Current status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 16 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards introducing the licensing framework for canine fertility businesses, which was announced in August 2024.
The Scottish Government has made significant progress with the work to introduce a statutory licensing scheme for providers of canine fertility services in Scotland, and we continue to engage with a range of stakeholders on the development of this policy. Given, however, the recent consultation by the UK Government on reforms to the 1966 Veterinary Surgeons Act (the VSA), we are taking the opportunity to engage with the UK Government on the question of whether a reformed VSA - which would apply UK-wide - is the more appropriate mechanism to regulate canine fertility businesses, rather than having separate licensing schemes applying across each region of the UK.