The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 are the law behind every bottle in your medicine cupboard and every line in your medicine book. This is the plain version: categories, supply, the cascade, records and inspection.
The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/2033), amended in Great Britain by SI 2024/567 from 17 May 2024, put medicines in four categories: POM-V (vet prescription after a clinical assessment), POM-VPS (prescribed by a vet, pharmacist or SQP), NFA-VPS (no prescription, supplied by those three) and AVM-GSL (no restriction). The cascade lets a vet use an unauthorised product when nothing authorised fits. Keepers must record purchases and treatments, as the five-year retention rule sets out.
The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013, SI 2013/2033, are the statutory framework for how animal medicines are authorised, supplied, prescribed, administered and recorded. For a livestock keeper the part that matters most is regulations 17 to 24, which set out the records you keep, and Schedules 3 and 4, which cover supply and the cascade.
The main recent change is the Veterinary Medicines (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/567. Per the footnotes in the legislation.gov.uk text, it came into force for England, Wales and Scotland on 17 May 2024. It tightened antibiotic prescribing, brought antimicrobials into POM-V and changed the cascade withdrawal minimums. Northern Ireland has its own versions of several provisions, so check which you are reading.
As of October 2026 I found no later amending instrument, and the consolidated text on legislation.gov.uk showed no known outstanding changes. The Secretary of State has a statutory duty to review the regulations before the end of 2028. Our livestock paperwork glossary decodes the terms. This is not legal advice, so ask your vet or the VMD about a specific situation.
Schedule 3 gives every authorised veterinary medicine one of four classifications, and the supply rules follow from it. Your vet or the datasheet will tell you the category.
| Category | Who can supply it | Prescription? |
|---|---|---|
| POM-V | A vet or a pharmacist | Yes, from a vet who has carried out a clinical assessment |
| POM-VPS | A vet, a pharmacist or a suitably qualified person (SQP) | Yes, from one of those three |
| NFA-VPS | A vet, a pharmacist or an SQP | No |
| AVM-GSL | Anyone | No |
POM-V is the strictest: the vet must have carried out a clinical assessment and the animal must be under their care. When a product is first authorised, anything containing an antimicrobial must be classed POM-V, along with products for euthanasia, hormonal products and those given after a veterinary diagnosis.
Products for food-producing animals must be classed POM-V or POM-VPS unless a strict list of low-risk criteria is met, so most of your cattle and sheep medicines are on prescription. NFA-VPS is for non-food animals, as the name suggests, which is why you will rarely buy it for livestock. AVM-GSL has no supply restrictions.
A prescription can be verbal or written. But a POM-V, a POM-VPS or a cascade product can only be supplied by the person who prescribed it, or under a written prescription, with a suitably qualified person able to supply POM-VPS products within the SQP rules. In practice, if the product comes from a different supplier than the prescriber, such as a pharmacy or an online retailer, you need the written prescription.
A written prescription for food-producing animals must include the keeper's details, the animal or group, the product and amount, the dosage regimen, and the withdrawal period or a statement that it is zero days. It must say if the product is under the cascade or is an antibiotic for prophylaxis or metaphylaxis. It is valid for six months, or less if the prescription says so. A verbal prescription means the prescriber must record the reason and keep it for five years.
Antibiotics have extra rules. A vet may only prescribe one if it is not used routinely, not to make up for poor hygiene or farm management, and not to promote growth. Prophylactic use is allowed only in exceptional circumstances, and for a group the vet must record the rationale and carry out a management review.
Ask your vet for the withdrawal period in writing, and use the farm vets directory if you are choosing a practice.
The cascade is the legal order a vet follows when no authorised UK product is suitable for the condition. Schedule 4 sets it out: first a product authorised in the UK for another species or another condition; then, if none is suitable, a human medicine or a product authorised abroad (for a food animal, a food-producing species); and last an extemporaneous preparation made by a pharmacist, vet or licensed manufacturer. The vet may use it in particular to avoid unacceptable suffering, and may give it or direct another person to give it under their responsibility.
For a food-producing animal, the substances involved must have a maximum residue limit set, or fall outside the scope of that regime, and the vet must specify an appropriate withdrawal period. Since the 2024 changes there are GB minimums that depend on whether the product is authorised for food-producing and milk-producing animals. Our guide to medicine withdrawal periods gives the figures and a worked date.
What it means on the yard is simple. A cascade product is not a free choice, and you cannot go and buy it. It needs a vet who has assessed the animal, a cascade statement on the prescription and a withdrawal period written down. If the vet gives a withdrawal period different from the label, follow the vet.
Four regulations cover keepers of food-producing animals. Regulation 17 requires proof of purchase. Regulation 18 deals with vet administrations. Regulation 19 sets the content. It requires you to record, at the time, the product name and batch number, the date, the quantity and the supplier's name and address when a medicine is acquired; and the product, date, quantity, withdrawal period and animals treated when it is given. It also requires a record when you dispose of medicine other than by treating an animal: date, quantity, and how and where.
If a vet gives the medicine, regulation 18 requires them to put their name, the product and batch, the date, the amount, the animals treated and the withdrawal period into your records, or hand them to you in writing so you do. Records can be paper or electronic, provided they are durable, permanent and available for inspection on request.
Regulation 20 requires the documents and records to be kept for at least five years after administration or disposal, even if the animal has died or left. We cover the retention side separately in the medicine record retention guide. Red Tractor asks for more fields, which our medicine book guide sets out, and our medicine book template lays out in one sheet.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate enforces the regulations, and APHA, Cefas and the Marine Directorate inspect farms on its behalf. Inspectors look at on-farm medicines, including medicated feed, the record books (invoices, prescriptions and computer records), and farm movement records. All UK livestock farms are eligible.
You are required to produce a record when an inspector asks for one. Failing to comply with regulations 17 to 20 is an offence. In England and Wales, conviction in a magistrates' court can bring a fine or up to six months in prison, or both, and conviction on indictment up to two years. Scotland has a 12-month summary limit.
In practice the VMD's enforcement policy is graduated, risk-based and proportionate. It runs from advisory and warning letters through improvement notices and seizure to prosecution, with education and guidance first. An improvement notice gives a minimum of 14 days to put things right.
Red Tractor assessors check the same records on a different basis, and our Red Tractor audit checklist and health plan and vet review guide cover that side. FarmHQ, in pre-launch beta, drafts medicine entries from a photo for you to confirm.
The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/2033), as amended. The most recent major amendment in Great Britain is SI 2024/567, in force from 17 May 2024. Northern Ireland has separate versions of some provisions. As of October 2026 the consolidated text shows no known outstanding changes.
POM-V can only be supplied by a vet or pharmacist on a vet's prescription, after a clinical assessment. POM-VPS can be prescribed and supplied by a vet, a pharmacist or a suitably qualified person (SQP). Antimicrobial products are classed POM-V when authorised.
No. A cascade product has to be prescribed by a vet who has carried out a clinical assessment of the animal. It can only be supplied by the prescriber or under a written prescription, and it must state it is a cascade product and give the withdrawal period.
On purchase: product name, batch number, date, quantity and supplier name and address, plus proof of purchase. On administration: product, date, quantity, withdrawal period and animals treated. You also record any disposal. Keep it all for at least five years.
Inspectors appointed under the regulations, working for the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. APHA, Cefas and the Marine Directorate inspect farms on its behalf, looking at medicines, record books and movement records. Failing to produce a record when asked is itself an offence under regulation 37.