Mutilations (Permitted Procedures) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008

I said that we will come forward with another regulation. We have had a preliminary consultation with royal college officials, but we are not out on a consultation process at present. There will be a formal consultation before the exemption order under the Veterinary Surgeons Act is made, but the indications from our discussion with officials of the royal college is that it will be uncontroversial to allow non-vets to carry out some of these procedures, and we will need to change the law for that. That will require consultation, which will take place in autumn this year.