for vets and veterinary nurses. UK vets can practice domestically or overseas, go non-practicing, or have special status. Nurses are either registered or in supervised practice periods.
Check our registers
Search our registers to find veterinary surgeons and nurses eligible to practise in the UK, and learn about registration requirements, categories, and professional standards.
How registration works
To be added to the Register, a vet surgeon or vet nurse must show they have:
The right educational qualifications: a veterinary degree for vet surgeons or a higher or further education qualification for vet nurses
Continued ethical and professional good standing
Registration categories
There are several different registration categories for vet surgeons. Learn more about our registration categories.
Requirements to practise
As a regulator, we’re required by law to publish certain information about requirements to practise in the UK. This is an obligation under the Professional Qualifications Act 2022.
Registration statistics
Information included in our registers
Our registers contain the following information:
- The veterinary professional’s full name and any change of name since registration
- Their register address – this might be their place of work or home address
- Information about their registrable qualification, including the name of the awarding college or university
- The date of their first admission to the Register
- Their membership or registration number
The information is available to the public and other members of the profession on request. A limited number of hard copies of our registers are also available to buy. Email our registration team at [email protected] for more information.
Any other data held in our membership database will not be shared without the permission of the member.
Changing your register entry
If you’re a veterinary professional on our registers, you must notify us within 28 days of any changes. The quickest and easiest way to do this is through My Account.
If you know that a member is no longer at their registered address, please ask them to contact us as soon as possible.
Professional requirements for vet nurses
If you are a vet nurse on our Register of Veterinary Nurses, you’re accountable for your conduct. You must follow the standards set out in the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Nurses, including:
Completing at least 15 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) per calendar year
Making relevant disclosures to the RCVS
In line with the Code, if there’s ever an issue of serious professional misconduct, veterinary nurses undergo a disciplinary process similar to that for vets. This was introduced on 1 April 2011.
You can read the terms and conditions of joining the Register in the Veterinary Nurse Registration Rules 2017.
If you have any questions, please contact the Veterinary Nursing Team at [email protected] or call 020 7202 0788.
History of the Register of Veterinary Nurses
The Register originally opened in 2007, marking a significant step towards statutory regulation for vet nurses. Nurses who had joined the RCVS since 1 January 2003 either transferred automatically from the existing List to the Register in 2007 or transferred voluntarily.
By 17 February 2015, all veterinary nurses were transferred to the Register, following a new supplemental Royal Charter. The Charter clarified the RCVS’s role as the regulator of vet nurses and consolidated the separate List and Register into a single statutory Register of Veterinary Nurses. This was a historic event, changing the way the veterinary nursing profession was regulated. The previous Charter was granted in 1967.