RCVS Council and VN Council elections now open

Voting in this year’s RCVS Council and VN Council elections has now opened, and veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses who are eligible to vote in their respective elections can do so either online or by post.

The elections are run by Electoral Reform Services (ERS) Ltd, and feature both a new voting platform and regular, personalised email reminders from ERS that will make it easier to vote online.

These emails will include a unique link to the voting platform and the ability to log in securely straight away, without having to refer to the ballot paper in order to find the security codes. Using the email address provided the College, veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses will also be able to ask ERS to reissue the security codes if needs be.

Voting for both of this year’s elections opened on Friday 24 March with an email sent to all those eligible to vote for whom we hold an email address. Ballot papers have also been despatched to all eligible voters along with booklets containing the candidates’ biographies, contact details and manifestos. Instructions on how to vote online and by post are included with the ballot papers.

There are 16 candidates contesting six places on RCVS Council, including three existing Council members eligible for re-election and 13 candidates not currently on Council. They are:

• Dr Caroline Allen MRCVS
• Miss Sarah Brown MRCVS
• Mr Danny Chambers MRCVS
• Mr John Davies MRCVS
• Dr Chris Gray MRCVS
• Mr David Leicester MRCVS
• Dr Tom Lonsdale MRCVS
• Mr Martin Peaty MRCVS
• Mr Matthew Plumtree MRCVS
• Dr Cheryl Scudamore FRCVS
• Dr Huw Stacey MRCVS
• Dr Christopher Tufnell MRCVS
• Mr Kevin Watts MRCVS
• Dr Trevor Whitbread MRCVS
• Dr Thomas Witte MRCVS
• Mr James Yeates FRCVS

Four veterinary nurses are contesting two places in this year’s VN Council elections. Two of these are existing VN Council members eligible for re-election while two candidates are not currently on VN Council. They are:

• Mr Miguel Borralho RVN
• Mrs Susan Howarth RVN
• Mrs Andrea Jeffery RVN
• Miss Marie Rippingale RVN

All votes must be cast, either online or by post, by 5pm on Friday 28 April 2017.

Once again this year we invited members of both professions to ‘Quiz the candidates’ by putting their questions directly to all those standing for election. Some of the key themes this year included Brexit, complementary/ alternative therapies, the structure of the veterinary industry, out-of-hours work and veterinary nurse remuneration among others.

Each candidate was invited to choose two questions to answer from all those received and produce a video recording of their answers.

These videos are available to view along with biographies and statements for each candidate in the RCVS Council and VN Council elections.