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According to the College, the increase in fees is needed primarily to develop its regulatory capacity for paraprofessionals. However it also says it needs to increase fees to pay for a new, Midlands-based headquarters designed by Foster and Partners, following the announcement last year about the sale of Horseferry Road.
Brexit is another significant factor in the decision to raise fees.
As has been widely reported, the College has already been on a number of fact-finding trips to India, with a view to making up the shortage of vets in the UK with graduates from Indian vet schools. But however forward-thinking these trips were, they have not borne fruit in time for Brexit.
For this reason, the College has announced that it has set aside an emergency contingency fund of £6M in order to fly as many as twenty veterinary surgeons from India and pay them to act as OVs on short term contracts in the event of a no deal Brexit.
An RCVS spokesperson said: "Brexit has dominated proceedings over the last two years, and we have been working collaboratively with our colleagues in Defra and the BVA to make appropriate plans to ensure that vital veterinary work will continue, whatever the outcome of Brexit. However, we have been unable to persuade the government to put veterinary surgeons on the Shortage Occupation List and our only alternative is to recruit from abroad."
Dr Frill Poao from the Indian Veterinary Association Kerala said: "We are standing by to help our British colleagues in their time of need".
Photo: Could the new RCVS headquarters look something like this? Foster and Partners also designed London City Hall. Gary Knight / Wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.0
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It was midlands based that did it for me.
It was the Dr Frill Poao (April Fool) anagram that convinced me it was a wind-,up! That and the date.... Lol.
Glad to hear this is fictitious! Otherwise there will soon be an even bigger shortage of RVN's too! I couldn't afford to pay that annually.
I can confirm that this is fictitious.
I hope this really is an April fools!
hoping this is an April Fools - if not we are the fools for funding it
This is misleading, as this relates to the initial registration fee. By saying 'per annum' it makes it look like this is the annual retention fee, which is currently £67 per annum. Would be interesting to find out what the annual retention fee will be....